Product Review: Great Value Pulled Pork in BBQ Sauce

PulledPork3CarSurvivalKit

Bottom Line:  Relatively expensive, but good way to add some variety to your survival kit.

We’ve previously reported about the importance of a car winter survival kit, to make sure you have enough food in the car to keep yourself reasonably comfortable if stranded. Recently, for example, a winter storm stranded motorists on Interstate 95 in Virginia for over 24 hours. As we showed previously, the kit in our car contains mostly dry food, and we have water and a means of cooking in the car.

One item that was lacking from the original kit was meat, or any type of protein for that matter. I corrected that after Christmas by buying a Hickory Farms meat and cheese gift package at a steep after-Christmas closeout discount, similar to the one shown at right.

PulledPork2Another item recently caught my eye, and that was the pouch of Great Value Pulled Pork in BBQ Sauce from Walmart. Its already cooked, so it only needs to be warmed up. Of course, in an emergency, it could be eaten cold. It’s best on a bun, but any kind of bread or crackers would work fine.  You could also eat it right out of the pouch, or together with one of the other dishes in the survival kit, such as the rice or mashed potatoes.

To test it at home, I was originally going to heat it up in the microwave, but I realized that I should just warm it up as I would in the car. Since I have in the survival kit an emergency stove and a pan, I decided to duplicate this at home. To keep from getting the pan dirty, I heated up water and simply placed the pouch in the water. Of course, in an emergency, if water is short, you can still use the water for drinking or cooking. More likely than not, if I had to heat it up in the car while stranded, I would be using melted snow.

The finished product was better than I expected. It made a reasonably filling lunch, and in an emergency, a hot sandwich (or even just hot meat out of the pouch) would seem luxurious.

This product wouldn’t be viable for a large portion of your emergency food storage. The 2.8 ounce pouch cost $1.28. It provides 11 grams of protein, and only 130 calories. By contrast, a jar of peanut butter, for only a little bit more money, provides 2520 calories and 98 grams of protein. According to Harvard University, the recommended daily protein intake is 0.36 grams per pound. So a person weighing 150 pounds should get about 54 grams per day. This means that for long-term storage, the peanut butter is a much better value. But for a day or two, the pulled pork would add a few calories to your diet, provide a welcome hot meal, albeit a small one, and provide you with some protein. And it’s quite possible that the contents of the car witner survival kit will be frozen when you need them. Thawing a pouch of meat is probably a lot easier than figuring out how to thaw a jar of peanut butter.

The package I bought had a “best by” date of November 2024, almost three years in the future. So I’ll definitely be tossing some in the car survival kit. I hope I don’t have to use them until a future family survival picnic.

Incidentally, if the package looks familiar, that’s because this type of packaging is also used for tuna, another possible choice for the survival kit.



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Quadrasonic Sound, 1971

1972JanElemElectIf I didn’t know better, I would think that this gentleman was putting a coiled up garden hose inside a speaker enclosure. Well, actually, he is putting a garden hose inside a speaker enclosure, as instructed by the January 1972 issue of Elementary Electronics. He wanted to enjoy quadraphonic sound, and thanks to the magazine, he was able to create quadrasonic sound using his existing stereo. The project shown in the magazine took its input from the speaker terminals of the existing stereo. It then created two new channels, adding a 15 millisecond delay to produce a realistic reverberation. This was accomplished by feeding the signal into the hose from an earphone, and picking it up at the other end with a crystal mike. The output (mixed with a non-delayed version) was then amplified and sent to the rear speakers.

According to the magazine, the result was the greatest home entertainment item since the invention of the crystal set, and would place the listener in a galaxy of surrounding sound and a listening wonderland.

If the general idea sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because you’ve seen a similar idea here before. When WBBM and KFAB wanted to synchronize their signals, WBBM had to build a delay into its transmission, and they accomplished this with a section of lead pipe.



