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Common Buzz Words Preppers Use all the Time
Like every niche community, preppers and preparedness folks have their own buzz words and jargon. It can be hard to come in and learn if everyone is using acronyms left and right. I will try to explain in common terms some frequent jargon. Here are the top 12 commonly used prepper buzz words.
- TEOTWAWK:
- The End Of The World As We Know-it
- SHTF:
- Shit Hits The Fan
- EDC: Every Day Carry.
- This encompasses the gear and other things you carry with you every day. The items in your purse, pockets, wrist watch, belt, etc.
- Examples would be a gun, knife, pen, watch, paracord, bandaides, chapstick, etc.
- 9 Steps to Planning Your Every Day Carry Items
- GHB: Get Home Bag.
- A bag to keep in your car or office for when the unexpected disrupts your normal commute home. This bag is often smaller and lightweight, included limited supplies. It is designed to get you home or to another location with more supplies.
- It may include a flashlight, extra socks, and protein bars but is unlikely to include a camp stove or tent.
- Get Home Bag Basics
- BOB: Bug-Out Bag.
- This bag is designed to include everything you need to live in the woods or out of your house for a few days. When SHTF (see above) and you need to get out of the action, you bug-out into the woods for a few days.
- This bag may include a tent, camp stove, food, water and first aid kit.
- 72-hr bag:
- This bag is designed to provide three days of survival while waiting for other relief or aid. It should include everything you NEED to survive for 3 days alone.
- Depending on your situation, it may include food, first aid kit but may not include a tent if you expect to be in your car or house for 3 days. (Example here.)
- 4 Steps to Building a 72hr Bag
- BIB: Bug-In Bag.
- Not a super common term. Similar to a bug-out bag, a bug-in bag includes items you need if you plan to hunker down in one place.
- It may include extra home security measures, plastic for sealing/blocking out windows and vents but may not include a tent or camp stove.
- 7 Tips on Bugging-In for Urban Preppers
- INCH Bag:
- I'm Never Coming Home bag. Things have gotten terrible, and you need to leave your home. This bag includes all the possessions you need and desire if you plan to never return to your home.
- It may include family photos, USB drive of information, extra clothes, first aid kit, extra ammo, fishing rod, trapping snares but may not include large tools or Grandma's beloved tea set.
- FAK: First Aid Kit.
- Contents and size scale with necessity and weight restrictions. (Read about options here.)
- 3 Extra Places for a First Aid Kit
- OpSec: Operation Security.
- Remember "Loose Lips Sink Ships" from the old wars? OpSec is about keeping your mouth shut and your trail covered about your plans. OpSec means not telling the neighbors about your basement full of food without making a plan to share when they come hungry to your door. It means keeping your eyes open for threats and watching your back.
- It may include having multiple hiding locations for supplies, memorizing routes rather than writing them down, secret code words with family or buying things in small quantities to avoid large suspicious purchases.
- EMP: ElectroMagnetic Pulse.
- In general, this unseen pulse short-circuits electronics. In specific terms, an nuclear weapon detonated in the atmosphere would cause a huge unseen pulse that will destroy all electronics in line of sight view of the explosion.
- This will include the starter in your car, digital communications, heart monitors, some pacemakers, coffee machines, cell phone towers, water pumps, airplanes, radios, CD players, literally anything with an electronic chip.
- EMPs may not effect older model cars, batteries, non-LED flashlights, telephone switch boards, or tube radios. Also, anything isolated in a Faraday cage (see below) will be protected.
- Faraday cage:
- A completely enclosed metal box used for protecting electronics from an EMP burst. These can be homemade from a metal trash can or recycled ammo box.
- Contents may include a pair of two-radios, spare solar panels and battery unit, or a tablet with pre-loaded books/information/games.
Anything else you hear and want to know about? What jargon gets tossed around that no-one ever defines? Thanks for stopping by and learning!
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