The Pine Tree Journal #3
Contents
1. wey SF 2006 5 Eo Experiments in 2 4 GHZ Reception Most hackers are familiar with the 2 4 GHz ISM band as most 802 11 WiFi hardware operates in its frequency range Wifi systems are not the focus of this article however since there is an abundance of material on the topic of wardriving and other forms of WiFi hacking In addition to Wifi hardware the band is also home to a wide variety of cordless phones wireless video Wavecom devices microwave ovens and other Part 15 and need FCC section number for ISM regs devices Part of the 2 4 GHz ISM Part 15 band is also allocated for Amateur Radio use and you could conceivably find any type of amateur radio mode being used there from CW to ATV Both Icom AOR have receivers that have frequency range up into the 2 4 GHz region The Icom R20 R1500 AOR receivers go up to 3 GHz There is also consumer electronics equip ment operating on this band that can be used for monitoring purposes specifically the Wavecom wireless video systems Many electronic interception types use a modified Wavecom receiver for monitoring 2 4 GHz wireless cameras This set up can also be used to detect other 2 4 GHz devices In figure 1 we have a picture of the set up we used for this article It consists of a Radio Shack branded Wavecom receiver that has been modified by replacing the stock an tenna with a pigtail of LMR100 with a female SMA connector on the end By re2. masks 8 members participated in our meeting training It was intended to be more focused bio chem terrorism how ever with N Korea becoming more threatening with nukes we discussed survival in times of nuke fallout Because New Eng N Y probably isn t in N Ko E reas hit range not much attention was paid to blast wave protection just fallout We were able to work with Dosimeters Geiger Counter and a Russian Radiation meter Israeli civilian gas mask Canadian NATO mask and a commercial mask were shown and practiced with One of the major problems noted for those who wear glasses s a mask seal will be compromised Typically if you are in the military or working a job that requires a respirator and need glasses an insert with your lenses are made and kept with your mask There is no real good alternative for the typical survivalist In theory if using a chemical hood or suit with a hood you would be completely sealed 22 inside so the seal leak from glasses would not be a factor However this is dangerous and one should not risk a compromised mask seal Discussion of heat related problems breathing and claustrophobia were discussed as all problems when working with gas masks and protective suits and a review of treat ment for heat problems as it was a real possibility in the training Gary demonstrated a high level of protection by donning a Canadian mil Surplus gas mask a tyvek suit with hood and elastic
3. Keep repeating this until jar is empty Put aside funnel then lift via its cord out of the bag the generator pail and set it aside too In B take a birthday candle and light it Slowly lower into bag and if it goes out the bag is filled with CO2 gas If not you will need to empty the generator pail refill 1t with fresh baking soda and redo it as in A with another pint of fresh vinegar Then repeat test as in B Note should not be done except in room with still air a breeze even slight can blow out dilute the CO2 gas within the bag Note because CO2 1s heavier than room air it will fill the bag displacing the air within the bag until it will spill over the top of the bag 15 LID In C any cardboard bag supports are removed and the bag top is twisted slowly closed with the twisted end taped flat against the top of contents In D take lid and press seal on the pail top recommend adding tape to seal lid pail joint With waterproof laundry marker write contents and date sealed on lid top MINIATURE MIKE Fig 12 12 This schematic could be used in servicing most of the wireless mikes in use It operates in the 88 108 MHz band and has a range of about 50 feet with a 3 inch antenna 16 Stalking the Signals One of the staples of the monitoring enthusiast was Radio Shack s Police Call frequency directory No matter where you lived in the U S of A you could walk into the McDonalds of elec
4. Not much grows in a cattail stand but cattails There isn t room under the soil for any other root structure In midwinter New Eng 11 land you could dig down to the rhizomes and eat them Lots of work but they are there for the desperate Later in the life cycle you can eat the interior of the plants base Not so tasty when peeled and eaten raw but edible and healthy You are better off if you have the time to get a bunch of plant interior and turn it into a mash with a little water Take the fiber out after mash ing and when the mash dries you have a type of cattail flour for cooking You can dry and grind the root into flour as well While young and green you can cook the seed head as you would sweetcorn on its cob This corn cob style meal is my favorite use of the cattail It tastes fantastic Where cattail truly shines though is it s pollen Like most pollens it is super high in protein and a great source of protein to add to an existing flour stock Take a bag and cover the not yet fully mature cattail s top and shake That s all there 15 to it Do that lots of times and you can get a large quantity of protein rich pollen that can be baked with eaten raw in a sur vival situation or sprinkled onto foraged greens as a protein source Cattail pollen pancakes are wonderful foraged food While not related to consuming the plant it has other survival uses Burn it to repel insects The stalks make a great sleeping mat The poll
5. Ops Brand he brought a wallet which as a nice feature has a clear panel that can show ID without opening wallet a note pad pouch which had slots for pens prob could hold a PDA and an organizer which was about 6X8 in about in thick with various slots which could be very handy He also showed a velveteen grip on his Glock 19 pistol explained how this was a much better grip than the standard gun Mike showed the Brass Eagle paintball players set this is less than 20 00 at Wal Mart While there are better paintball sets for the price one could get started By now it was getting late and we decided next meeting will combine radio procedures with paintball scenario practice This will be 15 April 10 00 more details to be posted Spring 2006 Meeting 22 April EAST meeting was held as scheduled weather wasn t the greatest started off with a light drizzle to moderate rain with temps in the 50 s 9 hardy soles at tended Ron W gave us an update on the problems he s been having with state re strictions on his activities at Hollowbrook Farms seems the state has taken notice of the over 500 signature petition and has scheduled a meeting to try to resolve some of the issues Wildflower showed a solar furnace which could cast lead unfortunately the weather didn t cooperate for a full demonstration but it looks real interesting 2 photo s posted to pic section an up date on my mutual aid communications project was presented
