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After watching the movie "The Book Of Eli" I wonder if this would be useful.  I mean he only uses his ipod for music but smart phones now have so many other features and being able to charge it seems like a good idea.  Or will all signal and electronics be useless and this is a waste of $50.  I dunno, your thoughts?

 

For me, It would be nice because in the even where something goes horrible, think of whats on your phone that you dont need wifi or 3g for... Theres a calculator sure but I mean pictures.  All those shows and movies people lose loved ones and wish they had pictures of them, you still would.  Movies for some people, music def, and what happens if you notice a signal, you could then call out.  I dunno it says 1 minute cranking could power a 30 second phone call.  That isnt much but how hard could it be to crank that ya know... I dunno maybe its pointless but seeing it def made me curious.

 

Your thoughts?

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009OYSMDA/?tag=047-20

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The product itself isnt really what I am curious about.  I am more curious about does it logically make sense to prep with this even tho EMP would render it useless.  Now if it is not EMP then some other possible nuclear strike would take out most towers in our area.  I mean other than luxury is there a reason to have a prep for if conventional electricity goes out, what needs will there be for cell phones.

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Faraday cages aren't as hard to build as people think. Lined metal trash can, lined ammo can, heavy duty tin foil and conductive tape around a shoe box, etc... I have a few electronics in small containers, because how could it hurt if SHTF.

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Having a way of charging your phone is a paramount concern. In a red dawn or some other nonsense scenario its pointless as the wireless networks run on generators until fuel is out, however, in a storm a cellphone is an asset. Post sandy, I used my phone for everything. Kept me informed and sane.

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Telecommunications is just one component of today's "smart phone"  Even if comms go down, a smart phone with the right apps can be an invaluable asset.  GPS may still work, even if gps goes down you still have maps.  Angry birds to help combat boredom, ballistics app to help with those long shots, whether it be a deer or a DPRK grunt. Or just a simple alarm clock. Basically you have a small pocket size computer.

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The product itself isnt really what I am curious about.  I am more curious about does it logically make sense to prep with this even tho EMP would render it useless.  Now if it is not EMP then some other possible nuclear strike would take out most towers in our area.  I mean other than luxury is there a reason to have a prep for if conventional electricity goes out, what needs will there be for cell phones.

 

That makes no sense. First of all of the fear of EMP is remarkably overblown, but lets even say that it isn't. So what? Under every other scenario, including you know .. hurricanes and ice storms the damn thing works. Ok so maybe that one particular one doesn't, but what I mean is that a charging device works and it is useful. That is like saying "Well if the Yellowstone super-volcano goes off your gun would be useless". Yes, that is true, so what?

 

Faraday cages aren't as hard to build as people think. Lined metal trash can, lined ammo can, heavy duty tin foil and conductive tape around a shoe box, etc... I have a few electronics in small containers, because how could it hurt if SHTF.

 

Try it, it is a lot harder then people make it out to be. The simplest test is put a radio inside and crank it up. Specially do that when you are near a radio station. If you can hear your radio, it hasn't really worked. As much as I've said above that EMP is a overblown concern, hardening electronics against EMP is a lot harder then putting them in a small box or some foil.

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I keep a solar charger handy for my ipad because i have created a pdf library of skills and information that would be helpful if not neccessary in a SHTF situation. Everything from food, medical,gardening, power, shleters, survival, maps and anything i can find that could help. Short of an emp it gives me a wealth of info in a tiny portable package. Knwlege is power!

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Anthony Bourdain gave an interview in which he was talking about his show.

 

They visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo and filmed a bunch of the ruins left by Belgium when they pulled out.  They cemented the toilets, and trashed the placed, a bunch of vindictive pricks if ever there was.

 

I'm paraphrasing his quote but  when asked how it was there, in such primitive conditions, he said "There was pretty much no running water anywhere, no toilets, and rarely any electricity and I had 5 bars on my cellphone"

 

While I don't think having portable power is a bad thing, I don't think we'll ever get to a point where the phones don't work.

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http://www.amazon.com/EasyAcc®-12000mAh-Portable-Smartphone-Bluetooth/dp/B008YRG5JQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389803912&sr=8-1&keywords=power+bank

 

Best bang for the buck IMO. I have one of these and a couple small solar ones. Also an 18650 powered flashlight that can juice up a cell phone. 

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Eh? Did you miss Sandy? 

