I’ve been asked over the last few weeks while I’ve had very little time to work on these sites why I bother to do any work at all on them. I make no money, I invest my time on the upkeep and my own money on the hosting and get nothing tangible in return. So why do I do it?
First of all I have been prepping for a very long time. All my information was gathered from US sites and although gun orientated the advice was good and the people, in general, were helpful. The sort of people you would like if you met them and I built up some good friendships. Then I got married and although I kept prepping I reduced my time with my contacts until I had lost contact with them all. Family and kids cam first.
Many, many moons later I got divorced and started to rebuild my contacts, all of my US contacts were long gone with obsolete email addresses and usenames. I then tried to make contact with some of the old UK scene and the same problem occured. My contacts were zero. I still had all my books, plenty of files and the knowledge I had built up. Now coupled with my experience I was in a much better position than I was all those years ago. I thought I would share that knowledge and help new starters seeing the state of the country and the decline in our society.
I then looked around and I couldn’t find any UK sites, plenty of US sites but no UK ones. At the time I hadn’t looked that hard as there was a couple out there and I missed them. I’m clearly not the world’s best Googler. So I decided to set up my own and help UK people prepare for what may come. Taking data from US sites and converting to UK requirements and creating brand new content specifically for the UK. So leaving my political ranting behind I set up Survival UK, purchasing the domain names and designing the site format. Planning ahead to include a forum, a file repository and a shop.
It has now grown so that I have nearly a thousand regular readers of this site, ironically more since I reduced posting, and 260 registered users of the forum.
I’m not just sharing the information that I have but I’m learning from the calibre of the people on here many of whom I have met in my travels around the UK. I’ve made some good contacts, people whom I could trust and build relationships with. People are helping me with the site in various ways including several significant contributions and things are looking OK. My starting criterion is that nobody abuses anyone else, and so far that hasn’t really happened and the users contribute and share what they know if they can. All in all things are going according to plan, just quite a way behind my estimates and that is down to the time I intended to spend on here but didn’t. I’m still comfortable though because I’m passing back to the community and enabling a group bigger than any individual part. Between us we can solve anything.
That is why I do it and I’ll keep going while it is a positive influence to so many people. As work releases it’s grip I’ll spend more time writing and contributing and next up is the long delayed file store and a few more visits to preppers.
One thing that is different on this site is the number of regulars who contribute compared to those that just read. The ratio is much lower than is usual for web sites and I’ve always wondered why. I can only conclude that it is because we are supplying the information in an easily readable format and the readers don’t need to ask questions because the regulars do. That they are still learning and feel there is nothing new to add or they feel that adding nothing is a waste. After all reading any of the regular sites most comments don’t add to the debate. Regardless of your reasons I hope you get what you want and as I’ve said before feel free to email me if you have any questions. Don’t be shy we all started with a thought we should do something and no idea where to start. We are here to help all who are looking to prepare for anything the future holds for us.
It is becoming something more than its hard core of active posters, its becoming an archive, a starting point for new preppers to find help and info, a place for displaced peppers from less tolerant and more repressive forums to stay connected,its its helping individual families and preppers to link up with other like minded people, AND IT DOES IT FREELY, WITHOUT CHARGE, WITHOUT RESTRICTION and WITHOUT elitism. Contencious debate is encouraged,experimental subject matter encouraged, self governance endorsed.
Long may it bloom and grow and flourish
Still reckon the header logo looks like a compost heap though ! 🙂
Silent readers should think seriously about contributing.
Everyone has a skill be it practical, theoretical, or just knowledge gained from life experience.
Skills which a lot of us would love to learn from.
In a world of confusion and worry, the knowledge you can learn from sites like this is priceless and the more folk contribute the better it will get.
Thanks SD,
Paul & SWMBO.
Firstly – thankyou SD for this great endeavour. Had it not been for your making the subject English rather than from the ‘wild west’ I doubt that I would have become a ‘regular’.
Also I have to agree, in the main, with the above replies.
In an emergency a compost heap could be a nice warm place to be?
Thanks for the nice comments. It is good that the site, and it’s contributors, are providing information that is of use to UK preppers.
NR knows perfectly well it is a debris hut, a place to live in the woods. Having people think it is a compost heap is good OPSEC. Thus I still maintain it is a good header for this site. In saying that I’m not married to it and if someone has a banner I like better I’ll go with that.
Coming up to our second birthday in January. May have to do something special now we can toddle.
I think this is a site that requires little questioning from even newbies because if anybody has a question, you get at least several different ways of doing what the question was about.
One of the answers being the suitable one for the questioner.
I myself find I take parts of the answers that people give and make them fit my situation if I’ve got no clue myself.
