magine this: A major disaster has struck the United States/world and you’ve implemented your survival plan. You know how to start fires, use solar power to run lights and small electronics, and finally cracked open those emergency food stores. Things are going great.
But as you probably imagine, things aren’t going great for a lot of the population. For those that didn’t plan or prep the post-SHTF world can be pretty terrifying and dangerous. Without grocery stores and Costco’s for them to get their food and supplies from, their next best option is to steal it from someone who did prepare.
With lights out across the nation and pantries drying up too quickly, these people could very well come looking for, well, you. So how will they find you? The easiest ways to find someone in a post-SHTF scenario or a survival scenario as a whole is by sound and light. With the power out things get very dark and very quiet at night. That means that your generator will sound like an air raid siren in the perfect quiet and your solar-powered lights will look like a lighthouse to anyone that’s scanning the countryside.
The answer is to practice light and noise discipline to make sure that you’re as low-key and hidden as possible as to not attract attention that you definitely don’t want. Remember, the easiest battle to win is one that never starts.
Light Discipline
Have you ever noticed how hard it is to see the starts at night when you’re in a well-lit residential area or city? Now think about how they look when you get out of the city and into the middle of nowhere. The starts don’t get brighter, your eyes just have less light pollution competing with their light, so it’s a lot easier to see them.In a survival situation this is true as well. Something as small as a pen light or even a cigarette burning can be as bright as a halogen bulb if it’s the only light that’s visible. That means the single light you have on in your house that run’s off of solar-powered batteries would be blindingly bright in the pitch black; which means a lot of unwanted attention.
RELATED: 5 Emergency Candles you can make Right Now
Tips for Practicing Light Discipline:
Hide light inside your house – It’s not feasible to live without light when it gets dark out, so how can you keep safe while being able to see? The easiest way is to obscure any windows, doors, or other openings completely so no light can escape. This means hanging black-out curtains around your entryway so light doesn’t escape when you enter and exit, blocking windows up 100%, and covering anything else that lets light escape.You can work on this one right now. Turn on the lights in your house one night and try to block them out completely. Next, go outside and look carefully for any light escaping at all. Take note of where you see light seeping through and make sure that you take care of that in an emergency situation.
No nighttime fires – If you have to be told that a fire is easy to see at night, you’re probably not long for the post-SHTF world. Do your cooking during the day and let your fire bur itself down over the night If you need one, you can make a fire pit to hide the fire if you need it.
Conceal handheld lights – Flashlights and lanterns are great for finding your way around, but they’re terrible for light discipline. Every bug out bag should have a flashlight and headlamp in it, but while these are necessary for survival, they can lead trouble right to you.
Cover reflective items – Running shoes, weapons, and other everyday carry items have reflective surfaces that can shine in the smallest of light sources. That means the shoes that you wear to keep from getting hit by a car at night can too easily give away your position. Cover them with paint or black tape to make sure you stay hidden when you want to.
http://www.survivalbased.com/survival-blog/5107/the-importance-of-light-discipline
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.