6. PRO 2032 and the Bearcat BC 700 The base mobile scanners offer a little more el bow room for doing mods and are easier to work on than handhelds for the beginning RF hardware hacker Check scanner mod databases such as the one at qrz com and the late Bill Cheek s Discriminator Chip list Speaking of Bill Cheek his three volume scanner Modification Handbooks are considered must have bibles for the RF hacker believe Volume 3 is still in print I ve received a fair number of emails from people asking what scanner they should buy For a basic non trunk tracking non P25 unit the PRO 83 or BC 92XLT is an excellent value for the money just to have near field reception capability When it comes to trunk tracking scanners however would avoid buying one at the moment Why The reason is something called rebanding At present the 800 MHz land mo bile band is a host to both public safety communications and the Nextel service This has resulted in interference issues over the years To eliminate the problem the FCC is doing the following 1 Moving Nextel to the top of the 800 MHZ band and public safety to the bottom At present public safety communications are mostly on the edges of the band with Nextel in the middle 19 2 Changing the channel frequency spacing from 12 5 KHz to 6 25 KHz This will double the amount of channels available Consequently radio users will have to convert to narrowband modulation 3 Eventually moving Nexte
7. applied like the shoulders of roads Lamb s Quarters Lamb s Quarters is one of the most common plants in Connecticut stream beds and fields Another plant that is super rich in nutrition and easy to get bulk amounts of The plant can get absolutely huge com pared to other foraged edibles and every part of it 1s edible though the greens are best eaten while young under 24 inches The greens can be pulled off and made in to salad boiled or steamed The seeds have a high protein value making them an ideal survival food The seeds can be eaten raw as a snack or dried and crashed into meal The meal can be made into gruel or used to make bread which is exactly what indigenous tribes used it for I was told during a certification course at URI that Lamb s Quarters is arguably the most nutritious wild f edible in New England The seeds contain more nutri 4 tional value than the leaves but both are rich in many vitamins One caveat do not cultivate this plant in the vicinity of a beet crop It 1s what is called a host plant for a voracious beet devouring insect called a leafhop per Queen Anne s Lace Wild Carrot Queen Anne s Lace or Wild Carrot as it is often called is a plant that is edible contrary to its classifica tion as a toxic plant The plant is toxic in large quanti ties I don t know how large I personally have eaten a salad roughly the volume of volleyball and three roots on the same day The toxic classi
8. at wrists and ankles gloves and booties also worn Just a note of XL commercial haz mat over boots did not cover size 11 boots Must see if larger are available In less than 10 minutes clothes inside the suit were soaked with sweat with out any real exertion Then it was on to the main exercise where everyone would don a gas mask walk run was stressed while important to make most of training it was important to be safe to the firing line about 50 ft away The par ticipant would then shoot 5 rounds at the 25 Be yd sight in target with a rifle reload and fire 5 more Then close 1 2 the distance about 35 ft at the 50 ft pistol target and fire 6 rounds from a pistol reload and fire 6 more then fall back to the 75 yd mark pick up load 2 shells into a 12 ga shotgun and 2 fire 1 shot at each target The participant would make sure all firearms were empty and safe recover the targets and then could remove the mask to complete the training task It doesn t sound too hard until you try it in a device that restricts your vision forces you to breathe harder and in general is un comfortable Scores were not taken on target but only counted up hits on the targets On rifle eve ryone was able to hit the target with the lowest score of 4 hits with many hitting all 10 Pistol was also 4 hits for lowest with 8 hits All were able to hit the target with a fair amount of shot size 6 shot used during exercis
9. low altitude Many of you who have played with frequency counters were aware of the fact that a bigger high gain antenna wasn t necessarily better because of the frequency counter s lack of selectivity A high gain antenna attached to a frequency counter usu ally resulted in the counter displaying the frequency of a local pager or broadcast transmitter This is not the case with a Signal Stalker A high gain antenna combined with the Signal Stalker s ability to lock out annoying signals and select individual fre quency bands will result in an increase in near field reception range Using a magnet mount scanner antenna on the car I ve detected my county s fire dispatch frequency from ten miles away and a 5 watt VHF low band R C link from about 2000 feet 18 One thing noticed about the PRO 83 is that the supplied short antenna is barely adequate The BC 92XLT has a slightly better stock antenna but as a general rule all stock rubber duck antennas that come with scanners are designed for uniformly average to mediocre performance across a wide frequency range suggest upgrading with a better aftermarket antenna You can get a Radio Shack 320 034 Deluxe Rub ber Duck Antenna for general purpose monitoring or their 20 006 telescoping whip for when you re in a fixed location and want optimum reception In a similar vein when driving in a vehicle having the scanner with a rubber duck antenna sitting on the seat next to you won t cut it