Or I personally ask questions if I’m seeking to confirm or deny what I’m already thinking.
I think prepping has reached the stage where nearly every question can be answered by you tube or flicking through multiple sites or even just googling it.
OR my personally favorite theorem is that we’re just the best site out there with the most intelligent preppers who don’t really need to ask many questions and when we do are far superior in our intellect and can grasp the answer far better and far faster than the plebs on the other sites…
On some subject I find I always get clear, concise, well researched and thought out responses to any questions I pose, but on others like Radio comms I find it almost impossible to get a simple clear straight forward answer, and though to a point I can throw off technobabble I fear some folks new to prepping will become overwhelmed by the tech talk and insurmountable answers.
I find myself now completely rerigging my prep plans to do away with any two way radio system because this subject if often deliberately over complicated by those with the technical skills, or they either accidentally or deliberately choose to ignore the question I ask and give me a reply they think I should hear!!!
EG I deliberately posted a very simple clear and concise question asking if someone could SELL me an antenna or direct me to a seller of the type of antenna I needed, I got every possible answer imaginable EXCEPT the one I wanted, And I got told I did not KNOW what question I wanted answering as well, plus loads of technobabble as well.
Planning, Risk assessment, Logistics, Transport, Medicine, Security, Power Generation, Clothing and Kit, Medical, Education, Homesteading etc all are well sourced and well served, but Comms consistantly causes me nothing but extra hardship so to save time, money, effort and sanity I’m dropping radio comms and rendezvous from my planning as the outlay is now rewarded with results.
this is the best site out there!!!. i would love to contribute to this site but it has taken me twenty minutes to type these few lines one fingered. i have a vast amount of knowlege about growing food,storing it,but writing it all down on this bloody computer has me baffled,so paul i will just stick to reading and learning for a while
Just wanted to say a big thanks aswell, this site is both informative and inspirational. I’m quite new to prepping in comparison to a lot of you guys ang girls and I realy do find the threads on here usefull you can rest assured if I have anything i think you guys may find interesting il be sure to post
Cheers Dan
Fantastic site, not a loon to be seen and no blatant venting of opinion, politics or conceit. Clear community spirit evident and a LOT of work has clearly gone in so well done. I’m ex Mil, now a Registered nurse in the U.K. and where appropriate (and legal) would be happy to give advice, medical or otherwise to any interested parties. Remember, this would be in the context of TEOTWAWKI, otherwise just see your GP or Casualty dept. If society collapses, I wouldnt need to worry about losing my registration for giving out health advice, treating or suggesting a raid for supplies from the nearest…..place stocked with medical supplies:-)) (last bit was tongue in cheek your Honour)
I believe the reason you bother with this site is because of neccessity.
There is a definate need for this site, others have tried and frankly the information isnt worth much or is just basic common sense.
Your time and dedication to this subject is obvious through the wealth of information that is gathered in one place.
This is the reason people use this site, and this is the reason you carry on.
Neccessity always gives birth to reason
Id say youve got a pretty good reason.
As for the amount of regular readers but not many bothering to respond.
Not all readers will be active preppers, some will be but dont consider themselves as preppers.
and after a lot of bad press in america making out that preppers are all gun nuts, or crazy people, I assume a lot are just keeping their heads down.
Although from personal experience of my attempts to contribute, Maybe others find it intimidating. Maybe not.
sometimes it takes many people to make one person listen.
but often it only takes one person to make many stay silent.
Northern Raider.
regarding your attempts at setting up a communication system using radio.
its a pretty good idea, and probably the best solution since CB radios can be ran on 12v car batteries that can be solar charged.
i think the reason you are not getting the information you require regarding ariels etc. is this
years ago in the 80s there was a craze of cbs, everyone had one. it caused the airwaves to become clogged leading to alsorts of problems.
recently these frequencies have been cleared for other uses.
some of them you wouldnt believe.
The people you have been trying to get the info from are probably members of an amateur radio club of some sort.
these people all remember the poor signals of the eighties when everyone was fighting and amplifying their signals causing disruption to others.
they dont want to return to those days, and they are quiet happy keeping the air to themselves.
As for the question regarding ariel.
in the 80s we used a 12ft di-pole ariel situated in the loft. i live in teeside, and on days of good weather we often reached france. although most of the time it would only be as far as the other side of yorkshire.
not very usefull info but i hope it helps a little.
I am also interested in comunications systems.
Most of the good debate and ” chit chat” is on the main forum
yup thanks for the help northern raider,
I was trying to register but kept going round in circles.
then i read that you have to send email to request registration.
serves me right for not reading the page properly.