Survival:Beyond the Bug-Out Bag

Our Vido Premire: Self-Sufficiency in Crisis Times

• Bill Bateman • Season 7 • Episode 9

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Are you curious about what it truly takes to be prepared for unexpected disasters? Join me, Bill Bateman, as we unravel the essentials of survival beyond the typical bugout bag. You'll gain insights into why prepping has become a crucial aspect of modern life, especially with natural disasters occurring more frequently in places like Los Angeles and Maui. We’ll discuss how being self-sustainable for at least 30 days, stocked with necessities like water, food, and medicine, can transform your approach to emergencies. I draw from my experiences in Oregon, where seniors are setting impressive examples in preparedness. Plus, you’ll get a taste of our hands-on classes that feature gear, designed to equip you for any situation.

This episode also tackles the importance of communication during emergencies when technology might fail you. Imagine relying on basic walkie-talkies and other simple solutions when the usual networks go down. Our instructional sessions are crafted to provide you with practical guidance tailored to diverse audiences, from seniors to young adventurers, without any product pitches. Emphasizing self-reliance in a world of rising prices and scarce supplies, I encourage immediate action and proactive learning. With opportunities to engage further through our website and classes, the path to effective emergency preparedness is laid out. So stay informed, stay prepared, and let’s navigate these uncertain times together.

Info on HAM  Class   https://www.arrl.org/find-an-amateur-radio-license-class
Midland Walkie-Talkie Radio Information
https://midlandusa.com/blogs/blog/gmrs-or-frs-radio-how-to-choose

Class Information: Refuse to be a Victim Personal ProtectionTraining

For questions and comments, email me at: profprepper@protonmail.com

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Copyright: Refuse to be a Victim Personal Protection Training 2018-2024

Bill Bateman:

Well, hi everybody and welcome to Refuse to be a Victim Personal Protection Training. This is Survival Beyond the Bugout Bag and I'm Bill Bateman, part of the team here at the company and as you kind of look around, you're going to see, yeah, things are a wee bit different. I've been threatening to do this for years, trying to get the resources and the time is the big issue together to make a video version of Survival Beyond the Bugout Bag. And here we are. This is version number one. There will be some changes. The more I look at this, the more I'm going to be able to refine it and make it better. I hope you'll give it a fair try and we're going to continue with the information we've got for you. So let's look at our goals. Basically, I'm going to do some of the things I've been doing sharing resources and information with you and, secondly, we're going to change directions big time. This is Survival Beyond the Bugout Bag 2.0.

Bill Bateman:

The whole business in Los Angeles really got to me the fires down there. I spent time in some of those homes that burned down there. I walked those streets, I know the people and that really, really bothered me to see that whole big hunk of history, both my history and the history of the neighborhood going up in smoke. What it also brought home to me is that we're not going to see any kind of changes anytime soon. It's not going to get better instantly. Each time I do one of these stories, starting with the fire in Malibu, I'm sorry. Well, the fire in Malibu, the fire in Maui, the fire up in Paradise, paradise, california, and even our own fire here. We were part of the Alameda open chain fire that burned down a goodly portion of the town I live in, missing me by about 300 yards the last time a major fire came through.

Bill Bateman:

This is not new. This is not something that's not going to happen again. It's a one in a million. No, this is. All it takes is bad weather, heat, lack of rain and, in some cases, an idiot, because a lot of these things are proving to be arson related.

Bill Bateman:

So what does that mean to us here? How is that relevant to what we're talking about today? And what that means to us here is prepping is no longer a good idea. Prepping is vital. Getting started as a prepper is your responsibility, because it's not because people are not willing to help. It's because, quite frankly, frankly, there's not enough sandwiches for this picnic. Let's put it in that simple terms we have so much help or so many first responders available, and God bless them. They do a great job. No way, in shape or form, am I trying to throw shade on our first responders. That's not it. There's just limited resources and you and I each need to be able to take care of ourselves. It used to be.

Bill Bateman:

When I started this eight years ago nine years ago actually it was kind of a hippie thing. It was kind of a not quite a survivalist, but yeah, it was kind of cute. You get a little backpack and you put granola bars in it and you're good for 24 hours, 48 hours, and the initial literature I was reviewing said you got to be good overnight, maybe two days at the most. Now they're saying if you're not good for 30 days, fully self-sustainable. If you're not good for 30 days, fully self-sustainable and that means water, food, medicine, first aid, safety, all of the things you need to be healthy and happy If you can't provide that for yourself for a minimum of 30 days, you're not ready. You are going to have some difficulties.

Bill Bateman:

Now let's look a little bit farther at this. Let's look at people of my age. I'm over 70. I can no longer do what I used to be able to do 10 years ago. I could walk 25 miles. I'm still pretty active today, but I can no way in shape, I'm not in shape to do what I used to do. Many of us are in that position. Seniors, interestingly enough, are the most prepared of the entire population and in Oregon seniors lead in prepping, and that's good, that's smart. Congratulations, neighbors, you have to be.

