Each of the individual qualities that our Prepper Radio has -
can be found in one Ham radio or another,
but our Prepper Radio is unique,
in that it has all the qualities in one.
For Those Who Ask - What Is A Prepper?
Preppers are a growing segment of our society. They believe that we live in unstable times - some even in what they call "End Times", or TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It), and they believe it important to be prepared so they can survive and re-establish society during the new time.
This radio is designed for the more serious prepper - but all, including those who want to be prepared for a natural event such as hurricanes - are welcome to join in.
One doesn't have to use the radio. They can just store it in the EMP protected container that it comes in - just like they might keep a fire extinguisher on the shelf.
Where the project was at before we began Kickstarter
Our very first prototype worked very well and the estimated mass production cost for it was under $200, but it was what is called QRP (low wattage transmission power). While using QRP one could sometimes communicate with hams thousands of miles away - but not reliably. Over the last couple of years we have built several improved prototypes.
Later prototypes were designed to be more powerful, for reliable use within several hundred miles, but were not as stable as we liked. Still, we now have several tested circuits to pick and choose from for our final design.
The bright green board sitting on top of a power supply is our third prototype. The number on it says '2' and it is the second of four boards of the third prototype run.
The current inclination is towards two separate boards in two smaller cases, one being the radio and the other the amplifier so that we can better separate the heat and RF of the amplifier from the radio.
In point of fact we are considering a third box - for a presently undisclosed reason -
but it is all a part of what we call the radio and all the cases will fit into a can for EMP protection.
No matter which design is chosen, the question in manufacture will be one of economy of scale. Twenty of our members have put up $300 each for a radio which was the source for the $6,000 we have already spent, but to get down to $200/unit we need to buy the boards, components and cabinets in quantities of hundreds. Ideally, thousands.
Our Goal and Stretch Goals
This is where you come in. While we have already spent the $6,000 (and more) so far, and tens of thousands of dollars of volunteer work has gone into the project, we are setting our Kickstarter goal at a low additional $10,000 to make sure that we can reach it. For that amount we feel that we can finish at least one design and get the boards tested, perhaps even before the end of the campaign, if we have enough continuing support.
The ten thousand dollar goal will be only 50 more participants at the $200 level, but in reality we hope that there will be many more that participate. This latter STRETCH is what this Kickstarter project is really all about. The thought I have is that 3,000 users would make a marvelously strong radio network. Thirty thousand would be even better - and greatly assist America's recovery and reconstruction, which is the goal and mission of S.A.F.E. For that number to be attracted to participate, something will have to transpire, beyond government shutdowns and debt ceilings, to make the masses awaken to the need. The project will need to have gone viral, and if that should occur we have to wonder how such events that cause it to do so, may affect the conditions for fulfillment. Only Preppers and the like will understand these dreams and fears. All others will think it a total detachment from reality as they see it.
A more detailed video explaining about the radio
Our goal is not just about Crowd Funding!
Our project is also about Crowd Sourcing, getting everyone to help build a useful net. You could say it is about Crowd 'organizing' because the goal is to have everyone cooperate. Mutual support and organization is very important. We want you through our TEAM Leaders (who have existed in all 50 US states and throughout Canada since before the year 2000) to associate with other members in your state and neighboring area. We want you to meet with them and create from the bottom up the kind of organization that you want your User net to be.
More Details About the Rewards at Each Level
To determine which Kickstarter Reward is the correct one for you - and at which level you should participate - in this Kickstarter Campaign please open this link NOW!
Purpose of the Youth Prepper Course Reward (And for those who don't feel they are too old to learn)
Because it is the youth that will rebuild society we have prepared a special course for them to become preppers. This course is very different in that it gives the REAL skills that they are going to need to rebuild society. However, the MOST IMPORTANT skill of all, which is spiritual values, we leave to the individual's church or such other spiritual source from which they seek guidance.
What this course presents will seem strange to many Preppers because we do not talk about such things as storing food and water for survival or seeds for recovery afterwards. The subject here is reconstruction rather than recovery or survival.
For long term survival the survivors will have to reconstruct society. We do not know in what manner they will do that or what form they will choose for it - but here we train the youth in two of the most essential tools for the task:
a tool for Communication and the knowledge of how to create their local Organization.
Further details about the Prepper Course can be found
here.
Concerns
(Kickstarter has asked us to speak to concerns)
We need to set upon a final design - and if, inspired by the activity of Kickstarter, we continue to receive support and funding from outside Kickstarter, prior to the end of the Kickstarter campaign, we can hopefully be ready to go into production soon after the Kickstarter campaign ends, when we will then have the funds to make the bulk order of components and to make contracts with volume assemblers, which we will negotiate ahead of time.
There are design decisions that still have to be made. All these can surely be resolved. What is not so easily resolved is getting everyone to cooperate into a network. This is something that we need everyone's utmost cooperation to accomplish. The equipment permits small networks of two, four, or more persons but to be really valuable we need lots of participants.
