Gonna need proof that's radium paint. I have seen not a whiff of evidence it was used past the mid 1960s (and mostly not used even in military equipment since the late 1950s or earlier). It also was a bit fragile so was never AFAIK exposed, so end user risk was low as even on consumer items was on a plate that was behind glass. These also have no detectible about of radiation, just like tritium tubes, which absorb 100% of the emitted radiation.

You could but I am not sure why. It's solid plastic so damp can't hurt it. There are those who get or make sleeves. Like, tape-wrapped cardboard, to avoid it bending or crimping, or getting scratched up etc.

The one almost on top where I pushed the button to make it glow? Custom 3D printed by someone else, so I don't even have the files. The light up is just a UV Photon light snapped into it and the rest is printed with glow fiber (and low infill so the light bounces around in the grid inside). Hopefully he gets out of crazy work and comes back to them and /someday/ sells them or shares the file at least. But yeah, I sorta love it, sorry, you can't have one! :)

@@StevenHoober Damn, wish it was something off the shelf! It´s really nice, I bet he could make a buck selling those things.

@@adayinthelifeof6197 Oh yeah. I know maybe 20 things like that produced in prototype or briefly or so on that are really neat but they are busy, or not interested etc so never happened. I will keep nagging him occasionally. Or... just try to get someone else to make them???

Not really. Intended to take this apart, discovered it's glued so exploring would have destroyed it (sold to someone I know who likes them as handheld binos for scouting the farm, now the kids have one also). I do SUSPECT it's an MX10130 but... The similar swoopy yellow or black monoculars I know all (whatever tube, doesn't matter) have some of the optics GLUED to them. Like, optical adhesive bonded to the ends, integral to the tube, cannot be removed. So, none of these are upgradeable by salvaging the tubes, unlike /every/ other NOD of the era and since.

@@StevenHoober aw man, i had just stumbled upon one on ebay for like 400$ and was considering it, thanks for letting me know beforehand tho :)

VERY rare now so you'll never find one. Was a commercial rework of PVS-3 (hence the name) by cutting them in half, removing a bunch of the center, and sticking a normal modern image intensifier in the middle. Weapon sight, way too big for anything else, and some other issues with it, but at the time, affordable. There are no GOOD cheats for night vision. I even build and rebuild and my best tricks are super tricky, low return rate, require the ability and tools (more cost!) to rework gear and stuff. I'd just save up more for a baseline reputable PVS-14 (or similar, a Katana, etc) and be happy with that vs finagling things.

Yes. Varo Nite Eye. Also briefly type classified a the PVS-11, competed with the PVS14 back in the day. Briefly issued to the US Navy (and foreign armies, mine is former IDF), for observation posts, watchstanders etc. I fabricated a bracket to head mount it (not unlike ENVIS adapters but I had to make mine), works, but they are indeed rare so hard to find one in good shape for a good price, so hard to say go find one of those as maybe you get a bad one, and too many ask night vision prices (way over $1000) when they may not be worth it.

MATH! The USGI compass has no declination setting dial, you have to add/subtract for each measurement. On NGA maps (US Government mil-issue ones) it has a chart that gives you this math. Here in one other video I do a bit of an overview of how that works, and show off where you find it: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fpqDfrhjldy6fGQ.html Other maps should have the declination change and you just have to work that out yourself. If declination is a big deal (lots of variation in your region), if high precision is needed, or you are going a long ways with few features to adjust for based on terrain association, you can give yourself a reminder, do the declination "once" by drawing M-N (magnetic north) lines on the map then work off those instead of the G-N lines. Only works for azimuth, for route planning, not for MGRS grid references, but it works.

Yup, updated declination is good. Get it from here: www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/calculators/magcalc.shtml But, unless you are in one of the zones where it's like 30°, the annual change is very very small, and you can probably ignore it for a few years, use the old one. 1.25° vs 1.27° is the sort of thing I see around here, and I just don't even bother updating when it's time to print new maps. Which is the last one: paper maps are consumable. I discourage people doing things like spending money for indestructible maps or spending too much time with waterproof application, esp if expensive, because they get too precious, and won't be replaced when next used. (I have a set of map cases I like, find that a lot better solution if you are in a place where a paper map won't survive). Replace it for the next expedition.

Somewhere here I say that, certainly do in the PPTs and in-person training. Look at dates on printed maps, for sure, yes! Here's a reliable source for global declination, always worth checking: www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/calculators/magcalc.shtml Also annoying: almost zero percent of digital mapping tools admit there's a magnetic north pole at all. Don't give any sort of declination chart.

Where do you find the updated info?

Yeah, I did that :) I am terrible at head math, so do cheats like this. The G-N grids still work when offset for finding your coordinates, and if just doing your own route planning (or similar, you are taking bearings to find position...) you can keep it all in M-N and not have to adjust for declination. But... I guess I didn't say that well enough. I also admit I grew up in a very-small-declination zone (+/- 3° at most anywhere nearby or where I have gone serious hiking) so I get lazy about that. Also, almost always in places with lots of terrain, to terrain associate. Not everywhere is like that, and I should focus more on those cases, yup.

