This list only includes items which are not mentioned on the other pages, like “food” or “water”.

minimal / essential

  • headlamps and inspection lamps
  • 100x AA and AAA batteries
  • camping USB solar chargers with battery (50-100€)
  • 50x lighter
  • 3x tarpaulin
  • 10x zip ties
  • 5x wet wipes
  • ziplock bags
  • 10x duct tape
  • 10x bicycle tire
  • paracord of various sizes
  • cargo bikes, bike trailers and large carts
  • a variety of tools, like hammers, nails, bolt cutter, cordless angle grinder, etc.
  • cordless drill, screws, drills
  • pry bar
  • large axe
  • fire extinguisher
  • paper roadmap
  • 2x 10W Baofeng ham radio walkie talkie (UV-13 V2 or similar)
  • double-sized antennas for walkie talkies
  • printout of common frequencies and frequency plans
  • several more 200L plastic barrels
  • 10x liquid (dish washing) soap
  • 500kg FIBC bags or similar
  • sturdy warm clothing an shoes for winter
  • blankets
  • 3L denatured alcohol

Walkie talkies of any type transmit speech unencrypted. CTCS and DCS modes block your own devices from receiving other devices, not the other way around. For your own communication, you should use the far end of the Baofeng frequency band that inferior devices or devices with region-locked firmware (Aliexpress has unlocked, Amazon might be locked) often cannot receive (e.g. above 512Mhz). Scanning hundreds of channels at the same time requires special equipment that next to no one has. On the other hand, as long as you press the button, anyone can listen in on your conversation if they scan through all of the possible channels sequentially and hit your channel in this moment. For Baofeng UV-13 there are almost ten thousand channels, which makes it highly unlikely to get noticed. For cheaper 0.5W devices like PMR446 there are only about 20 channels, which take a few seconds to scan. This is why you should only speak very very briefly, and ideally in code and without accent or mannerisms while not using a common 0.5W device. Never reveal names, locations or other details. Programming channels into these devices and toying with them will keep you busy for a week. In a city, the range of a 10W device can vary by particular location from 4km to 12km. A 0.5W device might have less than 1km of range. Double-sized antennas can extend the range anywhere from 25-100%. Ideal conditions, such as open fields and mountain or roof tops, can possibly increase the range by an order of magnitude. A “repeater” is a station operated by radio amateurs, which sits in an ideal spot and allows communication over a certain channel that needs to be configured in a special way. Sometimes those repeaters are chained together and allow communication across the country. If you want to listen on others, try to tune in on repeaters, PMR446 channels and around designated emergency channels from your country’s frequency plan.

optional / advanced

  • 60L steel barrels for gasoline and diesel to escape or maintain car
  • serious grid-independent solar setup (300-1000W panels) with multiple 100Ah+ batteries
  • crank / pedal generator for charging + 12V batteries
  • mains power charger for your solar setup
  • chain saw
  • woodstove

Important note on diesel and fuel: In EU countries, diesel expires after 6-12 months due to the added biodiesel. Severe damage to your engine from sludge is quite likely after that time period. Additives don’t really make a big difference. However, heating oil is perfectly equivalent to diesel and might not contain biodiesel. Hence its shelf life would still be about 10 years. Gasoline can be used for many years without engine damage, but its combustible energy degrades steadily with time and it might stop being viable after 3-5 years. In an emergency, diesel engines can also directly run on clean vegetable oil or waste motor oil, but for longevity it is not recommended.

Solar basics: Panels are not a usable power source on their own, and always need to charge batteries with an extra device (sometimes all-in-one only in camping panels). You need an inverter to convert to mains power voltage, or devices that power with the specific voltage of your setup (12V or 24V, rarely more). 36V panels can charge 24V or 12V, 18V panels can only charge 12V if they are not wired in series. Beware that efficiency can drop to as low as 1% of max panel wattage in winter in the northern hemisphere. Batteries on the other hand don’t store a whole lot of power. So you might quickly run out of it in a matter of days or hours, if there is little sun. You might be able to run a small fridge with a 300W panel setup and maybe a very energy-efficient freezer with a 1500W panel setup, but only barely and not with a all-year guarantee. Cooking water and rice is possible, but as a rule of thumb you should always use gas for heat generation and never use solar, because of the extreme power demand. Microwaves run on most 4000W inverters (which only have 2000W continuous output), while water cookers usually need 3000W inverters (1500W actual). Batteries degrade in quality with time, especially due to deep discharges, and may need to be replaced after as little as 4 years (lead-acid). For maximum longevity, never discharge below 60-80%. This would equal to 4x 75Ah batteries for just running a small AAA+ fridge under ideal sun conditions and several more batteries if you use power more extensively. A 100W panel setup with battery and inverter can mostly only run lights, USB charging and small electronics. It costs about 300 Euros. A 1000W panel setup with 6x 100Ah batteries and 3000W inverter costs about 2000 Euros. Economically it makes more sense to use oversized panels, because panels don’t really degrade, last 25 years minimum and can compensate for degraded batteries, especially in winter. Beware of fantasy values for Wattage on Amazon/Aliexpress and gross exaggerations about battery longevity by enthusiasts and industry. Any grid rooftop solar panels can be retrofitted to charge car batteries with a solar charger, however they are basically useless without those two components.

Diesel generators: Are very loud and they consume a lot of diesel, which is expensive and will quickly run out. Unless you are willing to stockpile ridiculous quantities of it. However they do produce a lot of power reliably, such as 2000-4000W, which solar most certainly does not. Used generators are also very cheap. Running a diesel generator will certainly attract thieves. So this is only something to potentially consider in a rural location, e.g. to pump water or as a backup to solar.

DIY pedal and crank chargers: require uncommon components, which need to be bought and build before the fact. However after the fact, it is rather difficult if not unfeasible to improvise common devices, such as car alternators or power drills, to reasonably charge 12V batteries. Most instructions on Youtube and Facebook are fake, will not work as expected and rather damage your components. You will be shocked how much muscle power you have to put into charging just a small USB power bank or phone. It takes somewhere between 300-500kcal to charge a small USB power bank that can charge a phone 2-3x times, about the same energy as traveling 15km by bicycle. This is why hand-cranking is not very sustainable. Pedal powered generators used to be DIY only (build instructions), but for a quite hefty price (+300 Euros), you can now also buy some on Amazon. They could prove very useful in addition to a camping solar panel, but they have challenging economics when building/buying and operating them.

digital

Phones and especially books should be considered as unreliable and too time consuming to toy with in a survival scenario. They are not immediately useful, but it also can’t really hurt to have them and it depends on the situation.

  • 256GB SD card
  • phones that can read NTFS or exFAT formatted cards (e.g. Samsung, Xiaomi)
  • offline Wikipedia with images (100GB file), Kiwix file & Kiwix APK
  • Maps.me with maps downloaded to SD card (use vrishatech APK Extractor & Split APK Installer)
  • survival / prepping books collections (can be found on The Pirate Bay)
  • ripped websites for Kiwix reader
  • prepper Kiwix files from their library (more)