10. phone experiments were done with an Oregon Scientific Digital 2 4 cordless i E phone FCC ID KT5 TW339 purchased for 10 at a local big odd lot store While cannot hear the audio from a digital cordless phone their presence is quite noticeable as a bar going horizontally across the video screen as seen in the figure 3 There was also a periodic beep heard on the speaker When the phone was brought off hook multiple horizontal bars appeared on the screen as shown in figure 4 It should be noted that Scanning USA magazine featured an article by Steve Donnell a few years ago It detailed using the Wavecom receiver as a down converter by tapping the re ceiver s IF output and feeding it to a communications receiver for monitoring narrow band RF signals in the 2 4 GHz band The 2 4 GHz ISM band is experiencing an explosion of activity and will be one of the hot RF spots in the future In addition to 802 11 Wifi networks it is host to RFID AVI wireless video and a number of consumer electronics devices The band is also popu lar with surveillance devices ranging from covert camera systems to modified cordless phones used for wiretapping The set up described in this article is the same recom mended and used by many TSCM Technical Surveillance Countermeasures profes sionals The capability now exists for technological hobbyists to get in on exploring this part of the spectrum for very li
11. with a handheld radio they wonder what the frequency is and what s being talking about Back in the old days we used handheld frequency counters like the 99 Radio Shack special or a much more expensive Optoelectronics Scout There 17 were also nearfield receivers like the Optoelectronics R 10 Interceptor and Xplorer but they too were beyond the financial reach of many hobbyists The frequency count ers worked OK but you generally had to get within a hundred feet or so of the trans mitter You also had to contend with high power continuously transmitting high power annoyances such as broadcasters and pagers The Signal Stalker changed all that Instead of carrying around both a frequency counter and a scanner your scanner serves double duty Annoying signals can be ig nored and you can immediately hear the signal upon detection You can scan your usual frequencies and set it to alert you when something nearby keys up You no longer have to get as close to a transmitter as it can detect signals from 1000 feet away And you could own a Signal Stalker for under 100 The ubiquitous model was the Radio Shack PRO 83 handheld Now discontinued it retailed for 120 but was of ten on sale for under 100 You still might find one at the clearance price of 70 Its lesser known twin is the Uniden BC 92XLT Uniden refers to the near field reception feature as Close Call but it works the same way as Radio Shack Other than some minor firmware
12. Get an external antenna for your vehicle While on the subject of antennas you might be able to scrounge something up depending on what bands you are interested in CB antennas work very well on the VHF Low band 30 50 MHz Dual band 2 meter and 70 cm hand antennas will work for the VHF high and UHF bands 138 144 and 440 512 MHz Old AMPS cellular antennas are perfect for the 800 and 900 MHz bands but you will need a TNC to BNC antenna adapter to use them As many readers have discovered by now Radio Shack discontinued the PRO 83 Uniden however still makes it under their brand as the BC 92XLT and refers to the near field reception capability as Close Call instead of Signal Stalker Essentally the PRO 83 and the BC 92XLT are the same unit with only minor firmware differences and the discriminator mod should be the same on both models The BC 92XLT does not a PC frequency upload feature as does the PRO 83 and that leaves a nice spot on the right hand side of the radio to install subminiature speaker jack for a discriminator output as opposed to messing with the PC IF jack on the PRO 83 and getting the re sulting issues when hooking up your soundcard or data slicer There is also another option for RF hackers who wish to burn solder on something a little easier than a hand held scanner Older police scanners non trunktracking non P25 are often available for under 50 each at hamfests Examples would be the Radio Shack PRO 2022 and
13. RVIVAL TRAINING http groups msn com EastAmer SurvivalTraining Promoting self reliance through training preparation and networking with others of similar interests Because in a disaster be it natural or man made the government can t always be there to protect you Winter 2006 Meeting As scheduled EAST held its winter meeting 21 Jan with 8 folks attending in a brisk day with quite a wind chill Focus of the meeting was survival gear Wildflower brought an oil lamp and showed that charcoal lighter fluid could be a substitute for lamp oil and considerably less expensive and a strip cut from a towel could be a wick other gear he presented steel canteen LED flashlight small cutting board and a can vas tote bag and how it could be lined with a plastic bag and be used as a bucket John brought an Israeli gas mask he did very well on demonstrating how to be sure the mask had a proper seal He also brought KI3 radiation blocking pills Tom brought a variety of LBE Load Bearing Equipment which is a term for more commonly known as packs from small fanny packs to large back packs Tom showed a harness set up military ALICE pack mil surplus Austrian pack Wal mart camo hydration pack with T clips to attach small pouches a Spec Ops brand back pack w MOLLE attachments a VT Vagabond brand neck wallet In addition to packs he also showed a Signal Stalker scanner a Glock field knife and a cordless Dremel tool Douglas also likes the Spec
14. a tasty treat though best cooked to give it better flavor In a non survival situation a little beer and corn meal batter dipping and toss it into some oil and you have a fan tastic snack The plant is amazing medicinally Take a few ounces dry it up and save it for tea Boil an ounce of the dried leaf in a cup of water and you have natures Pepto Bismol Works well for indigestion heartburn and diarrhea among pretty much any other gut ailment It s other legen dary medicinal use 15 as a birth control For over 2000 years people have been successfully us ing a teaspoon of the seed as a morning after pill I m no doctor but it basically stops the binding of an egg to the wall of the uterus I think A handy thing to remember if TSHTF and increasing family size is low on the to do list at the moment For similar reasons the seed should not be eaten by pregnant women It has been known to induce early labor Cattails Cattails are a great survival food The young shoots are very tasty Be sure to only gather shoots from existing cattail beds since they very much resemble a plant who s toxicity and name are eluding me at the mo ment The caution was beat into me by my grandfather though so take heed Old timers know what they are talking about Basically you would look in the remaining stands of last years spent cattails in the spring for the young shoots growing to replace the dead ones Cattails are chokers growing from rhizomes