Risk and Challenges
There will be opposition to this project. We are very appreciative that Kickstarter is gutsy enough to let us present something so unpopular with so many, in a time when many forms of social media, large telecoms, and other such major entities are betraying their customers to the likes of the NSA.
Preppers aren't popular and few will rise to their defense. Also, many radio hams will be opposed to our project because just like the rest of the people, only about 1% of them are Preppers, and they do not want people impinging upon their hobby. Hams feel that they have a corner on public emergency radio communications systems and while they have plans for a major natural disaster, they don't understand how their systems are not designed to work, and won't work, in the case of a universal catastrophe.
But the biggest risk is the government. It has already passed Executive Orders to take everything. Guns, food, and yes, two-way radios. During times of conflict, in all countries, including in North America, there has been confiscation of radios.
The government feels that two-way radios are a particular threat because they think terrorists may try to use them (especially one designed like ours), to avoid detection in communication. They think that spies for other governments might use them, and that during a major conflict people may unintentionally give out information valuable to the enemy by simply reporting to one another what is going on.
The risk and challenge is that the government may try to stop our project. Legality is not really an issue. The government just raids and stops all sorts of things these days. Illegal or not. I do not refer to Ark Two as Waco North without reason. We have been subject to more massive raids than was Waco. The only difference here is that they were the kinder gentler Canadian kind of raids. In each of three of the dozens of raids, they brought over 40 personnel, body armor, automatic weapons, grenade launchers, K-9, command posts, and executed military maneuvers. On another occasion, I was stopped at the border when I tried to take across some radiation detection equipment, because such equipment is now considered a military/terrorist threat.
It is nothing against me personally. I haven't done anything to anyone. Individually, most all of them are nice to me personally. It is just government bureaucracy. It is a serious problem when we try to build something like our net. But we continue to look for solutions. We have to continue to work along confidently and we very much need your support. In the end, while I know many people do not like to hear me say it, the fact remains that we must trust in God.
So risks and challenges? Yes. But, they are not risks and challenges that you personally have to take, beyond the monetary support that you give this project. Nevertheless, they are risks and challenges that I think are important that we face up to, together. Because these risks and challenges exist, it is important that you help make this project a success. The future may contain a bigger risk and challenge for you personally, and the success of this project may be just what you need to help meet that greater risk and challenge.
Further discussion of 'Prepper Concerns' about the radio are discussed
here.
Technical Aspects of the Radio
Physical goals about the radio were shown in the video and very detailed aspects are available in the manual that can be downloaded from: http://www.webpal.org/SAFEems/index.html.
During the Kickstarter campaign we plan to give continuous status reports regarding the finalization of the development.
We are presently developing in prototype three different approaches to fulfilling the same parameters. They all work on PSK31 in 80m using a NVIS antenna and all are to be small enough to fit into a can for EMP protection, and still cost under $200. We have three models and distinguish them as models A, B, C, and we will settle upon a single model which has the best combination of specifications.
Additional information about the technical specifications regarding the three models can be found
here.
Technical Aspects of the antenna and the coverage and how the signal is hidden can be found
here.
The Importance of the Net - Software - and Training
For communicating outside the range of your radio you need the net to relay messages for you. Even within the range of your radio the net is very important to you because you may not be able to stay on the radio 24/7 and you need someone to store messages and forward them when you become available, which is the very concept behind
the SAFE EMS (Emergency Messaging System).
The Net provides much more than just the means to communicate. In the catastrophic situation for which it is designed, it is anticipated that many operators would specialize in various areas (for example specializing in medical and veterinary
consultation, weather and news reporting from specific areas, road conditions and alerts regarding social disruptions, etc.). This could be a very long list because it provides all the information and services which we now get from conventional sources, but which would no longer be there. All of this is an important part of S.A.F.E. and why we are very eager
for you to join the S.A.F.E. organization to learn what to do, and how to do it, so that all these things will be provided in a Catastrophe.
Biography of Bruce Beach
Kickstarter has asked me to tell you a bit about myself so that you will know that I am real person - although some people think me pretty unreal. If you are a prepper you probably know who I am. The National Geographic did a segment about me and Ark Two (our 42 buried school bus underground shelter).
You can see the buses as we put them in a great deep hole that we dug
about 35 years ago.
I am a Radiological Scientific Officer (RSO) and the founder of SAFE/Ark Two. We put in the first buses in 1980 and we now have TEAM Leaders throughout Canada, in all 50 US states, and elsewhere in the world.
This is a more recent picture from last year of me down in one of the tunnels.
I am an octogenarian who used to teach economics and am also an Advanced Radio Ham who over fifty years ago was grandfathered by the Western Electric Company in Illinois as an Electrical Engineer based upon my having graduated as the honor student from a USAF Electronics Supply School, and I hold some Electronic patents - BUT you sure wouldn't want me designing the circuitry for your radio.
Fortunately, in the SAFE organization we have a number of very capable radio engineers. My contribution is that I have carefully studied out over the years the parameters of what we want in the radio.
