Skillset

I spent a good part of 2021 trying to figure out a way to better integrate communications into my equipment without breaking the bank. While I’m all for spending money on quality gear, I’m not above considering the return on investment, and I’ve not felt like $1000 communications headsets were worth it for me. Then, one random day, I realized that I had almost everything I needed already, minus one important affordable part.

In session 006 of Marksman Live, I’m talking with Dr. Christopher Larsen of the One Shepherd Leadership Institute. We tackle the history of civilian warrior training as well as try to establish a baseline level of capability for all citizens to strive for.

This is a guest post from community member Augray who, aside from being our resident GoRuck expert, has recently been diving deep into the world of amateur radio. In this article, he lays out some of the advice and lessons learned in his first six months since getting certified and on the air.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of “red teaming.” If you aren’t familiar, this is where you think deeply about how you would plan to defeat yourself if you were the bad guy. While thinking about my own gaps, I realized one of the biggest was a lack of information about my surrounding area. I mean, I know a lot about where I live, but I’d never approached it like a military intelligence analyst. What does that look like?

For this marksman challenge, you need to pick something you know how to do and teach others how to do it. I’m not so specific on what that topic is or how you do it, whether it’s written, video, audio, or something else. The goal is simply to share your knowledge and gain some experience with teaching.

This marksman challenge is about spending a night in the wilderness. What good are all of the knot tying, fire-making, and other outdoors skills if we don’t put them to use. Take this chance to get out there and enjoy a bit of nature.

This Marksman Challenge is all about the art of tying knots. I’ve long observed that experienced outdoorsmen learn to tie a few reliable knots extremely well, and use them for just about everything. Knowing knots also means you can carry less stuff. So let’s get on to the challenge.

This challenge is deceptively simple: get your ham radio ticket. I’ve been saying over and over that the time to start learning about radio is well before there’s an actual emergency situation where it becomes required. So what better way to encourage you to get started than offering a challenge?

Building a fire is a fundamental outdoors survival skill. Fire keeps you warm, cooks your food, signals others for help, and purifies your water. But too many of us take the easy route for building one. The survival fire challenge is about doing it the old fashioned way.

For this challenge, we’re pivoting to the survival world. With hunting season approaching, or just general outdoors activity in cooler weather, I thought it was appropriate to work on developing and deploying an emergency shelter kit.

So let’s talk about the Emergency Shelter Challenge.

On July 20th, 2019, I attended GoRuck’s Active Shooter Intervention training course, as well as a night fire. I took away a lot of lessons from this one, including a preference for fiber optic sights on my pistols over tritium night sights, as well as the importance of good weapon light usage.

I recently completed my ham radio technician exam with a score of 100% and received my license. In the end, it wasn’t all that difficult, and I’d like to go over my preparation process in case you want to do the same.