15. about self reliance and preparedness are welcome to join the folks over at East American Survival Training EAST They are based in Central Massachusetts with a membership base that spans throughout the Northeast Their website is at http groups msn com EastAmer SurvivalTraining and they hold meetings once every three months The mission of EAST is the promotion of self reliance through training preparation and networking with others of similar inter ests Because in a disaster be it natural or man made the government can t always be there to protect you So contrary to the rants of others things are very much alive and in progress around here The Pine Tree Journal will do our best to act as the focal point for various aspects of the hobby in our region provide new educational information to our readers and help interested individuals expand their horizons through the advancement of self reliance and preparedness via both high tech and low tech means Live free or die Death is not the worst of evils General Jobn Mark a 1 oe www 23 movement can posess 1 m at al a tt fa i 1 an
16. adways they thrive where other edible plants can not due to road salt contamination These are the tasty cockroach of the New England plant world Do not try to cultivate them you will almost m fail and have shoots pop g Ping up all over the property Purslane While raspberries black berries elderberries and other berries like it often garner ee forager following with quantity There are abundant amounts of wild edibles right un der the noses of New Englanders however many that they are probably overlooking Including the super healthy purslane It is extremely rich in many vitamins chiefly vitamin 15 PDV per cup and is loaded with Omega 3 fat acids It 15 one of the only sources of Omega 3 fatty acids from a plant in the continental United States Eat great see great and keep heart disease at bay if the research is accurate on Omega 3 acids You can find purslane in almost any yard in Connecticut It grows in turfless areas as a mat or in a more bushy form in the wild Pick the whole plant and remove the greens throwing away the stem just before preparing raw in a salad or steam them southern style Toss a handful into your spaghetti for a healthy and flavor ful boost Purslane is also classified as a lawn weed to be targeted for control Be wary of lawns that may have had broadleaf selective herbicide used and of areas that may have had broad spectrum herbicide
17. al strength Nextel 1355 cell phone with my 12V mobile charger and it indicates that it is charging New England Foraging by Rightcoast Connecticut has many wild edibles both native and non native Some are even consid ered invasive and eradication 1s encouraged There are so many edibles in Connecticut and throughout New England a comprehensive look at them all is beyond the scope of this article So what I will focus on are varieties that can be gathered in bulk have a high nutritional value and survival uses The prominent species that comes to mind is the invasive Japanese Knot weed Find a riverbank or stream side in Connecticut or pretty much anywhere in New Eng land and you will see this plant Japanese Knotweed You don t want to eat mature knot weed Where mature specimens are found however shoots are often nearby and un derneath This goes for nearly all plants but invasive species in particular You want to find small shoots between 3 inches and a foot or so tall harvest them and steam them They look like aspara gus but have a more bitter taste They are good they just don t taste like asparagus These plants are very common along roadways and in suburban wooded is lands Do not harvest these plants from roadsides or while on job sites or what ever in the suburbs They are considered a weed and have almost always been treated with broad spectrum control herbicide They are just darn hard to kill Along the ro
18. be noted that the log periodic offers higher 4 gain and better reception range but is also very directional We choose the PCB log periodic because of its reasonable price high gain and wide frequency cov 7 a lt 25 rs erage as opposed to your standard 24 L 7 GHz band antennas A beginner may gt stead want to initially opt for a 5 or 8 ou have too many cable ties gain omnidirectional antenna such as the Aerialix black sticks Since the setup used in this article was assembled there have been few develop ments in product availability Both Wal Mart and BJ s Wholesale Club sell 2 4 GHz wireless security camera systems for 80 The system consists of a wireless camera and a 4 channel receiver While no mods or hacks have been released yet there are a couple advantages to this system over the traditional Wavecom unit The first is that the receiver comes outfitted with an antenna connector The unit comes with a 2 4 GHz rubber duck antenna This eliminates the need to modify the receiver in order to use a better antenna The second is that one does not have to acquire a camera or other source of video in order to test the system The Wavecom transmitter unit was equipped with a NTSC video input and one needed to provide their own video source With the Wal Mart BJs unit one needs only to plug a 9V battery into the wireless cam era Whi
19. cc gov reports index cfm What like to do is take the latitude longitude coordinates of the lo cation I m staying at and do a Location Frequency Range search off Gullfoss for a 5 to 15 mile radius from said location depending on how populated it is If you re in a place such as New York City even doing a one mile radius search will provide you with more frequency data than you ll initially Know what to do with The problem with raw license frequency data is that you could get a dozen fre quencies for a specific agency or business and still have no idea what specific use the frequency has The Radio Reference site can sometimes help with this depending on how many active contributing scannists are in the area of interest Despite the demise of Police Call there are still numerous local frequency directories that may be avail able at your nearby radio shop Those of you in the Northeast who want a nice com plete printed directory to hold in your hands are blessed by the presence of Scanner Master in Massachusetts Their web site is http Wwww scannermaster com and they sell some rather excellent detailed guides for the Northeast Their Southern New Eng land Pocket Guide is a constant monitoring companion of mine along with a well used Moleskine pocket journal The reader should be familiar with the Signal Stalker police scanners Many people have an interest in hearing signals in their immediate vicinity Upon seeing someone nearby
