Is the Offline Readiness Field Guide really free?

Yes. It's free behind a single email field, no account, no credit card, no phone number. You get the full on-page guide plus a clean, printable PDF.

What does the field guide cover?

Six sections: Power, Water & food, Comms, Offline AI, Navigation & documents, and Body & first-aid. Every quantitative and safety claim is sourced to a primary authority.

How do you make water safe to drink in an emergency?

Boiling clear water at a rolling boil for one minute kills bacteria, viruses, Giardia, and Cryptosporidium. Household bleach does not reliably kill Cryptosporidium, for chemical treatment the rough dose is about 8 drops of unscented bleach per gallon of clear water, then wait 30 minutes. Nothing on the basic list removes heavy metals or chemicals; that needs a specialized filter. (CDC, EPA)

Why should you text instead of call during a power outage?

SMS is low-bandwidth and store-and-forward, so it keeps retrying until it lands even when voice networks are jammed. In a congested emergency, a text often gets through when a call won't. (FCC, FEMA)

How much of a power bank's rated capacity do you actually get?

Less than the label implies. A '20,000mAh' bank holds about 74 Wh, but roughly 30–40% is lost to voltage conversion and heat, leaving about 45–59 Wh at your device, around 2.5–4 phone charges, not 5+. The guide teaches the formula so you can size any battery yourself.

Can AI work offline during a blackout?

Yes. A capable model runs locally on a charged laptop with Wi-Fi off, no internet required. A 4-bit Llama 3.1 8B model is about 4.9 GB, and a full offline AI plus text-only Wikipedia is roughly 62 GB, half a 128 GB USB stick.

What sources is the guide based on?

Primary authorities only: CDC, EPA, USDA/FSIS, FEMA, FCC, NOAA and the National Weather Service, NIST, GPS.gov, CISA, and Battery University. Every claim carries its source.

Free field guide│Fact-checked · print-ready · no account

Offline Readiness Field Guide.

Six sections of the numbers most people get wrong, how much of your power bank you actually get, the eight drops of bleach that make water safe, why to text instead of call, and the survival myths that cost people a limb. Every claim is checked against a primary source (CDC, EPA, USDA, FEMA, FCC, NIST). No doom, no hype, read it, print it, keep a copy in your kit.

↓ Enter your email below to unlock all six sections, free, sourced, and yours to print.

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Enter your email to unlock the full guide

Five print-ready checklists for getting your maps, documents, and an offline AI ready before the grid goes down, unlocked right here the second you drop your email, and sent to your inbox to keep.

01Power: read the real number, not the label
02Water & food: one minute, eight drops, two clocks
03Comms: text, don't call, and other blackout truths
04Offline AI: what a local model really can (and can't) do
05Navigation & documents: the free tools you never turned on
06Your body: the survival rules movies got wrong

No spam, the guide, and the occasional offline-AI tip. Unsubscribe anytime.

Locked, enter your email above to unlock all six sections

The full guide, six sourced sections, the charts, the checklists, and the printable PDF, unlocks the second you drop your email. No account, no card, unsubscribe anytime.

One shortcut

The hardest line item above is usually the offline AI, getting a capable model running locally, with voice, vision, and a document reader, no internet required. That's exactly what PortableMind is: it ships that whole setup on a USB stick, ready to plug into a Windows or Mac laptop. Everything else in this guide you can do yourself for free, this just does the offline-AI part for you.

Related tool

Section 3 covers what still works when the grid drops. Want to see the grid itself? Our live US power grid map shows demand strain across all 13 EIA regions in real time, a quick way to check whether your region is running hot before an outage, not during one.

Field guide FAQ

Common questions

Is the Offline Readiness Field Guide really free?: Yes. It's free behind a single email field, no account, no credit card, no phone number. You get the full on-page guide plus a clean, printable PDF.
What does the field guide cover?: Six sections: Power, Water & food, Comms, Offline AI, Navigation & documents, and Body & first-aid. Every quantitative and safety claim is sourced to a primary authority.
How do you make water safe to drink in an emergency?: Boiling clear water at a rolling boil for one minute kills bacteria, viruses, Giardia, and Cryptosporidium. Household bleach does not reliably kill Cryptosporidium, for chemical treatment the rough dose is about 8 drops of unscented bleach per gallon of clear water, then wait 30 minutes. Nothing on the basic list removes heavy metals or chemicals; that needs a specialized filter. (CDC, EPA)
Why should you text instead of call during a power outage?: SMS is low-bandwidth and store-and-forward, so it keeps retrying until it lands even when voice networks are jammed. In a congested emergency, a text often gets through when a call won't. (FCC, FEMA)
How much of a power bank's rated capacity do you actually get?: Less than the label implies. A '20,000mAh' bank holds about 74 Wh, but roughly 30–40% is lost to voltage conversion and heat, leaving about 45–59 Wh at your device, around 2.5–4 phone charges, not 5+. The guide teaches the formula so you can size any battery yourself.
Can AI work offline during a blackout?: Yes. A capable model runs locally on a charged laptop with Wi-Fi off, no internet required. A 4-bit Llama 3.1 8B model is about 4.9 GB, and a full offline AI plus text-only Wikipedia is roughly 62 GB, half a 128 GB USB stick.
What sources is the guide based on?: Primary authorities only: CDC, EPA, USDA/FSIS, FEMA, FCC, NOAA and the National Weather Service, NIST, GPS.gov, CISA, and Battery University. Every claim carries its source.

Keep reading

Print it. Keep it in the kit.

The best time to get ready is a quiet afternoon with the internet still on. Download the polished PDF, work through the boxes, and it's already handled.

Want the offline-AI piece done for you? See PortableMind →