Solar Panel Principles

| October 28, 2016

We’ve posted a new article over at Old School Tech about solar panel principles. As always, we keep the technical details over there, and handle the self-sufficiency and controversial issues over here. Go check that article out, and come back for more details.

The linked article mentions the steadily declining price of solar panels on a per-watt basis. In the past year, our dealer prices have dropped about 20%; consumer prices  have dropped about the same. This trend has been going on for a while. As a result, solar panels are not a great choice for trade goods, ammo would probably better. Unlike ammo, which once delivered to someone with a suitable firearm, can be universally used, in the case of solar panels, the “firearm” is an entire system of racking, cabling, chargers, inverters, batteries, and so on. No one is going to make use of significant power from these without all that infrastructure. In other words, the available market is very limited. Buy them because you can use them, unless you are willing to trade the entire system or have enough of the supporting giblets on hand to trade with them also. There are many better choices for trade goods than solar panels.

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Hurricane Solar, Part I

| October 25, 2016

We’ve been experimenting with different off-grid solar power configurations for a while. As I have mentioned in a previous article, power went out for three days in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. This gave us an excellent opportunity to put this experimentation to practical application; nothing like the prospect of losing a freezer full of meat to focus the mind. In this article series, we’re going to discuss the ground-mounted solar system we deployed, some of the tradeoffs we made, and how theory did not match practice in some ways.

As usual with many of our practical applications, we’re going to do this in two pieces. The companion article at OldSchoolTech.info contains all the benign technical details and apolitical narrative, while our cover article here will talk about the more self-sufficiency-oriented details and political issues involved. By splitting things up this way, you can give your barely-aware friends and family something helpful but politically harmless to think about with a link to OST, while you and your self-sufficiency enthusiast friends can get the additional details you care about here.

» ( Read more of Hurricane Solar, Part I… )

Listening Posts and Observation Posts (Guest Article)

| October 24, 2016

Barry is retired Special Forces, Traditional Catholic, monarchist, historian, Scholastic, counter-Reformationist, and counter-revolutionary.

Introduction

During a recent correspondence with Tom Baugh about his AAR following Hurricane Matthew this writer commented that his OPs should have had check points behind them to prevent the perimeter being “crashed.” Baugh responded that he had been split between describing his deployments being LPs or OPs. Returning his letter I commented that we often combined the two functions (i.e, LP/OP) and mentioned that I had written a rather long paragraph describing how we really used them but that I had deleted that paragraph before sending because of the unlikelihood of civilians protecting their holdings from looters or bandit gangs having the manpower to do it properly.

Baugh asked if I would reproduce that paragraph here. What follows is a (somewhat expanded) reconstruction of the purely military paragraph on LP and OP. Then I will take the principles from the military paragraphs and explain how they are translated into civilian use by Neighborhood Protection Teams.

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10,000 Visitors!

| October 24, 2016

steakknives300Since launching the new blog format on the 11th of October, in about two weeks, we’ve had 10,000 visitors (and 27,375 visits). If I knew who the 10,000th visitor was, I would offer them this free picture of a nice set of steak knives, as shown to the right. Click to redeem.

I’m not entirely sure what WordPress defines as a visitor versus a visit, but since it is a number, I am sure it means something. Regardless, it is somewhat of a milestone, mostly because we have ten fingers. If I had lost one somewhere, the 9000th, or more likely, the 6561st visitor, would be just as important. It depends on what you like more, round things, or powers.

The bulk of these visits came from two other blogs, Knuckledraggin’ and WRSA. Thanks to both of those sites for their support and encouragement.

The three top posts so far are shown below:

#1 Hurricane AAR: Don’t Use Don’t, about our experiences with a listening post after Hurricane Matthew,

#2 New Statesboro Krispy Kreme, about an unedited raw video Audrey and I shot just before the hurricane, and

#3 Future America: Up Goer Five, a link to and commentary about an xkcd drawing introducing Future America, a new series we’ll be doing about the decline.

Until WRSA linked to the AAR late on the 23rd, the two fun ones were way out in front, almost 3x the AAR (and even that one is a little fun). The AAR then shot ahead overnight.

Thanks again for everyone who has shown up to see what is going on over here and those who have offered advice on blogging and content. I really appreciate it.

Tom

GeorgePatton325: Should We Vote?

| October 24, 2016

As with JC Dodge last week, GeorgePatton325 nails the Trump vote. Money quote from that post:

“Quite frankly, I am supporting Donald Trump merely for his potential to destroy the machine.”

A friend and I were discussing this the other day, and I responded that Trump is an icon, meaning a symbol for something else: he and his campaign are a collecting point for outrage against the machine. His campaign is based on traditional American mythology, and this has grown larger than the campaign or the candidate himself. It is this resurgence of the mythology, the legend of the traditional American, and the unwinding of the tolerance for decades of relentless progressive attacks on that heritage, that is frightening the established powers.

Over the years, I’ve seen lots of candidates make lots of promises, and then break them to a man. Even if he pulls a typical Republican zombie move and caves after taking office, that particular cat will already be out of the bag. There isn’t any turning back from this resurgence, it is a one-way ticket no matter what the outcome.

h/t Knuckledraggin

Future America: Up Goer Five

| October 22, 2016

I’m introducing a new article series called Future America. This series will talk about the degenerating culture and standards, and the impact this degeneration will have on you and your planning. It won’t be all grim, though, some of it will be fun, like this one.

Today, I ran across this xkcd drawing showing the Saturn V, explained in terms which only use the first thousand most common words. Apparently, the word thousand isn’t one of them. If you’ve ever tried to explain anything to a modern American, and the topic didn’t involve the latest Honey Boo Boo sportsgame or iLeash, you’ll appreciate this as much as I do.

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Homeschool CLEP: 4 College Calculus Credit Hours at Age 14

| October 18, 2016

One reason to start blogging is that it makes bragging a lot more convenient. I can also tell you about my mistakes so that you don’t have to make them.

This week’s brag is about our 14-year old homeschooled daughter. Last week, she passed the Calculus CLEP with a score of 62/80. Passing is generally recognized as a 50/80 by most colleges and universities. Some don’t recognize CLEPs at all, but for those that do, this is a nice notch on her academic belt. It also officially signals the end of her math curriculum in homeschool, having previously taken Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Advanced Math. You will notice that Geometry seems to be missing. But, because we use the Saxon Math curriculum (pre-watered-down versions), those three courses, plus Saxon Calculus, have more geometry in them than most public school kids will ever see. And, by the time your student hits about the halfway point in the Saxon Calculus text, they are ready to take the CLEP and pass.

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Hurricane AAR: Don’t Use Don’t

| October 15, 2016

I had fun writing this somewhat tongue-in-cheek dramatization of an actual event. I hope you have as much fun reading it. And yes, it is a blatant ad for our field phone product also.

In the update to my original Defamating post, I pointed out that one of our signs was shot recently, on a trajectory that put one of our buildings and any occupants therein at risk. This happened just as Hurricane Matthew was bearing down on coastal Georgia. While the hurricane itself turned out to be a relative non-event for our area, the power outage was another thing entirely. Our little town was without power for three days, even though very little damage was sustained in this area.

Given this recent violent escalation, we decided to use the hurricane and its aftermath to test some of our equipment and methods. So, we posted a 24-hour watch, including listening posts. These listening posts communicated with the operations center using our field phone sets.

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