20. differences they are the same unit A certain infamous retail store chain from Arkansas has it in the mobile electronics department for only 99 99 There are also higher end Signal Stalker Close Call scanners available that have extra fea tures such as trunk tracking P25 reception and continuous 25 1300 MHz minus cel lular frequency coverage One of the main complaints hear about the Signal Stalkers is the lack of capa bility to lock out annoying frequencies while in Signal Stalker mode For starters if you have a Uniden BC 92XLT enable the Close Call pager skip function This will elimi nate the vast majority of annoying signals On both units when you find an annoying signal in SS CC mode simply hit FUNC twice and then L O This will lock out the frequency The user manual is a little vague on that Unlike frequency counters the signal acquisition time on Signal Stalkers is a little longer To shorten this time deselect bands you re not at the moment inter ested in hearing activity on For example if you re in the middle of some rural farmland and there is no UHF or 800 MHz activity then deselect those bands Since you will probably note said probably not hear anything on the aircraft band unless you live next to an airport you might want to deselect the aircraft band as well You never know what you might be missing however don t live near an airport but I ve gotten Signal Stalker hits from planes flying overhead at
21. e requested comments on vision problems fogging etc some feedback to find sights on rifle e Slight vision interference some fogging still able to complete task e Hard to breath e Vision problems need consideration like the shotgun most for close range de fense e Definately harder to shout with mask constricts vision peripheral vision com pletely gone All in all a very successful training which made many think about what might be needed in a NBC situation 23 Eight folks attended the meeting practice 21 Oct Weather was cool and sunny we discussed splints and other 1st Aid concerns then briefed members to the practice at hand A member was selected to find a position in the woods and simulate a downed pilot pilot had freq of both teams The pilot tossed a coin in the field and depending on toss decided which team he was on A black and a red team were selected and each team would attempt to locate the pilot Pilot turned out to be red team he simu lated a broken leg in the bail out Pilot was able to call his team in for rescue and black team was unable to find and engage the other team After Red team successfully splinted the leg and extricated the pilot from the AO they became over achievers and returned to the AO and engaged the Black team in a fire fight Lunch was cooked up on the grill Thanks to Ted S and all that helped with refreshments After a bit of re laxation time some further improm
22. en is a great blood clotter Jam it into a cut if proper medical care 15 not available Combine pollen with mashed interior from base to create antiseptic clotting poultice At full maturity the fruit becomes a fluffy mass that makes a great insulator from cold Indigenous peoples used is as diaper lining for infants it 1s soft and absor bent You can combine the fluff with some birch bark and shavings from a good tinder tree like cedar to get a fire going via knife and quartz or hand bow method Cattail fluff and a little fir tree sap can get a fire going even when they are wet NASA teaches in survival training I have n t tried out the fir sap bit myself but I m digressing Foraging for edibles is an endless discussion and a passion of mine plan to submit an article on foraging in Florida to the next Pine Tree Journal as the next in this series There are so many more edibles in the Northeast that volumes have been written on this subject As I stated that wasn t the goal here I hoped to give an overview of what could be considered sta ples of a foraged diet in southern New England Show some plants you can gather quickly and in quantity in a survival situation that some may not think of or know about Ones you would find worth eating in even the WAWKI Others edibles to look into include the Indian cucumber Irish moss for those by the sea freshwater mussels dogwood trees peel the new twigs and you can brush your teeth like the i
23. es a 90 charge Since these are big bastidges and full of nasty battery electrolyte I wanted some kind of thing to enclose them Also since this 1s to be used while we camp at SCA events such as the Lilies War and also for when I go to Pennsic this sum mer 1 needed to be at least vaguely medieval looking I figured a wooden chest of some sort was in order but I needed to build it for strength as opposed to aesthet ics So I went to Lowes and got me some 2x4 lumber for the frame some 1 2 inch plywood for the lid and base and some 1 4 inch plywood for the outside sheathing What we have here is the box roughly framed out Now we have the sheathing on I wanted to use this cheap ass 1 4 inch underlayment to cut down on weight but this was kind of a mistake Whatever this brand was it was soft splintery and did not sand well I cut out the holes and put in three old work electrical boxes two for the 12v receptacles and the third for the solar panel receptacle I added later a fourth box where I wired in a double switch for disconnecting the receptacles and the solar should it be necessary for some reason Here is a detail of the outside after I added the 12V receptacles and the Solar Panel receptacle I got the 12V_receptacles from Amazon com actually for 4 95 each The solar panel receptacle is a P amp S Turnlok 125 15 AC receptacle in the NEMA L5 15 configuration I think these are for electric clothe