 

Is your phone working now?  the point of the original post was the he seems to want to prepare for The book of Eli or I daresay "The Road", not for a temporary network outage.

 

I dunno about you, but I had electricity just fine and the phone worked the entire time.     Of course, I have a standby generator and a land line, but that wasn't exactly the point of the original post in the thread.   The point of my first post was that even in a deep African hellhole that's probably as primitive as you get these days, they still have phones.  

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Right and my point is for lots of people during Sandy phones did not work. Like mine. I could charge it just fine, as I was charging half the street's phones, but I could do nothing for AT&T's towers being without power. My wife's Verizon phone was fine. 

 

I've seen Bourdain's episode you speak off, and I was amused, but you can have all the power you want for your communication device, it is only useful if the rest of the world can communicate. So yes, by all means have a way to generate power for electronics, but sometimes that is not sufficient. 

 

That is actually why I don't really worry about the EMP scenario. Lets say you managed to protect your radio or your cell or whatever, but who else did? Did the radio station survive? 

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.........

 

That is actually why I don't really worry about the EMP scenario. Lets say you managed to protect your radio or your cell or whatever, but who else did? Did the radio station survive? 

It is also worth noting that most generators have semiconductor components (AVR) and will not survive an EMP unless they are protected.

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Try it, it is a lot harder then people make it out to be. The simplest test is put a radio inside and crank it up. Specially do that when you are near a radio station. If you can hear your radio, it hasn't really worked. As much as I've said above that EMP is a overblown concern, hardening electronics against EMP is a lot harder then putting them in a small box or some foil.

I have, that's how I know mine work, in theory.

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I think people worry too much about their electronic devices. If the power and electronic networks are out you probably have bigger problems like cooling, heating, cooking, security, food loss, water pumps (public or well), sump pumps, sewer systems, vacuums (try sweeping your carpeted floors), coffee maker,  food stores melting, food stores not being stocked due to just in time electronic ordering, no gasoline, no work for lots of people, no cash from ATMs, no credit cards, and oh yeah .. no lights.

 

You guys are worried about your cell or tablet? Buy some books on paper, and print the rest.

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I think people worry too much about their electronic devices. If the power and electronic networks are out you probably have bigger problems like cooling, heating, cooking, security, food loss, water pumps (public or well), sump pumps, sewer systems, vacuums (try sweeping your carpeted floors), coffee maker,  food stores melting, food stores not being stocked due to just in time electronic ordering, no gasoline, no work for lots of people, no cash from ATMs, no credit cards, and oh yeah .. no lights.

 

You guys are worried about your cell or tablet? Buy some books on paper, and print the rest.

My cell phone has a really bright flash light on it......

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I think people worry too much about their electronic devices. If the power and electronic networks are out you probably have bigger problems like cooling, heating, cooking, security, food loss, water pumps (public or well), sump pumps, sewer systems, vacuums (try sweeping your carpeted floors), coffee maker,  food stores melting, food stores not being stocked due to just in time electronic ordering, no gasoline, no work for lots of people, no cash from ATMs, no credit cards, and oh yeah .. no lights.

 

You guys are worried about your cell or tablet? Buy some books on paper, and print the rest.

I've gotta admit, when we've lost power the lack of coffee was one of the toughest parts

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I've gotta admit, when we've lost power the lack of coffee was one of the toughest parts

My phone can do that too..... JK but I do think it would be ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS if someone made an app for the iPads and convinced people it was a working scale.  To see idiots standing on and breaking their ipads would be fantastic

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How many phones have pre-loaded maps as opposed streaming the maps? I know my phone doesn't have several gigs of map data...

You can download pre-loaded maps on to a HDD load it when u need it and use an app on your phone to access it. You realize it cost data to load maps... thats why your phone doesnt have it, that and the additional space requirements.

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An EMP will not destroy everything electronic. The problem with an EMP is that it is a pulse, or wave of elctromagnetic power. Small items will mostly be uneffected, unless they happen to be plugged in at the time of the pulse. The reason the power grid is so succeptible to damage is because it is essentially a giant antenna that will absorb the pulse. Since all parts of the antenna do not absorb the pulse at the same exact time or even at the same rate it will cause large voltage differences across the "antenna" and that is where your damage to microeloctronic circuits become realized.

 

Even a simple faraday cage will work to protect against a pulse, as long as nothing conductive inside is in contact with the outer metallic shell, which acts as an antenna and passes the pulse around the items inside the box.

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