I have assumed for a long time the cheap garage sale era was over, but well done. This is the way.

@@StevenHoober I usually get an item or two when I go out but Saturday I got really lucky! A woman who used to backpack in the trinity alps and Lassen national park was selling all her stuff. I bundled $433 worth of stuff for $60. $40 of that was a katadyn hiker pro water filter and a steripen that has never been used. I’m thinking of doing a video series of survival gear that I pick up at garage sales.

@@FanceeName You know you are just making everyone here hate you more :)

@@StevenHoober bring ‘em on! 😜

Depends on ambient light level, brightness at target and reflectivity of target. I have shot Class III lasers at clouds and can make very visible circles on them at (very roughly) 3,000 ft. (say 1,000 m) Trees on a hillside on normal darkness are easily illuminated to 2,000 m. At a mile or so, it is /barely/ visible only if you try to find it though. So a long ways off, well past the engagement range for anything you individually, or a fire team has with it, but only pretty darned close when it comes to air support which is why JTACs have REALLY, REALLY powerful lasers.

@@StevenHoober I appreciate the review and quick answer. Do you by chance know of any budget friendly night vision compatible red dots. I just dove head first into night vision and am looking for a full started set up that won't break the bank.

@@Masterafro999 HOW budgety (how cheap), and how rugged use?

@@StevenHoober I live in a country where the only "firearms" are Airsoft or paintball. I only want to be able to engage other players at night with a passive aiming device. My budget would be up to 200€ for now. Replicas would work as well as long as they have NV modes.

@@Masterafro999 All the replicas now on the market (there used to be better) are pretty bad sadly. Depending how eBay is over {wherever} I'd look for less well know or loved mil-issued items. Even old beat up Aimpoints are pretty expensive, but with patience at that price you can sneak into the civilian versions of the Meprolight M5 (issued with most Tavors, and I have 5,... work great!). Also check out DI Optical. They make stuff for the Korean military and have sold some of their bigger weirder sights (like for miniguns, etc) to the US, I am /pretty/ sure. Then: closeouts. Steiner makes lots of weird stuff that doesn't take off. When they clear out one of their red dots, sometimes they are pretty cheap and that's here in the US, I bet elsewhere they are even cheaper. Also: my experience is that NV-mode varies from dot to dot. NOT the power level, but the importance of it. Aimpoints really bloom to hell if not in NV mode. But the lower half of the settings on the Mepro work fine with my NODs. Better to turn down to the NV mode but not required. So, might work to get a quality civilian (like: hunting) RDS, and just use it low power, don't worry too much about NV mode specifically. Try to hit up some others next time at the airsoft range/field when dark and look through a bunch to see if any work well, to start getting a baseline on it.

Then I coudn't find anything and all my stuff would get lost. I often dump stuff at a campsite, inside a tent, etc. and loose stuff will be ground into the mud, never to be seen again. I have, for 40 years, had people say I should save weight and bulk by dumping pouches and I've iterated in several ways on my packing, but I've never understood how anyone finds anything if its a hollow bag of loose items. Anyway, most of my pouches are quite to hilariously lightweight as they are not themselves load bearing items, are inside, etc.

Reminded of this right now as the family waits to go to the pool. The wife won't let me pick the bag or organize it, so everything is loose in a 20 l + duffel. I put my smaller things in corners, and still routinely can't find anything. Have to take everything out, then maybe still don't find it, have to do that twice.

It is important you first know the five cardinal directions :)

Oh, at least Gen Xers like me also. Weirdest thing to me is it should only happen on GSM band phones which I did not have here. It the one I had there almost never did RF interference with anything so that's why this happened. And FAR too lazy to reshoot for this :)

CR-P2. I don't need one though, sold this to someone. Nope, don't have a digital user manual. Had a paper one but went with the unit I sold. Guts of a CR-P2 is literally 2 CR123s so if handy you can turn a depleted battery into a battery holder and fill it with cheaper batteries. Might take soldering but that's not that hard.

@@StevenHoober thank you ! Just bought one and I couldn’t find anything about it.

​@@wilfredoaguirre6146 So... I swear I had a PDF manual but I apparently only read the paper one and didn't photograph even a few interesting pages on the one I sold :( If baffled by anything, ask and I'll see if I can remember enough to explain it in words here.

Asked and answered. They are all field compasses, which arrive not in storage cases, and are stuck in pockets, hung from lanyards, rained on. And it's not a sidewalk or ship's deck. The big black grid is a rubber mat, as well. This is not abuse and any compass that can't deal with the handling shown is not suitable for their intended use.

