Those Canadian plans are good, but they seemed geared for the short term(few weeks) surviving till help arrives. The sad thing about the power grid failing is that there isn't likely to be any help for months or even if the failure is only limited to say 50 percent.
If your planning on moving to safety after a failure I'd suggest buying a cheap 40 Channel CB radio and a magnet mount antenna with coax and maybe a 3 watt 12 volt solar panel wrap the radio and solar panel in several plastic bags and set them in a metal box.(Make sure the radio's power cord has a plug for your vehicle's power point.)
I'd also recommend you include enough parts to make it easy to take any 12 volt battery and connect the radio to it without needing a battery on a car.
Any 12 volt battery and a flat metal surface with a little work will let you set up the CB radio above and talk to local CB's and also be very likely to hear "skip" from coast to coast.
I'd suggest having a CB and Magnet mount antenna for every vehicle your family may use when trying to travel. Plug them into the vehicles 12 volt power point run the coax out a open window and stick the magnet on the roof.
Also remember that during any sort of failure the general chaos is probably going to reduce your vehicles range by at least 50% so you need to take that into account if you plan on moving to safety.
I mentioned the plastic wrapped radio in a metal box above, that was from something I've seen recommended as a cheap easy idea for the police and fire departments to have stuck back in case of a EMP nuclear device was detonated. The idea was to have cheap working 2 way radios for the working vehicles..
Think all modern vehicles, especially all the modern computer controlled cars have no chance of working after a EMP attack?
Read the article at the link below for some ideas how a modern vehicle might react to a EMP.
http://www.futurescience.com/emp/vehicles.html
At the very least, If a EMP stopped your car it's worth pulling your battery cable and waiting 5 to 60 minutes, the article says it only needs to be disconnected for a moment, but my personal experience with computers both on 12 volt and 120 volt system power systems is that a momentary disconnect usually isn't enough to fully clear the computer, especially if it was disrupted by something as powerful as say a nearby lightning strike.
I read through the Canadian list and they are good, but seems a little biased by "politically correctness" I'd suggest adding a hatchet and a folding blade wood saw. I'd also recommend a couple large(11 inch or greater) Fresnel lens magnifiers, a couple of small(50 to 80 pound) crossbow pistols and several extra strings for them.
Even if you have a hunting bow and firearms a squirrel or rabbit won't be worth a bullet let alone the 3 or 4 it's likely to take most people, but using 3 or 4 cut down wooden dowels or whittled out branches wouldn't be a bad price for a squirrel or rabbit and the noise won't attract nearly as much attention.
HDM
Edited to hopefully remove wall of text problem. Every time I check a post it turns my message into a wall of text..
If your planning on moving to safety after a failure I'd suggest buying a cheap 40 Channel CB radio and a magnet mount antenna with coax and maybe a 3 watt 12 volt solar panel wrap the radio and solar panel in several plastic bags and set them in a metal box.(Make sure the radio's power cord has a plug for your vehicle's power point.)
I'd also recommend you include enough parts to make it easy to take any 12 volt battery and connect the radio to it without needing a battery on a car.
Any 12 volt battery and a flat metal surface with a little work will let you set up the CB radio above and talk to local CB's and also be very likely to hear "skip" from coast to coast.
I'd suggest having a CB and Magnet mount antenna for every vehicle your family may use when trying to travel. Plug them into the vehicles 12 volt power point run the coax out a open window and stick the magnet on the roof.
Also remember that during any sort of failure the general chaos is probably going to reduce your vehicles range by at least 50% so you need to take that into account if you plan on moving to safety.
I mentioned the plastic wrapped radio in a metal box above, that was from something I've seen recommended as a cheap easy idea for the police and fire departments to have stuck back in case of a EMP nuclear device was detonated. The idea was to have cheap working 2 way radios for the working vehicles..
Think all modern vehicles, especially all the modern computer controlled cars have no chance of working after a EMP attack?
Read the article at the link below for some ideas how a modern vehicle might react to a EMP.
http://www.futurescience.com/emp/vehicles.html
At the very least, If a EMP stopped your car it's worth pulling your battery cable and waiting 5 to 60 minutes, the article says it only needs to be disconnected for a moment, but my personal experience with computers both on 12 volt and 120 volt system power systems is that a momentary disconnect usually isn't enough to fully clear the computer, especially if it was disrupted by something as powerful as say a nearby lightning strike.
I read through the Canadian list and they are good, but seems a little biased by "politically correctness" I'd suggest adding a hatchet and a folding blade wood saw. I'd also recommend a couple large(11 inch or greater) Fresnel lens magnifiers, a couple of small(50 to 80 pound) crossbow pistols and several extra strings for them.
Even if you have a hunting bow and firearms a squirrel or rabbit won't be worth a bullet let alone the 3 or 4 it's likely to take most people, but using 3 or 4 cut down wooden dowels or whittled out branches wouldn't be a bad price for a squirrel or rabbit and the noise won't attract nearly as much attention.
HDM
Edited to hopefully remove wall of text problem. Every time I check a post it turns my message into a wall of text..