> Generator 5kw - you want something with a higher duty cycle than you need so it can run for extended periods

Note that fossil fuel can age out, even with stabilizer.

There are dual- and tri-fuel generators out there that can use natural/methane gas and/or propane. Consider propane as you can get pretty big bottles and it does not expire so can sit around for long periods of time.

yeah used to manage data centers, diesel breaks down after a while, petrol even faster.

you can put in additives to extend the life, and specialized storage can squeak even more out, but ultimately you can't plan on it being good past 12 months, maybe as low as 5-6 if conditions aren't great.

we ran / tested the generators weekly, both just to exercise them and confirm they're good, but also just to burn off old fuel.

Yeah gas / propane might make the most sense. I already have a big 3026L propane tank.

If you have a solar panels, a battery, and generator, it would be good idea to figure out how to hook them all together. Using the generator near its full output, to charge the battery, will use far less fuel than idling it all day.

Even if things are bad enough for iodine pills, they are only really needed for children. Once you hit your mid teens, your thyroid is fully developed and not pulling in enough iodine to worry about radioactive isotopes.

I assume the iodine is about water treatment and not radiation?

> I assume the iodine is about water treatment and not radiation?

If you live with-in 50 km of a nuclear power plant (e.g., southern Ontario), you are entitled to free iodine pills:

* https://www.preparetobesafe.ca

* https://www.cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca/eng/resources/educational-resour...

* https://www.torontocentralhealthline.ca/displayservice.aspx?...

* https://www.durham.ca/en/news/ki-tablets-available-for-all-a...

I presume that radiation is why the Ukrainian brought it up.

The article did mention using it for treating water, but it's not very good at that, and it tastes awful. Reverse osmosis works much, much better and it doesn't need to be a large permanently installed system; portable gravity-fed versions readily available.

It was a remark about nukes. Fortunately the place id go to is on a fresh water lake and we already have Water filtration setup.

presumably both

> Get a rifle - not good for military but useful against looters and other unarmed crazy people

If you’re going to do that, become proficient with said rifle.

Or get a shotgun. For self defense, it is just point and click. Anyone can use them after a few minutes instruction.

I was thinking the other day that ALL drones SHOULD be considered LIVE explosives. It's probably never a good idea to handle one if you're not trained.

Last march i was at SxSw and the police drones over head were a first for me. I was in this large crowd of people, and thought "yeah i dont like this". How do i know they're not just some bad actors drone with red and blue lights?

I think my exposure to casual discussions of how to arm drones with my Ukrainian friend, and the videos we've all seen on Reddit about drones in Ukraine, have really made their presence feel unwelcome.

I think in the US legally they have to have a beacon while flying now, but my thought the other day was about them being parked/down.

It depends on a number of factors about legality, but the hardware to make a drone that doesn't have software forcing it to follow the law is cheap and plentiful. Its not particularly hard to get either, even with the drone ban.

For ~$200 you can build a very good FPV drone that can carry a dangerous payload and travel at highway speeds. Another ~$200 buys you the video receiver and a controller.

Drone warfare is terrifying.

Warfare yes, but that's all warfare that's terrifying. Similarly you can make a point that for $10 you can buy a knife that can be used in all different morbid crimes.

FPV drones as a fun hobby in the rest of the world has had, in the last 10 years since it became somewhat popular, a total of zero fatalities or serious injuries. Don't let the irrational fear guide you towards further unnecessary regulation that makes others' lives worse.

A toddler lost an eye, several hospitalizations of unrelated bystanders, multiple aircraft damaged in midair collisions, and an attempted assassination of a world leader are some of the highlights. Not exactly a squeaky clean record with no “serious injuries”, even if you ignore the intentional assassination attempt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unmanned_aerial_vehicl...

I think FPV and drones are awesome, and have built several myself. It is pretty hard to argue that they are not also very dangerous in the wrong hands. Are there more dangerous things in the world? Sure, but that doesn’t mean people should ignore an easy attack vector. Given the temperature of things currently, I would be incredibly nervous to hear a drone at a protest or political event.

Regulations are coming whether regular Joe wants them or not. Drones had moved from toy hobby to dealing with weapons and explosives level of scrutiny and this is not reverting anytime soon.

I saw writing on the wall and donated in 2022 my dji drone to Ukrainian army, hopefully it was used well for defense of their homeland. I don't want to have a hobby that I need to do covertly and illegally, and last thing I want to do during vacations is dealing with bureaucracy.

Regulations are coming faster and harder when people are this eager to comply in advance.

> I saw writing on the wall and donated in 2022 my dji drone to Ukrainian army

Thank you for that.

I'd add some reasonable water supplies, at least bottled, and some pills to disinfect water from rivers, springs etc could be handy as well.

is the last point correct? "Get familiar with remote detonation with drones, these are what we use to set off the molotovs:" seems off for this list, like way off and more on military/offence side of type of thing?

and why would you need a 300m+ ethernet cable in a disaster?

Depending on the scale of the disaster you may not want your Starlink on your bedroom roof.

Totally valid use case for sure, and we discussed this because I do have a Starlink dish, but honestly, in a conflict with the US...I don't think a) I'd want to use starlink and b) i'd expect it to work.

Ethernet cable is a high quality cable usable for various other purposes. That includes low voltage power line, such as 12V from the car to phone charger in the house, solar panel wiring, basic tripwire alarms, command relays in the yard from the house, basic audio intercom with your neighbors when phone lines are down, etc.

Plus the obvious ethernet repairs: lines broken by fallen trees/branches in a storm, video camera cables cut by thieves, install new survillance cameras, move existing ones.

Self-supporting ethernet cable is also a decent clothesline when your dryer is not working.

In his case i didn't actually bother asking about the cat6 because i already had a huge reel in my garage, but I can think of cases such a remotely mounting satellite dish' and maybe connecting buildings to each other.

The molotov didn't seem out of range for me honestly. Firstly because I know he was one of the first people flying drones for defence, and now they've been mass producing their own for a few years. I have to admit, it seems pretty rational to want to fight back in any way possible.