Bomb Shelter Radio, 1942

1942JanRadioRetailerThe January 1942 issue of Radio Retailing stressed to its readers that their trade was an essential one. Radio was a necessity in every home, factory, office, and car. The radio dealer’s patriotic duty was to keep ’em working.

Here, the magazine notes that Americans might have need for bomb shelters, and a working radio would be an essential part of that shelter.



Yacht as Fallout Shelter, 1962

1962Jan16WashEveningStarSixty years ago today, the January 16, 1962, issue of the Washington Evening Star carried this feature by its outdoor editor about one of the stars of the New York Motor Boat Show. This craft was touted as a seagoing fallout shelter. The craft was from the Wheeler Yacht Company, which had teamed up with a name familiar to students of television history, namely Dr. Allen B. Du Mont, one of the pioneers of television.

The principle behind using a boat is sound, as described by Du Mont. Fallout is almost invariably heavier than water, and sinks to the bottom. If the water is 10 feet deep, this means that there is 10 feet of water between the fallout and the boat, which is equivalent to 3 feet of earth, giving excellent protection. Of course, fallout might have settled on the boat, so it was equipped with nozzles for cleaning the deck. Fallout on shore was dealt with through distance, by keeping the boat a minimum of 750 feet from shore. Of course, the ship did nothing to protect against blast and fire, and noted that it would need to be at least 35 miles from ground zero at the time of blast.

For a more detailed look at the concept of using boats for fallout protection, see the 1963 report from the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, Civil Defense Utilization of Ships and Boats.



1947 2 kW Two Meter Transmitter

1947JanRadioNews1This mad scientist, shown in the January 1947 issue of Radio News is probably either George Floyd, W2RYT, or H. Donald Wells, W8LWD, drawing an arc from their newly constructed 1 kW transmitter for the then-new 2 meter band. They apparently didn’t worry too much about RF exposure back then, since he is drawing an arc from the antenna, which is mounted directly on the transmitter. In fact, the article points out that when making measurements of current and voltage in the transmitter, you shouldn’t leave the meters there too long, since they might be damaged by all of the RF that is floating around.

The transmitter is simplicity itself, employing two GL-592 pliotron tubes. According to the authors, the set oscillated the first time it was tried, and they were convinced that “only an order from the FCC would stop the oscillations.” There are few components, as you can see from the schematic below. Tuning was accomplished by adjusting plugs in inductors consisting of 15″ long half-inch copper pipe. It would probably be a good idea to wear thick gloves when making frequency changes, since the B+ was around 2500 volts.

1947JanRadioNews2

We should mention that kids should not build this transmitter at home. There are a number of obvious safety issues, such as the exposed high voltage and the high RF fields. In addition, it probably wouldn’t meet current FCC spectral purity rules. In other words, an order of the FCC has stopped the oscillations.



1942 Radios

1942Jan14PghPressIt hadn’t been announced yet, but eighty years ago today, the domestic production of radios and phonographs for civilian use would end in just over three months. So the prudent listener might consider getting a second radio for the bedroom, just in case the main set in the living room ran into trouble. And for $7.95, this one might fit the bill. It was a basic four-tube set, but it would pull in the local stations with war news. And if cash was short, you could get it for a quarter down, and a quarter per week.

If you had a bit more disposable income, then $32.95, or just a dollar a week, would get you this five-tube set with an automatic record changer. The ad for Kappels Jewelry, 535 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh,

The store closed in 1993, after over 70 years in business.



1947 GE Radios

Seventy-five years ago, the January 13, 1947, issue of Life magazine carried this ad showing General Electric’s radio offerings, especially its FM offerings, such as the model 417 console.

1947Jan13LifeSince there were still prewar FM stations on the air, the deluxe set tuned both FM bands, 42-50 MHz and 88-108 MHz. It also tuned two shortwave bands in addition to standard broadcast. The set’s ten tubes drove a 12 inch dynamic speaker.

The ad featured actress Virginia Mayo, who had most recently appeared in The Best Years of our Lives.