24. fication is because of a residual toxicity like a regular carrot Nothing 10 serious at all you know the story of how eating to many carrots give the skin a jaundiced look In other words you wouldn t want to live off wild carrot exclusively for a couple months The only real caution with this edible 15 that it closely resembles hemlock which 15 the poisonous plant that killed Socrates This is a non issue for the most part since they can be told apart eas ily despite the fact they are extremely similar looking Crush the plant in your fingers and smell it Hemlocks and Fools Parsley smell like they will kill you they re disgusting Wild Carrot smells just like carrots you buy at the store Be sure to check that before consuming Hemlock also grows in swamps for most part and Queen Anne s Lace is found in drier soil It is the forefather and exact species of the cultivated carrots we know and love Like the domestic car rot this is a strictly low altitude plant growing only south of the Berkshires and in low valleys north of there The leaves and tubers are strictly a spring early summer event After that they begin to to taste increasingly sour in the case of the greens and the tuber turns to a wood root The plant has a red dot in the center of the white lace like umbelluate while young and this is a good sign of a tasty carrot below After early to mid summer the leaves can of course still be eaten and the flower itself is
25. have 3 Alinco DJ 191 vhf radios available for loan to any group or event that needs vhf com s we then simulated a deployment to a group to the south 21 of our A O area of operation despite threats from an opposing force John C was able to lead a 5 man team to the ren dezvous point with no one being hit as it turns out the opposing force turned out to be 2 highly mobile individuals that tried to confuse us with heavy paintball fire and smoke there were also several trip wire booby traps along the trail fortu nately none of these were tripped at one point they were able to catch the patrol in a crossfire but we concentrated heavy firepower to the rearward threat and send that attacker into a retreat we then took advantage of the disarray and 1 person with the radios and a cover person sprinted to the secure bunker where we instructed the other group on use of the radios while the other provided cover MISSION ACCOMPLISHED cook out with a scenario debriefing took place finally a sole survivor paintball skirmish with Ted 5 win ning with all that was going we did not make a plan for the July meeting in the next couple weeks will post some ideas and if anyone else has any ideas they might like to try for either the Summer or Fall meeting please post Summer 2006 Meeting 15 July with temps near 90 degrees and very humid was pretty much a worse case scenario to be working with gas
26. ills the pail to one inch bellow the rim of said pail ut Start with a two liter plastic soda bottle cut into equal halves The bottom half take a heated nail and punch two holes at the top This allows you to string or thin wire a bail handle shown This becomes your gas generator bottom pail The top half becomes part of a funnel Take a plastic soda straw insert a small dowel and wind electrical tape around the straw the dowel keeps the straw from collapsing from the winding tape until by trial and error one can snugly fit into the mouth of the plastic funnel then remove the dowel This creates a long tube funnel for your generator or other chemistry needs 14 In A a 13 gallon clear wastebasket plastic bag 15 inserted into pail may have to insert cardboard between bag and pail to keep open end of bag upright Fill up to one inch of rim in the bag dry beans oatmeal or grains to be stored Cut a small section of cardboard 6 6 and place it on top of dry product then which you place generator pail containing already 4 oz of baking soda on the cardboard Pour a pint of fresh vinegar into a clean quart mason jar Take the prepared funnel and hold it with tube end into generator pail Pour vinegar slowly 1 to 2 oz at a time so that the reaction does not boil over the generator pail rim let it subside then pour a little more one needs to keep the contents from being wetted by the reaction
27. l off 800 MHz band and up to the 1 9 GHz PCS band This is troublesome for trunk tacking scanners because of 2 Each 12 5 KHz frequency is assigned a channel number The channel number frequency assignments will change when the band goes to the narrower spacing Trunk trackers use those channel numbers to determine what frequency to tune in order to follow a talkgroup on the system After a system has been rebanded the current crop of trunk tracking will not follow the system as the channel number frequency assignments will be all wrong New England was supposed to be the first region to go through rebanding and the process has just started to occur as of the time of this writing I d expect other parts of the country to go through similar delays As far as scanner manufacturers are con cerned Radio Shack initially said the firmware of their trunk tracking scanners would be upgradable but then changed their mind If you have a current model Radio Shack trunk tracker scanner you will be out of luck once rebanding occurs to the systems you monitor Uniden Bearcat has said that their current models will be firmware up gradable and some upgrades have already been made available to correct a few bugs found in early versions of the firmware However suspect that unless the rebanding progresses quicker once the current models become discontinued product support including firmware upgrades for them will cease to exist as is usually the case wi
28. le Wavecom branded units appear to have become more difficult to acquire Radio Shack still sells one under their brand Retail cost for a full system is 100 and a receiver can be purchased separately for 60 The catalog number is 15 2752 An other development is the decrease in cost of LCD video monitors Several manufactur ers now offer them as a battery operated DVD player with video input for under 100 This presents a more compact package than the portable B amp W TV We recently how ever noticed portable B amp W TV video monitors of a model very similar to ours selling for 14 at a local odd lot big lot store Those old school 83 channel analog slide tuned TVs have certain useful features that we ll discuss in a future article so you might want to pick one up anyway The obvious signal mode to intercepted by this set up is the ubiquitous Wavecom sys tems used to send a video signal from a VCR or satellite receiver to another TV residence These normally have about a 300 foot range from unit to unit Using the log periodic antenna successful interceptions have been made from as far as insert dis tance Other 2 4 GHz devices can also be detected such as 802 11 Wifi networks and cordless phones While the preferred mode of detecting WiFi is with a Laptop PC and Wardriving Software you will notice a brightening of the snow on your monitor screen and a popping noise on the speaker when detecting one with this set up The cordless
