OffGrid Faraday Bags — Next-Gen Signal Protection

Before we launch our full series on when the shit hits the fan, we wanted to give you background on some of the gear we'll be using — starting with electronics, and more specifically Faraday bags from a company called OffGrid. Quick primer for those who don't know: a Faraday bag or cage is built around sensitive electronics to block every kind of signal — Wi-Fi, GPS, cell — and, in the scenario we'll eventually be talking about, to protect those devices from an EMP, whether nuclear or solar-flare based.

The one I'm a big user of is the mobile pouch. It folds out to fit basically any cell phone, your phone slides down inside, the velcro flap seals it, and that's it. Don't believe me? I tested it on camera: dialed my SHTF phone to prove the ringer worked, sealed it in the pouch, called again — straight to voicemail. And I was standing in my house, so that phone had Wi-Fi too; even Wi-Fi calling couldn't reach it. Pull it out of the bag, call again, phone works. At a minimum, even if you're not worried about doomsday, nothing is hacking or tracking a phone in this thing.

There's also a key fob version at about half the size that folds up small enough to ride in your pocket. Two use cases: if an EMP hits while you're traveling, your fob still works when you get home — and day to day, nobody is cloning or relaying your fob out of your gym bag. RFID protection in a pouch the size of your palm.

Then there's the duffel, and this thing is ginormous. The huge main compartment is entirely Faraday — laptop, radios, comms equipment, whatever you can fit. Then they kept going: a dedicated phone Faraday pocket on one side, a tablet Faraday pocket on the front, and a little key fob pocket tucked inside. Four separate protected zones. I was going through it with my co-host Don from the Liberty Goons and just kept finding more compartments. It has carry handles and a shoulder strap, and it would work great as a bugout bag.

Insider tip: I throw my battery backup chargers in the Faraday bag too. They've got circuit boards in them, and if an EMP fries your power banks, your protected phone doesn't stay charged for long. I keep a solar-capable one in there so I can recharge off sunlight after the fact.

My real recommendation: pick up a cheap used phone — a few-generations-old Galaxy or iPhone runs about a hundred bucks — and preload it with survival information. Mine has the entire US Army manual, Wikipedia and WikiHow archives, and hundreds of hours of guides on everything from farming to improvised tourniquets, and I keep it in the Faraday bag with helium mobile service for about $5 a month. The duffel runs about $350, which is on the high end, but the mobile pouch is around $60 — and if you do nothing else, grab one of those. I had a similar bag from another company before this; it's bigger and doesn't function as well, which is why I switched to OffGrid.