Glendora Emergency Response Communications

GERC Solar Cooker for Tight Wads

Dec 11, 2007

Solar Cooking and GERC
by Greg Lee, KI6GIG

Solar cooking and emergency radio communications (EmComm) may seem an odd combination. But everyone has to eat, especially GERC members in a scenario of the ?“killer (8.0) quake?” in Los Angeles.

Consider the basic needs for survival (space, water, food, and shelter) in the aftermath of a major earthquake. With buildings reduced to rubble, GERC members need to find safe locations from which to operate. Horsethief Canyon Park in San Dimas, the site of GERC Field Day provides a good location for both EmComm and helicopter flight operations. So GERC is prepared and has the ?“space?” item covered.

Earthquake preparedness advisories provide guidelines for ?“water?” that I hope all GERC members heed; At a minimum, 1 gallon of water per day per person. And for those who participated in GERC Field Days, BYOW (Bring Your Own Water) is routine.

When it comes to the ?“food?” item, most earthquake preparedness guidelines suggest easy to prepare food requiring minimal water and cooking. Those of us who go camping have portable stoves and cooking gear. Most urban dwellers probably don?’t. But even with a camping stove, fuel poses an operational constraint. And in the event of a major quake, re-supply may become a critical issue. Enter the portable solar cooker.

While searching for a portable solar cooker for my personal camping / emergency use, I stumbled across a unit that fit with my personal philosophy and ?“tight wad?” budget. (Come on, amateur radio is amateur only in name, not in price. So every penny saved elsewhere in the budget is a penny more for radio gear, right?) On the Solar Cookers International (SCI, www.solarcookers.org) website?’s ?“Build a Solar Cooker?” page http://solarcooking.org/plans/default.htm , I found Kathy Dahl-Bredine?’s ?“Windshield Shade Solar Funnel Cooker?”.

The overall simplicity and low-cost plucked at my heart strings. (You can get a folding windshield shade at your favorite 99 Cent store, too, and reduce the cost even lower than Kathy?’s!!). I contacted her for permission to reprint the article for GERC use. She was pleasantly surprised by the request and heartily agreed. [Note: The article and instructions on how to make this solar cooker is posted in the PDF section of this website.] It only takes a few minutes to make the cooker by adding some Velcro tabs to it. Most of the other parts you probably already have around the house: a wire rack for cooling baked goods, a black pot, and a plastic turkey bag. If you don?’t a quick trip to the 99 Cent store and you can get all the parts for this solar cooker for under $5! Now, in the event of a major disaster, you can have hot meals provided by free solar energy (and save your camp stove fuel for the no-sun days).

While a portable emergency solar cooker isn?’t exactly a radio related priority item for a Go Bag, it easily fits in my 72-hour Go-Kit. In addition to preparing hot meals for myself, a solar cooker helps make for a ?“cleaner, greener?” EmComm station. [Note: This emergency solar cooker is very lightweight. So if you anticipate helicopter flight operations at your EmComm site, don?’t forget to secure all loose gear in the LZ (landing zone)!]

SCI has other information about solar water pasteurization, another important topic for disaster survival. Please visit their website and seriously consider joining and supporting their efforts. And if nothing else, make sense to build this low-cost emergency solar cooker and keep it with your emergency preparedness kit.

Thanks to Kathy and Solar Cookers International for making this information available free, and for granting permission for GERC to reprint Kathy?’s amazing design. [Note: SCI has Kathy?’s article available in English, Catalan, French, Hebrew, Persian, Portuguese, and Spanish on the SCI website. Since getting permission to reprint Kathy?’s article, I was able to recruit volunteers to translate it to Thai and Chinese. These are posted as bilingual (Thai-English) and (English-Chinese) in the PDF section of the Rural Training Center-Thailand website (www.neighborhoodlink.com/org/rtcth).

PS---OK, now that GERC has covered solar cooking, who?’s going to do an article on battery charging with solar power in time for next year?’s Field Day?
-----KI6GIG