29. moving the case one can trace the coax lead of the stock antenna to an RF shield enclosure This enclose can be desoldered gaining access to the end of the coax which can then also be desoldered and replaced with the LMR100 pigtail The TV is an el cheapo 20 B amp W portable picked up a few years ago at a local department store It was chosen be cause of its inexpensive price 12V DC power requirement NTSC video input capability and usability for other electronic interception pro jects While this video display offers adequate performance for the price a better option given modern technology would one of the LCD color video moni ee tors available from a number of sources for pii about 100 The entire system is capable of running on 12V DC such as that provided by a vehicle cigarette lighter jack The box to the left is discontinued Radio Shack portable power source used to pro vide power for the experiment The antenna further detailed in figure 2 is a 900 2600 MHZ PCB log periodic made by KB5UBE and available via Ebay It was mounted a piece of scrap molding left over from a home improvement project For this experiment the system was in stalled on the passenger seat of a car with the antenna cable 2 tied to the passenger side visor This al lowed rudimentary aiming of the antenna either directly forward or out the passen ger side window figure 3 It should
30. ms Like any electonics product always stick to the major Japanese brands where possible you can t go wrong I purchased these also from Wholesale Solar for 440 00 each Wholesale Solar lists these as the NE 80E1U but the only difference is that the NE 80EJEA has a junction box instead of some kind of weird proprietary connec tor so this was actually better Atop panel 15 my cat Schrodinger is Weasel Number Seven helping me test one of he I the panels In the original high resolution version of _ this photo we can see on the multitester that the panel is putting out about 2 79 volts from the kitchen light 0 1 j _ fixture In sun panels are rated to produce over 18V and 4 5A each 790 my batteries had planned to order some Trojan T 105 6V batteries since that s what all the solar power pundits seem to recommend but my friend L got me these two salvaged Trojan J185P 12 batteries from a floor scrubber machine at his work place for free Apparently their floor scrubber uses a set of three of these bad boys but one went south on them The other two were good but they replaced all three just to be sure I don t mind as these batteries go for as much as 250 00 each They have 20 hour rating of 195 amp hours each and they weigh about 110 pounds each When I tested them they put out 12 6V which according to the manufacturer indicat
31. ndigenous people along with dandelions plantain crabapples and endless others If you have a genuine interest in seeing an expert speak on this you have to seek out and find Russ Cohen He 1s the end all be all on foraging in the Northeast and can be found guiding foraging hikes at various times in Connecticut Rhode Island and Massachusetts Rightcoast 12 WILDFLOWER S PROJECTS MAKING A FLOATING FISH KEEPER A person whom likes to keep live fish crabs or even crayfish may like this keeper constructed from a empty kitty litter bucket with lid kept afloat with a section of foam swim float quick zip tie to the handle Holes were drilled into the top bottom and side with a power drill using a stepped uni bit BOTTOM TOP LID SIDE VWITHOUT HANDEL SIDE WiTH HANDEL All constructed from recycled materials this fish keeper can be tied off a boat pier or large aquaculture tank keeping contents alive till needed 13 WILDFLOWER S PROJECTS HOMEMADE CO2 GENERATOR FOR BULK BEANS TO GRAINS STORAGE Needed a way to store bulk beans oatmeal or dry grains safely One way was to add CO2 carbon dioxide by using dry ice another was using a metered fill hose from a tank of CO2 Both methods are nice but in a post aftermath emergency may not be available My method here 15 to use baking soda and white vinegar to generate the CO2 to fill a plastic bag inserted into a kitty litter pail The contents to be stored f
32. photos of it up here later I wanted something bigger but the money for this just wasn t in the budget As it happens you may know that Lady G had some surgery in the fall of 2005 The insurance expert at the surgery clinic said we needed to pony up about 3000 in non covered expenses Fine I says and proceed to have 300 a month deducted for my medical flex savings plan Boy was I surprised when the clinic advised they had miscal culated and we only owed a few hundred The deduction of course cannot be changed once set for the year and I still had well over 2000 in this account If I do not spend it for bona fide medical purposes by the fall of 2006 the balance is forefited to the federal government Great So in a moment of creative thought I asked my doctor a tremendously cool dude for a prescription worded ex actly thus Battery and means to recharge battery for CPAP machine and I went shopping for parts to build Han nibal s Big Ass Solar Battery Thing Cost thus far is about 1150 00 900 of which was for the solar panels How Hannibal built the Big Ass Solar Battery Thing Here is my charge controller It is a SunSaver 10L with the low voltage disconnect feature manufactured by Morn ingstar Corporation I ordered it from Wholesale Solar of Mount Shasta California for 65 00 And here are my solar panels Two count them two Sharp NE 80EJEA 80 watt polycrystalline solar pan f els manufactured by Sharp Solar Syste