1) PRC-12....6 I want to say. 2) Because I was dumb. This, and an FTX in the cold a few months after it, I realized i was missing stuff because I couldn't quickly scan, etc. Changed my WHOLE setup and now have new helmet, earpro on it, bridge and thermal/NOD on it, often wear it all day and have (FOF) assaulted in the day with thermal down, can switch to NODs when going indoors, etc etc. Not full time, so still have a padded case for them when truly not needed, but generally moving more to my head. My LBE doesn't really have room for them to be dismounted though, so not likely to ever shift to that but remember for this EX we were doing scouting so the ruck was on me full time, yes even when fighting (and we did that, laid in creekbeds hiding from drones, etc. No dropping for action). For other types of activities, the sensors would be in an assault pack, so with me 24x7. This ruck packing is a bit different and is both second and third line.

@@StevenHoober are you in a reenactment group?

@@harrisdail9939 Nope. Training and wargaming type stuff. Assuming because the radio: Modern radios are crazy expensive and/or impossible (illegal) to get, or fragile. PRC-68 series is a nice size, good power consumption/transmit level, good frequency bands, standard audio accessories, etc. You'll never see me plugged into a Baofeng.

@@StevenHoober dont kick baofeng they are good radios. I use them around my property. Here is some advise learn how to collect water in the enviroment and purify it for consumption. A 61 pound ruck is not good and this crap about when you make contact you dont lose your ruck is BS. That is the first thing that is dropped and got rid of. Trust me I know 24 years us army first 8 in spec ops and spent time as a cav scout

I don't recall in which video I talk about it, but compasses are annoyingly sensitive, so get messed with by guns, radio antennas and... other compasses! Does make setting a couple next to each other pretty dumb looking though, I know.

Pretty good. Not perfect attachment at all and it doesn't charge enough on even seriously cloudy days. For the EX I took this exact packing list to it worked well the first two days (though lots of attention to plugging in when stopped, etc) but the third day was too cloudy and I got really, really low on batteries. In fact... would have run out but we had a safety pause for some near-hypothermic folks, so went and got warm and I cheated by wall-charging the battery :) I also went and upgraded my battery since then, and that helps. I mostly now would use the solar to top off the battery when static at all, and the battery to charge the mobile phone when moving.

Naw... they are all just different. It is hard to get good baseplate or mirror compasses now (stupid profit reasons, mergers, etc) but good ones are excellent. And, mil issue in most countries. I even just got sent a snazzy compass cover for a Silva tritium I own, from a friend in Australia :) But I use my MC-1 the most still. Though I fear eventually the tritium will die, then I'll go back to the Cammenga because they still make them the old way, and apparently always will! Now, if I could just get Cammenga to make their tritium wrist compass reliable. Lost one because the child tossed it across the room, broke apart and never the same afterwards. The replacement freezes up when it gets too cold! I love having something I can rapidly refer to (esp in the dense country we get around here, or in urban areas, indoors, so you don't get twisted around) then go to the big one for planning. But... haven't found one I totally trust as yet.

@@4ourthmobile433 cammengas are just so bullet proof.

This one: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0787GQZTQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 The Ryno Tuff guys make several sizes, this was enough to charge actual devices. Seems tough as I have done pretty abusive things like hiked through brambly forests with it on the outside of the pack, for days at a time. Not as easy to strap to things as I'd hoped, but that's not it's fault, as that was a strange idea of mine anyway. Works great set up and sitting there, folds and unfolds fast, flat so pretty easy to stuff down the side of a pack or in a beavertail or pull out without damaging it. And charges under pretty cloudy conditions though... not all conditions. This events was /really/ stormy and I ran out of power, have since also started carrying a battery. Yeah, should have predicted that but I was trying to be more minimal!

Yes! I have a whole video on declination, and though it's a whole 5 minutes on that as a concept, you are in luck: I do it off a DMA map with a USGI compass. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pN-To5qEz8CceHU.html I have mostly navigated with less than 3° declination, so often blow it off myself, am not as naturally good at it, so need to refresh periodically myself; I am still vaguely astounded at areas where you get these large values, or can walk in a day or two to somewhere with a notably different value even!

@@StevenHoober I am just south of Bristol, TN and found that Johnson City, which is south of me, has a declination of -12° and I am attempting to run a wire through my woods at a 40° heading of the compass. It will be a receiving antenna for my ham radio station. The wire will be about 560' long. Thanks again!

Nope. The theory, I believe, is that combined with the maps it's a whole system. There's a declination chart at the bottom of each (US issue) map, with instructions on what to add or remove to get to each version of north you might need. If you had adjustable declination, the compass could be adjusted wrong, without you noticing, so this is supposed to be accident-proof. It's a choice, and one of any reasons why some people may like, or hate, this compass.

@@StevenHoober thanks for the quick and knowledgeable reply. I can see your point with map use. I would guess you just have to be careful if you are transferring baring from the map to compass or would any math be unnecessary if you align the compass properly to the map?

@@m005kennedy IF an adjustable-declination compass is properly dialed for location: no more math. But they can be risky not just for people who move to different regions but in certain far-north locales where you can walk over a period of a few days and have a notable change, or it changes a degree every few years, there's a risk you forget to change, and start heading the wrong angle. Non-dialable compasses means doing math every single time, so if important (trackless desert, artillery calls...) it's worth double checking - yourself or comparing with someone else doing the same calculation in parallel.