Bill Bateman:

So what I've done? I've decided to take my Survival Beyond the Bug Out Bag lectures, my courses, my information. I've done this for Ollie at SOU several times, so let's go ahead and I'll see if I can track down the web page and we'll give you an opportunity here on the web page. This is Refuse to be a Victim. Personal Protection Training. The website link is in the login where you come in to the program I'm going to scroll down. Now there's a thing here at the top right for podcasts. That's part of it, but let's come down to the bottom. We have a number of different classes. Here we're scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, and here it is lower left-hand corner.

Bill Bateman:

Beyond the Podcast, reality Prepping. I have four, actually five classes that I'm going to be presenting in person and I find in person is much, much stronger and much more effective than even listening to the podcast for what we're doing here. As you can see, I bring all kinds of toys to play with. What am I talking about when I say a Nalgene water bottle that doesn't have BPH in it? And why is that important? Those type of things. So I'm going to bring a whole bunch of toys. I'm going to bring some of my solar gear. I'm going to bring a whole bunch of toys. I'm going to bring some of my solar gear. I'm going to bring all kinds of stuff to talk about and I've divided it as I do when I do my OLLI class.

Bill Bateman:

There are class one, prepping for home. Class two, prepping to bug out. Class three, prepping to be on the road, when you're out and about, when you're in your car, and class four, prepping for your workplace. The last class is class five, putting it all together, and that's a little of the prequel and a little of the front, a little of the back. The idea is that we're going to be sharing information on how to think about it, because really, without a plan, a bug out bag is just something you take on a walk. If you don't plan, you're in trouble. So, basically, I'm going to be offering these classes. They're 90 minutes. They're technically two hours 90 minutes of instruction and 30 minutes of questions. But it's not just a visit. You're going to get some links. You're going to get some handouts. The links are live links on your computer you can go to for the sites that I use and for some vendors that I like.

Bill Bateman:

Now I've got to be really serious and direct on this. I'm not sponsored by any of these folks. There's no sponsorship. I buy a product, I like it and I recommend it. If I don't like it, I'm going to tell you. So I'm not going to be sending you. Don't bring a credit card to these classes, because you're not going to be ordering all kinds of stuff.

Bill Bateman:

The first time I got into doing this was because I got a very bad bug out bag when I made my first purchase. I basically got taken. So I don't want that to do you. We're not selling any products. We're showing you how to create a bug out bag. We're showing you the philosophy, we're showing you the mental preparation you need, and this is something you have to make part of your daily life. So this is, I'm hoping, going to be something that you are interested in.

Bill Bateman:

These classes are available. I'm going to start offering them on weekends. I can come to you. If you have like your rec room or a club clubhouse, maybe your church. If you'd like to have something for a group of people, I will come to you and I will do the class. You can also come out to the Rogue Valley Shooting Sport RVSSA. We have a meeting and training room on the campus of Jackson County Sports Park out there and we will be offering classes smaller. These classes are physically smaller I don't like to get much above 15, 16 people in there because it gives you time for one-on-one questions and if it's a group of seniors, it's going to be a different class than it's a group of young people.

Bill Bateman:

Now, this is very important because if you have like, if you're a grandparent and the kids come over for a weekend, something happens, you're going to be dealing differently than if it's just you by yourself. It's the same thing if you're out in your car driving around. It depends on the kind of work you do. It also depends if you're a traditional couple of one spouse at work, one spouse at another job and the young ones at school or daycare. Those are three different people have to get from three different areas and know what to do when the excrement hits the air conditioning. This is a lot more than granola bars and water bottles, so we're keeping it very inexpensive $30 per person or $50 for a couple, two persons, two spouses. This is for a two-hour class, plus links, plus handout, and we're going to be also giving you access, as you now have nothing extra, but you're going to be getting also all the last eight years of survival beyond the bug-out bag. That's an awful lot of information and a lot of expertise. Another thing we're going to be doing is viewer mail your correspondence.

Bill Bateman:

A friend of mine I used to work with. His name is Jason and he lives up in the Vancouver Washington area At least he did when I knew him and we worked together at the university and he was highly skilled, a sharp young man, and he said hey, bill, listen, what about two-way radios and communication during a disaster? Have you done anything on that? I think it's a good idea. He is right. I pointed him back at an earlier broadcast we had done and, oh yeah, we have some stuff, but it could use some updating. So thank you, jason. That's exactly what we're going to do on this program. For example, they're looking at your two-way radios and I'm on the deep end of the pool here, I'm sorry. Two of the types, the FRS, and one of the other types. Okay, they have merged and so there's different licensing and stuff. So that's what we're going to talk about.

Bill Bateman:

Let's consider some of the different types of radios and communications. I will say phones are most likely to go down. The cell phone is very likely to go out. I know it did when we had our fire here to go out. I know it did when we had our fire here.

Bill Bateman:

First of all, there is the very basic walkie-talkie. Put a picture up of some basic walkie-talkies. They range between two to four miles, could be as short as a half a mile. This is line of sight. If you have stuff in the way, if you're going to be blocked by something that's going to block the radio signal as well. They're good. In a small organization in our neighborhood, in our mobile home park where I live, we have walkie-talkies to communicate with other ends of the park and it's very simple. No license is required and they're fairly inexpensive. They run around $60 to $100, depending on the type you buy. They do come in packages and it's a good idea to buy at least two, otherwise you're just talking to the trees. You can get a four-pack and I do know of six and eight-packs available if you head on out to Costco, and this is good. You put them all on a specific channel and you can talk back and forth within the complex. This is not a bad product and they are useful and fairly simple to use.

