Urban Survival Skills – Land Navigation, Resection Using a Compass

Our previous map reading posts were meant as an orientation to the individual new to Urban Survival Preparation and we will continue to drip land navigation tips and skills. The intent is for the fledgling Urban Survivor to practice these techniques and tips, first in a controlled environment building to a rehearsal like practice either on similar terrain to, or the actual terrain he/they may be moving through if withdrawing from their urban location to their prepared safe location.

The technique in this post is called resecting your position from a known point. The military calls this intersection and resection. It is basically locating two (or more) terrain features on the map then finding them visually. These terrain features should be easy to pick out and will most probably be hills, mountain peaks or can even be man made structures that are annotated on your map.

Again, resection is used to determine your unknown position by determining lines of bearing or azimuths from known terrain features.

The steps are:

From your unknown position you determine two or three terrain features, ideally 120 degrees apart, that you can locate on the map.

You shoot a compass azimuth from your unknown position to each terrain feature, then compute the back azimuth. The back azimuth is simply your azimuth plus 180 degrees or minus 180 degrees. If you are at an unknown point and can identify a mountain both visually and on the map and you shoot a compass azimuth from your unknown point to the Mountain, lets say the magnetic compass azimuth is 170 degrees, you can determine that from you to the Mountain the direction is 170 degrees magnetic and from the Mountain to you the magnetic azimuth is 350 degrees magnetic (170 degrees plus 180 degrees).

You will have to convert the magnetic azimuth to a grid azimuth (see previous post), then plot (on your map) a line coming from the mountain at 350 degrees. Your unknown position is somewhere on that 350 degree line of bearing that you plotted.

If you find another terrain feature and do the same, you will have two lines of bearing (or back azimuths) that cross. Where they cross is your unknown position.

Again, from each known terrain feature plot the back azimuth on the map, after converting for G-M angle. Where the lines intersect is your unknown, now known, position.

New Urban Survival Skills Feature - Leeds on Finance

Provided to us by an associate who in involved in Finance and is a shooter as well (you know who you are R.F.), UrbanSurvivalSkills.com has inserted a link, underneath our header, to Leeds' financial blog. We find his analysis easy to read for us knuckle draggers and very much appreciate his insight. Plus we approve of his Marine Corps standard haircut. You can also access his site by going to: http://leedsonfinance.com/

Sandy Leeds, CFA is a Senior Lecturer at The University of Texas at Austin. He teaches graduate level classes in the MBA program and also serves as President of The MBA Investment Fund, L.L.C. Prior to teaching, he had careers as a lawyer and a money manager. He did his undergraduate work at The University of Alabama and also has a law degree from The University of Virginia and an MBA from the University of Texas. At UT, he has received many teaching awards, including Outstanding Professor in the MBA Program. He is married and has three children.

If you have read this site very much at all, you'll understand that we believe heavily in Planning and a plan without incoming information and analyzing that information, or otherwise planning in an Intelligence vacuum, is setting yourself up for failure.

Keeping on top by analyzing the financial trends will allow you to craft a better plan, make better priorities and adjust your Urban Survival Planning and Preparation timeline as necessary.

After Armageddon 9 of 9 - A History Channel Program and Lessons Leaned

The last chapter in the After Armageddon series shows Chris, his wife Ellen and son Casey still at their new Idaho home two years after the pandemic. Chris' infection from a cut gets worse and he dies.

After the initial pandemic dies out, people will be dying from disease hereforto treatable with modern medicine and anti-biotics. Not only will there not be much medicines available, if any at all, the people and infrastructutre that creates these medicines may be completely decimated. Survivors will have to be careful and make full use of natural anti-biotics and medicines.

The Web Master at http://www.homeremediesandnutrition.com is posting some information on natural anti-biotics and medicines.

The chapter continues 25 years later as Chris' son Casey is grown up and thinking back on the collapse.



The commentators correctly reflect that education and skills, after society settles from a collapse, would become much more practical. UrbanSurvivalSkills.com believes that this practical knowledge needs to start now. Do you know how to grow crops? Raise livestock? Can you handle firearms? Do you have firearms and ammunition, not to mention food stocks, tools, appropriate clothing and footwear and above all, a plan in case a collapse hits?

What would you do in a World without Law and Order? What would happen to you if you are forced to abandon not only your home, but your way of life, and, perceptions about and goals for your future? Where would you go? What would you be prepared to do? How would you survive?

Urban Survival Essential Medical Item – Quik Clot

Z-Medica offers the QuikClot brand products which are sponge type bandages or gauze, composed of an inert mineral substance-hemostatic agent that rapidly stops even severe bleeding. The ability to stop bleeding is essential for the Urban Survivor when medical services are greatly reduced or non-existent.

The Company decribes QuikClot as a hemostatic agent ins a molecular sieve, sifting molecules by size. When QuikClot comes into contact with blood in and around a wound, it rapidly takes in the smaller water molecules from the blood. The larger platelet and clotting factor molecules remain in the wound in a highly concentrated form. This promotes extremely rapid natural clotting and prevents severe blood loss. Additionally, the engineered particles provide key surface chemistry, rapidly enhancing the body's natural coagulation process. Z-Medica claims this process represents a new approach to hemostasis, which typically involves adding clotting factors rather than extracting elements to halt bleeding

In service with the military, law enforcement and emergency medical providers, QuikClot is a giant step forward in the ability to treat trauma involving potential life threatening blood loss.

QuikClot Combat Gauze provides the ultimate in stopping power for traumatic wounds; requiring no mixing, measuring or heat - just open and apply,. Easy to pack, it stays cool under pressure and remains ultra flexible while conforming to any shape or size wound, and removes easily without effect.

QuikClot 1st Response is the latest Z-Medica product for first responders, environmental health & safety teams and industrial nurses. It is the same proven technology developed for the military, packaged for convenient use by first responders, to help save lives right at the scene of accidents, crimes, fires and other emergencies. As in the latest product for the military, QuikClot 1st Response has been re-engineered to remain cooler on contact. It has a greatly reduced exothermic reaction, with maximum temperatures in vivo typically at 105 degrees F.

QuikClot 1st Response is easy to use. Just rip open a packet, pack the self-contained sponge into the wound and the bleeding stops rapidly. For larger wounds, use more than one sponge. The sponges will conform to the shape of the wound. QuikClot 1st Response is easily removed in the hospital setting.

QuikClot 1st Response comes in a box that contains five individually packaged .875-ounce (25g) hemostatic sponges – quantities sufficient to address most situations encountered by first responders.

QuikClot ACS+ is the latest Z-Medica product. QuikClot ACS+ is offered in a delivery system similar to the original QuikClot ACS and allows the same ease of application and removal. As a result of intensive research and development, the formulation of QuikClot ACS+ has been re-engineered to stay cooler on contact. It has a greatly reduced exothermic reaction, with maximum temperatures in vivo typically at 105 degrees F. This cooler formulation was developed in conjunction with the U.S. Marines, with applications beyond the military.

When dealing with large, severe injuries on the battlefield or here at home, a few seconds can mean the difference between losing a limb – or losing a life. When time is critical, just rip open a packet of QuikClot ACS+, pack the self-contained sponge into the wound and the bleeding stops rapidly. The sponge can be packed to conform to the shape of the wound and is easily removed in the hospital setting.

Each package of QuikClot ACS+ contains one 3.5-ounce (100g) hemostatic sponge. It is also available in a Z-Medica TraumaPak, along with a pressure bandage and high volume gauze.

Urban Man has several personal medical kits as well as a large team medical kit that contains all three QuikClot products mentioned above.