Tucked away on forty wooded acres outside Sandpoint, Idaho, Tanner Ridge writes from a hand-built timber cabin he powers with micro-hydro and a bank of battered-but-reliable solar panels. His flagship guide, The Homestead Signal: Building Self-Reliant Communications for the Post-Grid Era (2024), blends plain-language electronics with backcountry common sense-showing readers how to keep critical channels open when the towers go dark. When he isn't soldering or checking his garden's drip lines against the late-season frost, Ridge mentors a small circle of local families on barter economics and low-tech medical improvisation.