Perimeter Alarms
Commonly available options and breakdowns-
There is no doubt in the mind of anyone serious about survival of the need for perimeter alarms. These devices allow you a better chance at defense in distance. Applicable to the military as much as the preparedness minded civilian- perhaps more to the preparedness minded civilian due to the lesser numbers he will be operating with- these items could be the proverbial difference between life and death in a bad situation.
We all have to sleep sometime and don't kid yourself on this, a SHTF situation will not be just "sitting around playing board games." It will be a tense, stress filled time with a lot of WORK involved. Hard, physical work. Just obtaining water, heat and food will be regular hard work for the lightly prepared types. Now factor in SECURITY, the ever present problem that comes before everything and factors into EVERY survival problem.
How many people are necessary to mount an effective round the clock security guard shift for even a small family retreat? 1 person cannot stay awake 24/7. Neither can only one person effectively pull guard duty for a 12 hour stretch. A bare minimum of 4 trained adults would be necessary for a 1 person round the clock guard duty. And let me tell you from experience that a 6 hour schedule sucks!
Here is where you start hearing buzzwords like "force multipliers."
And the reality is that anything you can do along those lines is a good thing that WILL save you manpower in the future.
So let's look at some common options.
1. Dogs- man's protector and early warning device for eons. Pros- extra set of eyes, ears and noise. Cons- have to store a lot of food. Prone to sickness, injury, being shot as much as you are. Noisy, a barking dog in a long term SHTF situation means the owners are well fed- if they were starving they would have eaten the dog by now. Further, if someone is sneaking in to your place and hears a dog bark, they know they've been made (found out).
Barking can be a bad thing as well as a good thing. Some SF Vietnam vets that trained us way back in the day told us how they would "find a yapping dog and take it with them when they approached some place they were going to hit. We would tie the dog to a tree outside the area and let it yap. If someone came to investigate the dog's barking we would shoot them or capture them to find out about the location. If no one came out to check it out we would use the sound of the dog barking to cover our advance."
Yes, Fido is loving, kind and a good pal. I know I love ours, but they have their downsides.
2. Tripwires, 12 gauge blanks, personal alarm sirens, etc.
Better than nothing, sure. Back in the 80's we would carry these little devices from Radio Shack with us in the field that used passive infrared (PIR) to detect motion. We could place them near the likely approaches to our hide, RON position, etc. When they sensed motion a siren would sound. Crude, but effective. Problem was that the intruder knew they were made (detected), just like in the barking dog scenario.
Same goes with the 12 gauge blank firing tripwires, the little "whiz whiz woo woo" personal alarm devices that people jury rig to a tripwires. Again, better than nothing but the intruder knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that the jig is up and he is known. All of these things are also visibly seen to the trained eye.
3. MURS Dakota Alert sets or similar "driveway" alarms
Now we are getting into the realm of effective perimeter alarms for the serious survivalist.
MURS Dakota Alert perimeter alarms
These sets will detect motion via PIR and transmit notification of the motion with MURS frequency band radio to a hand held or base station receiver where you will be notified of the intrusion and the "Zone" (location) of the intrusion.
Range is greatly increased from any blank firing tripwire device, or "whiz whiz woo woo" personal alarm device. Further, the intruder has NO IDEA he has been "made" (detected) and will likely continue along right into your hands.
Cons- Unless you clear low hanging underbrush in the area, you will get a few false alarns here and there. Yes animals of various types can and will set these off as well. Windy days can be a major pain also, depending on how well you cleared near the sensor location. Also can be visibly seen but are able to be camoflaged pretty well and proper sighting can help with the hiding of them.
Pros- these are the best COMMONLY AVAILABLE sensor that you can buy year round.
4. Seismic intrusion detectors-
Now we are in the professional zone, like going from a Tasco Gen I night vision monocular to a 3rd Gen Pinnacle Autogated PVS14!
Seismic intrusion devices work off of minute earth vibrations. People and animals walking, cars driving in the area, even low flying aircraft are easily detectable. There are NO false alarms via branches blowing in front of the sensor, etc. as their is with MURS devices. It's extremely hard to fool these devices even if you know they are present. A seismic probe is stuck in the ground and detects the slightest earth vibrations- people and animals walking, cars driving by, low flying aircraft, etc. within a 30-50 yard circumference of each probe. The alert signal is then transmitted back to the receiver either by wires on the hard wired (PSR1A) set or via radio frequency on a wireless (TRC3A) set. It's worthwhile to note that the wireless TRC3A sets also designate which probe is receiving detection and each probe has adjustable sensitivity. The hardwired PSR1A sets did not offer those features. Both types run on batteries which last on average several weeks to a month or more depending on how much detection they are doing.
If you could have 4 "guards" ALWAYS standing watch 24/7 that don't fall asleep for nothing more than some rechargeable batteries that will alert you to intrusions would you do it? 4 "guards" that don't fall asleep, don't eat your storage food, don't make noise but are always working for you.
Pros- best system I have ever used, almost impossible to defeat, simple to set up and use, constantly working for you no matter the weather condition, foliage, etc.
Cons- have not been commonly available since early 2000's. When they do come available for sale (rare) they sell out extremely fast. TESTED and VERIFIED units are even harder to find. Minutia- the little clip that holds the probe to the side of the transmitter WHEN NOT IN USE is usually brittle or broken by this stage in the game. This in no way shape or form degrades the use of the system, it is simply an aesthetic issue for a collector, it DOES NOT affect the functioning of the unit one bit. Just understand it is extremely common to see broken holder clips on units. Not an issue at all. While many of the sets we find, test and re sell are bought by collectors, we sell them as fully functioning sets, not as museum pieces!
When we do find these units, we TEST, EVALUATE and verify them for about a week before offering them on the email blasts. Each and every set is different based on the type of the unit (hardwired or wireless) the condition of the set, what it comes with, how it checks out, etc. and therefore the price is usually different on every set. It's also important to realize since 2001 this is not an item that is simply just "out of stock" or a situation where more can be ordered up at will. These are now a very rare item. I feel that's worth stating as every time we send an email blast when we do find some, we get calls with people thinking it's a stock item that is always sitting around just waiting for them to order. That's not the case at all.
To get notified of when these sets do become available, join the email newsletter list at the top of the page at
Perimeter alarms