had a call this morning from one of my good friends Ben over at the simper Gumby Channel I'll have it linked down below he told me about the cell phone outage uh that there were a lot of people that were just out of service most of this is happening in the South and the southeast but it's 54% of AT&T's customers are having disruptions onethird have no signal whatsoever my phone right now is reading SOS could AT&T get this back up I hope they do but it does affect a large amount of people whether it's business or personal or an emergency 8% are not even having mobile web service on their phone so we are so dependent on our phones I mean they are convenient they're great I mean this is a really nice computer that we have right in our hand but what happens when that goes down you know we're seeing it right now in real time and if they get it back great if they don't then what are we going to do again so dependent on our phones for news for entertainment but even more importantly for 911 calls which is a problem in fact there were a number of counties that told their citizens they said don't use the 911 service instead use a text and you text in your problem whatever it is which is much slower and then what if text is down so how are you going to take care of the different issues that can arise when you need a phone you know guys pay phones used to be on every corner uh we all had landlines in our home I mean the the phone service you know was across the country yes we had outages at times if the polls were knocked down or something happened but there were ways to get to phones if you need to make a call it was very inconvenient compared to what we do today but let's look back at some things and see what is a great way to be prepared for no Communications first off is of obviously having a landline at your home my parents are terrible about not having their phones around and we installed a landline just because it would ring and they would know where the phone is it was right there in one place and that's through cable which is digital but let's say you don't have internet what do you do but landlines are definitely something that make a good backup in case your sales service is out but then to get the news having a good radio a lot of times we've kind of gone away from Radio we have Bluetooth we have you know Amazon music or whatever kind of music service we have and so having a radio and having to listen to to commercials is inconvenient so a lot of times you know we have ways to circumvent and we may not even have a radio first off I highly recommend having an emergency radio um I have a number of those that are actually solar hand cranked rechargeable batteries and that way I can get information it has the weather station where I can get any kind of emergency weather it also has shortwave which is you know a little bit different and outside of the norm but it's something that you can utilize in case of an emergency if you don't have sales service and you don't have internet you're not even going to know what's going on and really that is one of the biggest fears it strikes fear in people when they have no idea what's happening around them now there are even more methods where we're getting down to ham radio which is a great source with repeaters and being able to contact people even walkie-talkies or two-way family radios gives you some way of communication back and forth but it is very limited and CB same thing it's a great way to to communicate but again it's very limited ham is probably one of the best options and also satellite telephones it's a great way to be able to hook up to the satellite link to be able to get to different people um especially if you're in an area where there is no sales service but guys coms are very important communication is vital and knowing what's going on and being aware so you can make the right decision so really one of the first things that I would recommend is having alternate communication systems now let's say you're traveling or or you're just on the road and you have Maps pulled up you know Google Maps are great or ways and that's what I really like to use um but that way I know exactly what's going on I have all the communication and everything and I don't even pay attention half the time to where I'm going because it's just what it says is what I'm doing and it's kind of dangerous honestly it's good to know uh if you didn't have sales service which I've had that before where I've actually not had sales service and been in an area where I didn't know where I was going and didn't have internet and so having a map a standard physical map you can get them at truck stops you can get them at gas stations a lot of times they're less frequent to find than they used to be but having a good map knowing where you are and figuring it out and guys we have maps in all of our cars I have them in my GO bags get home bag bugout bag and those Maps fairly reasonable you can even order them online and you can have maps and I talked about having Maps it's a very important thing right now it's extremely important now I still have Wi-Fi and so I can get online and look around but let's say I don't and With A disruption with the sales service Wi-Fi could be one thing that we could also have a disruption with and so making sure that you have Maps put aside now 911 that's a big one and you know with our sales service if something were to happen you may have a medical emergency where you need help and how do you get that help how do you get an ambulance out to your house if you don't have sales service and again going back to Communications at least having a landline you might be able to get in touch with someone so with medical making sure that you have a trauma kit uh trauma is typically the reason why we're calling 911 in a medical situation CPR training having training get going to classes learning guys you are responsible for your own medical safety and when it comes to things that could be life-threatening you need to have at least a way to be able to prolong their life in case something traumatic happens but having medical supplies knowing how to use them get the training that's vital for everyday life but in a grid down situation which this is a somewhat of a grid down situation is having your medical taken care of I get my medical supplies from medical Outfitters which is skinny Medics Channel but also usn do is amp 3.net and that's a great resource David is a medical doctor and he has put together some really cool kits in fact with both of those you get a 10% discount using suit 0000 which makes it really nice then if you have an emergency where you need the police what do you do well first off making sure that you have your self-defense protocols in line making sure that you have a firearm making sure that you that it's loaded that you know how to use it uh you know you are responsible for your self-defense and if there's ever a problem a Breakin a home invasion whatever it is is making sure that you have a way to protect you and your family and your possessions what you've worked very hard for and then there's fire what if you have a fire when you don't have sales service what do you do so first thing is to make sure you have things there fire extinguishers one thing that we just bought were these big mats and when have a kitchen fire you take the big mat it's a fireproof mat you throw it on the fire and it's Smothers it and it takes away the oxygen uh but having different ways to be able to not only just to save your home but also to save your family's lives and to be able to get out making sure your smoke detectors are either hooked up to the system or they're battery operated or you have some sort of smoke detection especially fire extinguishers making sure that they are up to dat that they're within code and they're not old one thing about fire is to have a plan with your family uh if you have a fire have a designated point where you're going to meet because sometimes you may or may not be able to get to everyone in the house and they still may be able to get out but you don't know that they're out and that puts you in danger few years ago there was a man who he and his family house caught on fire they got outside their two-year-old little girl they couldn't find her the man went back in and the house collapsed on him and he killed him un knowing to them their daughter was in the backyard she had gotten out of the house so if they had known that everything would have turned out really well also if you have a second story making sure you have a ladder that you can drop down to get out and Escape if you can't go through your the normal ways of your home so guys while this hopefully will pass be able to have communications without any problem which is beautiful it's a wonderful convenient thing you need to be prepared to be able to handle things when technology fails and with hacking and terrorism and cyber attacks and all the different things that can happen guys you really need to have backups be strong be of good courage God Bless America long live the [Music] republic now one beautiful thing about the fall being out is that you'll actually be able to talk to your teenagers actually had a message from a good friend of mine um in fact it's simper Gumby uh in fact mine right now is saying SOS so what do we do um a lot of problems a lot of things God Bless America long live the republic and guys honestly without Self Service take a break and enjoy it