Bill Bateman:

Next are CB radios. Now CBs can be handheld or mounted as a base station. They also go in the car. They have greater range than a walkie-talkie and no license is required. This is kind of good. Keep in mind, if you're in mountains or heavy urban terrain again, less coverage. Radio waves bump into stuff when they have stuff in front of them. So if you're trying to talk around Mount Ashland, be prepared, it's not going to work. Cbs do have Channel 9 for emergencies.

Bill Bateman:

I have not ever had a good experience on CB, quite frankly, because of the nitwits. There's a lot of folks who want to yell and scream and give fake messages. It's kind of like radio light and I'm sure I'm going to get some angry emails and I hope I'm wrong. Please prove me wrong. I've had bad luck in the past. And if, in fact, you've got better information, let's kick it up another notch.

Bill Bateman:

Now, when we get to ham radios, this is another option. They have more range. This is another option. They have more range. They are, in fact, more complicated and do require both an FCC license and advanced skills. Training is required to use them and you got to have someone with a ham radio at each end to talk just like with a walkie-talkie.

Bill Bateman:

Now this set I bought I got on Amazon for about $80. They're a name brand. They're very, very good. They came with a little earbuds and stuff like that and some antennas. The problem was I couldn't get them to work. I admit that I am radio challenged, so know your technical ability, maybe reach out.

Bill Bateman:

And there are some organizations, there are some classes. I will include some links in the front. Good things to find out in advance. Yeah, can you do it? Look at the classwork. A lot of the classes are free or low cost. If you can't qualify, if it's just too much techie, go another direction. Another way you might want to look at are personal satellite locators. Now these are emergency locators. They allow you to send texts, pre-selected messages and even an emergency SOS, and this all will depend on the plan that you buy.

Bill Bateman:

These work off satellites, although and you got to be careful. This is where careful reading is important they require you to have a cell phone to connect to them. That could make them useless if the cell tower goes down. You also need access to the sky for these and for sat phones Now. These run between $300 and $500, and this unit got kind of an eh review when I read it. This was a while back, so I urge you always read the most current reviews, not by the vendor, but reviews by customers. And the problem was it would get hot After 30 minutes. It got so hot it would actually burn your hand or burn your pocket. Setting your coat on fire out in the middle of the woods is probably not what you're looking for. So careful, diligent research, user-based reviews on any product that we talk about. And then, when you finally get to the top of the heap, they are satellite phones. Yes, indeed, these are great.

Bill Bateman:

The sat phone is a multiple purchase item. You must purchase the phone, a SIM card and the service plan to go with it. This is very important. Now there are some companies that allow you to go on standby after a certain minimum number of months and also read very carefully when you select the plan. I found two that were wonderful until I read at the very bottom not valid in the United States or Canada, kind of the places I'm going to be the most. They're great for overseas, so if you're going on a Tanzania safari you might want to look at those, but make sure you get where you're going to need to be coverage-wise. These ones you're looking at, this one here is about $1,200 and comes with the extras. You can extend the service and that can be again an extra cost. Read these plans carefully and consider what you're going to be using them for.

Bill Bateman:

One thing to remember regardless of the electronic items you're using, if you're trying to text I know when we had the fire here, phones went down texts were spotty. My family knows and I have a sister back in Chicago, so she's going to wonder how do I get in touch with Bill. She knows that at 15 minutes after and quarter till on the 15 and the 45, I'm going to be trying for a few minutes to communicate. That way she can turn off any electronics she has and save her power, instead of all trying to call at the same time and we do, and that's what causes towers to get overloaded. I'm going to cut back to the 15s and the 45s. Come up with a plan that your family knows, and this is part of the whole bug-out bag planning process. So here's the new look of the program. Here's me. I just got my hair cut. I hope it'll look good and we will be talking about more things Classes, final thing to talk about.

Bill Bateman:

You will be encouraged, as you take the bug, the bug out bag classes, to see what other classes that we have that might be of value to you. Home security, home defense. If you've decided to bunker down and stay in your home, what are you going to do to secure that home? We have a full range of classes. If you go back to that page, scroll through it and there's even more classes on another tab. There's a lot of good information and, frankly, ladies and gentlemen, it's up to you and me to care for ourselves. We are responsible for us.

Bill Bateman:

It's not that nobody is going to help us. They may not be able to. You are going to need to prepare to help yourself, and I wouldn't wait till tomorrow. I'd start reading today the window of opportunity. As prices continue to go up and as supplies continue to get less and less, it's more and more important for you to get ready and get taken care of today, so I will leave the email addresses. I invite you to the website. We all have an opportunity to sign up. If you have phone calls, the number is there. We'll talk more about classes. We'll talk more about information on our next visit. Thank you very much, be safe. See you next time.

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