1942 Radio Repairman Short Story

1942JanRadioServiceDealer1This interesting short story appeared 80 years ago in the January 1942 issue of Radio Service Dealer. The story appeared in the magazine’s “Serviceman’s Diary” feature written by contributing editor John H. Potts.

The story must have been written days after Pearl Harbor, and the author is fantasizing about an air raid warning. Ordered to shelter by a police officer, a radio repairman found himself in front of a big apartment building. Somewhat counter-intuitively, he remembered that the safest place would be on the third or fourth floor, so he went to the third floor and rang the bell of the first apartment he saw. An attractive woman answered the door, and the story has its happy ending when she falls for him after he is able to fix the radio.

It’s an interesting prediction of home front life early in the war, and makes an interesting read:



1947 Grocery Prices

1947Jan10WilmingtonStarFor a snapshot of grocery prices 75 years ago today, here is an ad for Guyton’s Food Store, at the corner of Fifth and Castle Streets, Wilmington, N.C., from the January 10, 1947 issue of the Wilmington Morning Star.

These prices look like real bargains, but there has been a lot of inflation since 1947.  According to this inflation calculator, one dollar in 1947 is the equivalent of $12.46 in 2022 dollars.  So a dime for a roll of toilet paper sounds cheap, but that’s the same as paying about $1.25 today.  A pound of bacon for 65 cents works out to over $8.  And a pound of butter was 85 cents, but that’s over $10 a pound today, which is very expensive.  Even the margarine at 42 cents a pound is about $5 a pound.



Hoosier Radio Company, Indianapolis, 1922

Pembroke Arcade. Image, historicindianapolis.com.

Pembroke Arcade. Image, historicindianapolis.com.

1922Jan9IndianaA hundred years ago today, the January 9, 1922, issue of the Indiana Daily Times carried this feature describing a radio store, Hoosier Radio Company of Indianapolis.
RADIO CREATES NOVEL BUSINESS
Wireless Telephone and Telegraph Open New Field.

Radio telegraphy, which a few years ago was regarded by the general public as only for real experts when operated on a big scale, for youngsters to amuse themselves with on a small scale, now has come to assume an important place in the life of the community, and the radio telephone Is In far more general use than the average person realizes.

This new science, developed along lines all its own, has resulted in the growth of an entirely new business, the supply business for radio equipment, according to L. H. Smith, president of the Hoosier Radio Company, 108 Pembroke Arcade.

“When radio work was Just becoming popular users of equipment found it difficult in the extreme to buy supplies. Supplies of this character were handled by only a few shops as a sideline, the clerks knew very little about them and the technical nature of the equipment made it almost impossible for anyone not enthusiastic about radio work to deal
intelligently with the trade,” Mr. Smith said.

“This led me to establish a store handling nothing but supplies for radio telephone and radio telegraph equipment. My patronage comes from about every part of Indianapolis and Includes persons of all ages from the enthusiastic school boy to the business man, who is interested in radio work. I believe that at present there are more than 1,000 persons actively interested in radio work in this city and the number is steadily Increasing.

“There has been a genera! misunderstanding In the public mind as to the expense of a radio plant. Contrary to the general belief it is not at all prohibitory. A receiving set with a range of 4OO to 500 miles under favorable conditions may be purchased for $15, and no great amount of study is necessary to use these machines.

“Radio telephony is growing more popular every day, a popularity that is increased by the concerts sent out nightly by the Commonwealth-Edison Company of Chicago. These concerts are given by the Chicago Grand Opera Company and are heard in this city and all over the country. Dally concerts are sent out by the Westinghouse Company at Pittsburgh at the same time, and by simply tuning the instrument the owner of a wireless telephone plant has his choice of the music to which he desires to listen.”

The building in which this shop was located, shown above, the Pembroke Arcade, was located in downtown Indianapolis and built in 1895. It was what we would call today a shopping mall–an enclosed building with a large number of stores inside. It was torn down in 1943.