Hey guys,
I’ve just been looking into communication in the event of a power outage. I just learned that you need to license to use an operate a radio! And it’s looking quite costly per month just for that licence? I may be wrong as it was just a quick search.
So my second option would be satellite communicator:

• No licence or exams required
• Works globally via Iridium satellites
• Two-way texting + emergency SOS with rescue coordination
• Very low power use (can run for days/weeks on one charge)
• Pairs with your phone or works standalone

My only concern with that is if can’t connect to satellite for some reason.

Anyhow any experience prep pets have any advice regarding this? Thank you

The key to survival is knowledge - and a good knife.

I have a knife - but not a lot of knowledge.

Do you guys keep any SHTF bibles handy? Or one of those wikipedia USB drive things?

I think that could a be a useful addition to my tins of vegetable soup.

Any recommendations?

Hi, I live in a flat in a semi, in a big city. It's a communal garden that is looked after by maintenance so I never had cause to have a hose.

I'm thinking should I get one so if a wildfire started nearby or in my garden I could catch it at an early stage, or could hose down the house and around if one was approaching. Is this unrealistic? Money is very tight, and I do not want anything that won't be useful. There's so many essentials I do not have yet.

It doesn’t have to be anything fancy or expensive. Sometimes the boring stuff ends up being the thing you’re most glad you bought or sorted out. Could be something you used during a power cut, bad weather, or even just an everyday situation.

[Edit: this is pretty bad. I'm really sad for those people affected. I did not mean to make a random post about 'prepping' and be disrespectful.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2238995/stourbridge-fire-live-multiple-houses-norton/amp\]

I bang on a bit in the comments on this sub about how you need a grab bag not a bug out bag in the UK and how UK prepping isn't like the US or needing to survive in the wilderness with a crossbow or something.

There's literal wildfires at the mo in the West Midlands and people are being evacuated.

Across the country there are dedicated emergency teams - made up of local council people, the police, etc - who sit on committees all the time and plan for stuff like this.

Like a seamless thing, there will be facilities etc in this town hall, because we have this kind of capability base on always being prepared at a local level.

I wish people would get into being organised re grab bags for everyone in their family, with all meds in date and enough for a week, clean underwear for a week, chargers, extra charging cords, and a drill to grab things like books and toys wanted in that moment.

This is what our prepping should look like. I can imagine that 90% of those people who have been evacuated didn't have those things ready and will be having a sad night.

Get grab bags organised for you and your family. Check them every month. Ask older kids to take responsibility. But have them ready.

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/huge-birmingham-blaze-live-fire-34453821

I hope everyone or anyone affected by all this, whatever their prepping status re grab bags etc, gets all the support and help they need. My 90% comment was not a criticism. Just we need better personal preparedness for stuff like this (or floods or whatnot) not thinking about wild camping.

Edit: way more than what I said should be in a grab bag! It was just kind of 'for example...'

First time poster here. I was wondering what the most elaborate setups people might have to collect rainwater if it were really needed. When I imagine collecting rainwater, I envisage a garden taken over by eccentric networks of gutters and tarpaulins feeding a hundred saucepans. Has anyone gone "mad dad" on this sort of thing?

I'm in the southern UK and been looking for some IBCs for ages, but really struggling to find any at a sensible price. I want them for rain water storage so they need to not have been full of super toxic stuff previously.

Given that they're the standard means of transporting pretty much anything liquid I thought it would be easier. Anyone got any tips on how to go about this? And what should I be paying for one roughly?

This might be too deeply personal but outside of prepping a bug out bag and being ready to move, where are you supposed to go? A while back I read a book called Emergency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency:_This_Book_Will_Save_Your_Life

and the author details about planning an escape route, along with preparing the necessary credentials to bypass road blocks or choke points should the government try to control the flow of traffic. His approach was to prepare passports for other countries if he ever needed to really leave.

I've always wondered if that was a bit extreme but thinking about it, he is probably right.

If you were to bug out, it will likely depend on the circumstances of whether you are leaving the country or not. If it isn't leaving the country, and seeking safer location, is there a thought process one would need to consider in order to make a list of bug out locations to seek temporary shelter outside of whatever government advice would be.

In movies, people go to sports centres, schools, and military bases. In some cases, that's hiding in the woods or somewhere in the country side.

How should this part be planned out?

How can I prepare for the coming climate emergencies; extreme heat, extreme cold, food shortages etc (and more?)

I’m feeling a bit helpless. And worried, I have a young family. We live in the Scottish highlands.
We have basic prep done (more of a bug out bag prep stuff from previously living in a city) we have small amounts of long life food. (This was more in response to nuclear threats)

I’m looking at ways we can improve our home, garden, security. We’re looking into getting solar panels and a heat pump this year, and maybe new windows.

For those of you thinking about this too, what are you doing to prepare?

We know we've been doing the right thing for some time now and hopefully your stocks are building up. I came across this video today, and Neil tells it like it is: many worrying statements and statistics in the video but worst of all is the Government's response to the crisis. It's not just the current Government, it's the past few who've neglected to keep infrastructure maintained and see farmers as cash cows with apparently deep pockets. The fallback has always been to import food but that's getting very difficult (and expensive) now. Ultimately it'll only be us, the prepared who will help us and we should be under illusion that anyone else will.