33. ptu paintball was played The Scene is Alive It s been a while but the zine is back decided to go with the Pine Tree Jour nal zine name as liked it better than Ticom Zine The content however remains the same technological survival information that I ve done for the past sixteen years The publication schedule is going to be biannually on October 31 and April 19 If you d like to contribute an article the deadline for the next issue is April 1 2007 I m looking for articles on DIY tech projects hacking of all types communications radio wireless telecom networking alternative energy and self reliance preparedness stuff of any sort You can email your articles to tfne tom gmail com With this new issue am happy to announce the North Central Northwest Con necticut region now has a weekly meeting for local members of the scene to get to gether with one another The meetings are every Sunday at 7 30PM at the Barnes amp Noble bookstore at The Shoppes at Farmington Valley 110 Albany Tpk 305 Canton CT 06019 There is now a regional radio frequency for hobbyists and other like minded individuals to chat with one another It is 151 880 MHz in license free MURS radio service If you re looking for MURS radios at a very reasonable price check out http mursradio googlepages com I m not affiliated with the site but the price is right and a fellow New Englander runs it Those hobbyists looking to learn more
34. s driers or something I didn t really care since I just kind of picked them out at random since they were locking and the three way rounded blade configu ration was substantially different from pretty much anything else so we would not be plugging things in here by accident I got these receptacles from 3E a local industrial electrical supply vendor Here is a detail of the wiring on the inside I used some 12 gauge solid wire I had sitting around in the basement from an earlier electrical project to hook everything up Here is a detail of how the solar panels were connected Again note the male and female round bladed twistlock connectors The male end is to plug into the charge controller or to a second panel s female connector so they can be hooked up in parallel The cord used here is simply a cut up 16 gauge outdoor extension cord that I picked up while I was at 3E for 7 95 This shows how the the Trojan J185P 12V batteries are connected in parallel to maintain 12V output If we had used Trojan T 105 6V batteries as I had originally planned we d have had to hook them up in series to get 12V Before we hooked up the panel I tested the batteries again as they had sat in the back of my trailer for nearly a fortnight covered by a piece of cardboard They indicated 12 5 volts when this photo was taken Connecting one of the solar panels for the first time Whoo hoo It works I plugged in my totally manly industri
35. th obsolete equipment Once the rebanding process is finished then things will be all fine and dandy Until then if you simply have to buy a trunktracker spend as little as possible for a used one at a hamfest This way you won t feel so bad when it simply becomes a conven tional scanner after rebanding If you have a large sum of money burning a hole in your pocket and you simply have to buy something new get one of those computer controlled DC to Daylight communications receivers made by Icom or AOR They ac tually will never become obsolete With the computer interface they can be used with the Trunker software to follow trunked radio systems even post rebanding They are readily modified to provide a 10 7 MHz IF output in order to use an AOR ARD25 P25 decoder box for demodulating P 25 audio They also feature full frequency coverage from 100 KHz to 2 GHz minus cellular in the U S No matter what frequency gets reallocated to what you ll be able to tune it s a new RF hobbyist a communications receiver is more versatile than a police scanner You can listen to local VHF UHF pub lic safety communications one week Tune down the spectrum a little bit for shortwave broadcasters and ham radio operators 3870 3890 KHz AM mode the next week Do a little experimentation with computerized monitoring the next and finish the month out playing with monitoring the various digital modes you encounter on the air 20 EAST AMERICAN SU
36. tronics stores and have all the public safety records of your locale and a bunch of useful reference material at your fingertips Later issues included a CD containing the whole country s public safety license data selected businesses and all the other extras that ensured Tandy Corp received at least some of your hard earned cash once a year The most useful part of Police Call was something they called the Consolidated Frequency List It told you what service was allocated to a particular frequency With it you could look up a frequency like 45 88 MHz and quickly find out it was allocated to the Fire Service for intersystem communications that frequency by the way happens to be the inter county channel for New York State fire departments Unfortunately Police Call s last edition was published in 2005 You still might be able to find a copy of the last edition at a local Radio Shack and it would be a worthwhile refer ence just for the Consolidated Frequency List The Internet has a number of sources for frequency data The most popular site is Radio Reference at http www radioreference com Originally a site for information about trunked radio systems it s probably the biggest site of user contributed fre quency and radio system data on the Net The second site is run by the FCC and is commonly known by the nickname Gullfoss It is the FCC General Menu Reports page which is the whole FCC license database Its URL is hittp gullfoss2 f
37. ttle money and some elbow grease The set up we de scribed is a very basic one built from off the shelf components that offers tremendous capability and room for experimentation Those readers who have experimented with Wardriving now have the opportunity to see what else the 2 4 GHz band has to offer and get a broader taste of the field of electronic interception Links http www ringolake com pic_proj wavecom wavecom_rx html http www ipass net teara atv4 html http cascanning tripod com 24gig http pages prodigy net dsudduth wavecom htm Hannibal s Big Ass Solar Battery Thing And How it Came to Be Well as you may know I am in the SCA and consequently we do a lot of camping But I also have sleep apnea so camping at unimproved locations can be a bit of a challenge since I need power for my CPAP machine in order to get any kind of truly restful sleep As I m also a bit of the armchair survivalist I m always interested in projects to enhance our self reliance As I read articles on alternative energy in things like Backwoods Home magazine I ve subscribed for over 15 years I figured some kind of portable battery power system with solar panels for recharg ing the batteries would be just the thing for camping in addition to being useful in an emergency situation I tried to make a little one with a Wal Mart marine battery and two 10W solar panels I got for cheep on e bay but this just didn t do the trick Even so I might put some
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