What’s the cost of using solar energy panels and battery chargers? The advantages of solar energy panels and battery chargers are that you can charge your batteries, cell phone, IPod, and PC when grid electricity is not available. This would be especially helpful in areas impacted by hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, snow, typhoons, icy weather as well as when camping and at construction sites. It appears that at least biannually in a snow storm,  somebody has to use their cell telephone from a mountaintop to call for assistance.

Keeping the battery on the telephone charged is important in this scenario. Even if you never go outside, have you ever lost power for a long period of time? New Hampshire just went thru an ice storm that came on December 12th, 2008, and some folks in our state on December 24th, 2008 still had no power.  Hurricanes have been known to take out power from the grid for months.  After all these storms the sun still shines on solar power cells and the clean up required after the storms always requires power to do the task.   Since the panels generate enough power for computer PCs to be kept charged, insurance claims and other disaster recovery paperwork could be filed faster.

A transportable roll up solar energy panel is incredibly light and easy to hold.

It should be part of all emergency kits.  What’s the price of having the ability to get aid when you want it?  The sky’s the limit.

As as survivalist, I am always prepared for the event that all cell phone and landline communications go down for an extended period of time.  The confusion created when the general public cannot communicate through normal means leads to a breakdown of rational behaviour.  You don’t want to get caught up in traffic that will soon follow this confusion.  I solved this problem…or at least prepared for it…by obtaining a license to operate ham radio equipment, although it is possible to obtain backup emergency communications equipment and use it legally without being licensed.  For instance, a CB radio, although limited in range, will provide you with two way communication in the event of an emergency.  Other options include satallite phones and handheld two-way consumer radios that can be purchased from sporting goods stores.

I opted for the amateur radio license primarily for the extended range offered by using local “repeaters”.  Repeaters allow for extended communication by allowing an incoming transmission to be retransmitted through an “offset” frequency.  The retransmitted signal is boosted in power and in most cases has the benefit of more gain through an antenna that is optimised for the frequency.  The transmit antenna is also physically located on a tower or other tall object to extend the range.  In short, you can listen on one frequency and talk on a separate frequency.  The switch between the two is handled by your radio’s software, so in effect, it is seamless to the operator.  The hardest part is programming the radio to use the repeater!  More on that in a later post…

You can obtain a license to operate amateur radio license by contacting your local amateur radio association.  More information about repeaters is available here.