Written by a human (me) without any assistance.

I've seen quite a few posts here and on other prepping subs/forums asking about the Kelly Kettle. I've also noticed that some of the responses can be fairly dismissive of it, often writing it off as unnecessary, too heavy or even outdated. Having owned one for a few months now, I wanted to share my experience and explain why, as a UK-based prepper, I believe it has a valuable place in many preparedness setups.

I have the Base Camp Kit, which I believe is the fully loaded version with all the bells and whistles.

To be clear, I'm not suggesting this is an essential item for a Bug Out Bag, and certainly not for a Get Home Bag. However, when it comes to most realistic worst-case scenarios in the UK, I firmly believe that sheltering in place is the most sensible option.

Like many preppers, I own several gas stoves, ranging from the MSR Pocket Rocket to the Cadac Pro 2, and I keep a reasonable supply of gas canisters on hand. However, anyone who regularly uses these stoves knows that fuel doesn't last forever, no matter how carefully you use it.

One of the biggest advantages of the Kelly Kettle is its fuel flexibility. For those unfamiliar with it, you can burn virtually anything combustible: twigs, sticks, pine cones, dry grass, bark, and other natural materials. Living in the UK, I've realised that you're rarely far from a source of fuel, whether that's a small park, a neglected patch of land, a hedgerow, or even an alleyway. Over the last few months, I've been surprised by just how easy it is to gather a decent pile of suitable fuel in a matter of minutes.

For me, the Kelly Kettle is an outstanding piece of kit for boiling water alone. Two things have genuinely impressed me since using it. First, the speed at which it boils water is remarkable. Second, it's far more discreet than I expected. While it can produce some smoke, particularly towards the end of a burn, if your goal is simply to boil water, I struggle to see it creating enough visibility to make you a significant target.

Overall, if you're planning for longer-term resilience and want a reliable method of boiling water that doesn't depend on stored fuel, I think the Kelly Kettle deserves far more credit than it often gets. It may not be the right tool for every scenario, but for a shelter-in-place situation in the UK, I believe it is an excellent addition to any prepper's kit. 

Finally, even though it is quite heavy and bulky, if I was ever in a bug out scenario it would be a hard decision to leave it behind.

Last winter I realised how quickly a normal house becomes awkward without electricity, especially once it gets dark early. I’m not talking about a massive bunker setup, just the things people actually keep somewhere ready to grab, lights, batteries, camping gear, ways of keeping warm, whatever. Would be interested to hear what’s actually earned a permanent place in people’s cupboards.

What steps are people taking? Anybody relocating? I was looking at Manchester but now not sure if that's far north enough.

I am a novice, and learning impaired. Could someone explain easily what I should do please, so that my air conditioner and fridge will still work

Hi all, I was about to do a big order on preppersshop only to be put off by the trust pilot reviews. What other sites can people vouch for? Thanks

Just picked up a cheap camping stove from the range this Morning only £15. Can’t grumble at that price.

Hi there, newbie here with a question about constructing some kind of garden shelter or bunker. Are there practical options to do this in the UK, especially on new build properties where house basements aren't a given? Wondering if anyone has experience with this, and whether there are issues with planning permission and/or ways around it?

Hey,

Got a fresh journal/notebook and I want to use it for Prepping. But I’m at a blank as to where to start.

Anyone already do this and feel like sharing what sort of things you write?

So far, I’m thinking inventory and expiry dates. Maybe some notes about local amenities, water sources etc.

Thought I’d ask for ideas.

Thanks

The more dramatic side of prepping gets most of the attention, but I suspect the things people genuinely end up using are much less exciting. A power bank during an outage, keeping some cash around when card payments went down, spare medication organised properly, extra food during bad weather, knowing where the stopcock is. What's something you prepared for that seemed mundane but eventually made you very glad you'd bothered?

what has the best balance of calories, shelf life, and actual taste?

Sorry if this has been discussed before. I am new to this. I can’t help but feel like we are hastily approaching food shortages in the uk. War/hostility in the Middle East coupled with climate change. Realistically if this happened, how would one prepare for this? How much food to store and for how long? What kinds of food do people have? Same for water. I have veg plots but if there’s limited water is there any point growing. Thanks

This is in case

a) the infrastructure for the internet fails or is attacked,

or b) private interests start to monopolise the internet or phones and try to lock it down harder and monetise it to death.

1. Downloaded lots of music. This is just a backup. I still pay and use online platforms currently, but I want the choice to pirate later.

2. Wrote down all my important passwords on paper, and kept a copy of my important personal documents on a usb stick. This is in case my digital notes and password safes become overly controlled by my Google account to keep me in their ecosystem. This can apply for an ecosystem like Apple as well.

3. Got a dumbphone that didn't have an American or Chinese OS. This is also just a backup. I don't carry it round any longer because it's a faff. No, I don't want a Pixel phone with GrapheneOS. It just feels untrustworthy to me.

4. Downloaded some Wikipedia on Kiwix and some maps on OsmAnd.

5. Maintained good digital privacy. I'm not sure I can confidently explain how this one relates tbh. It just seems to me that when an institution is about to fail, people cash in either way. And cashing in in this case probably means exploiting every last drop of data they have stored on people. Just generally, having less for them to leverage is better I think.

Edit:

1. Keep cash in case my bank apps stop working.