Starvin Larry

One of the fun things about doing a survival blog is that manufacturers and dealers will often send you one of their items to test. I have some definite policies on this. I do not accept money for the review. I get to keep the item. And I will only write an honest evaluation. When Sara of SurvivalHax offered to send me one of their survival shovels I was glad to test it.

Before I discuss the shovel, let’s define what a survival shovel is. For my purposes, it should be lightweight and small enough to fit in a bug out bag. It should be sturdy enough to perform some basic functions. These would include digging a cat hole, digging a fire pit, digging a water run off trench around your shelter, driving tent stakes, and shoveling snow or sand from around a stuck vehicle tires. If you are planning…

A couple used VX-5Rs I picked up VERY cheap, along with an excellent book I highly recommend. These, along with the VX-6R and 7R, can be made work 6m, 2m, 1.25m, and 70cm.

Almost exclusively among the Prepper and Survivalist crowd the first couple bands that get referenced (and used, or at least planned to be used) are the 2m and 70cm, and their MURS and GMRS parallels, respectively. That’s definitely understandable, because the majority of the equipment on the market, especially at the entry-level, for line of sight (LOS) is manufactured for these two bands.

Identifying that fact, we must also understand that sometimes we end up thinking around our equipment, rather than adapting our equipment to our needs. Buying an inexpensive HT or mobile and getting our Tech license (to make the best use of our gear and open the most options