Much like I always come back from Home Depot forgetting to buy something important, I never remember to scan yard sales for propane tanks. Thanks for the reminder.

I have enough Camping Gaz cartridges for my camp stove and Denatured alcohol for my White Box stove that I am fine for many, many meals but short on the propane. Maybe 7 gallons total. I think I could get a couple weeks with that on a single burner but in a 'worse/worser/worst' case situation I would not be wasting it on the full BBQ.

Make sure that the yard sale propane tank has the triangular shaped knob. That indicates that it has an OPT valve in it. Those with round knobs can not legally be refilled now...

I actually had the same thought after I wrote my post. Where I live there is a system/company called Blue Rhino (?) that stocks a propane exchange in front of gas stations and some grocery stores. You take a empty tank to them and exchange for a full one. The cost is $18 +/- $2 for fuel costs. Its a bit cheaper to fill an existing tank at a propane filler.

I would buy a tank at a yard sale and then do an exchange.

In WW2 North Africa the amoured units used to cook directly on their vehicles, that steel plating absorbing a LOT of heat.
A stove just for disaster relief has been in hte news lately. it's called a SOLAR OVEN. Now there is a storage problem solved.
All fuels; wood,charcoal, chemical are nothing more than stored up sunlight. Why not go to the source?

"...SOLAR OVEN..."

We are currently stuck in the San Joaquin valley of CA, haven't seen the sun in weeks. I hate fog...

I went to the Cardinals-Rams NFL game Sunday. We tailgated for several hours pre game. I am not exaggerating, I walked around and 85% of the grills that I saw were the exact same Red Colman Road Trip Grill

Blew me away. I suppose because it folds down it has its benefits for portability to games. People were grilling for 3-4 hours on a 16 oz propane tank. I have a large propane grill at home and a camp stove in my travel kit, but this info could help someone.

Also, and this really blew me away. I saw about a dozen people with Direct TV satellite systems running games on flat screens. I suppose if someone had DTV they could find a forum that explained how to power the unit off a generator. It would solve the analog/digital issue in another thread.

It would be a Qwik Cook Grill... Endorsed by Dick Butkus.

And there are a few available on e-bay as of this posting.

OGRE

Comm, am I missing something? The power source wouldn't have anything to do with the digital/analog signal? I have used a satellite receiver in my motor home with no issues, but that's now, what would the change in 2009 do to affect that?

Jakam, on another thread in this category (Nat. Dist & Lrg-Scale Emer) there is a discussion regarding how you will get your disaster information when television goes digital in February. Were talking about most likely tornado and hurricane stuff and the power goes out.

While we all consider radio and smart phones a viable means, many who have been using small analog t.v.'s with antennas will be out of luck as will people who use the t.v. capabilities on emergency radios.

My observation was that there are people bringing digital satellite systems to football stadiums to watch games. So if someone has a digital satellite and they lose power after February, they may not be in such bad shape if they are the person whose back up is analog t.v.

They could figure out how to configure their sat. dish, receiver and home television to run off a generator system.

AAhhh- I get it, I was thinking the you were stating the reverse, that their mobile satellite rig was going to be obsolete.

I replaced my old TV/VCR combination in my RV with a flat screen, by chance, last year. So I am covered as well, both base camp and mobile.

My RV runs off of a DC inverter, but they could probably do the same, or if they had a newer generation generator that had a stable power flow, plug it directly, eh?