Night Vision Devices

WELCOME TO THE NO BS ZONE OF TEDDY JACOBSON

PLEASE NOTE: I WILL NOT BE TAKING IN ANY TRIGGER WORK ON A BERETTA MODEL 87 AT THIS POINT IN TIME. I REALIZE THERE IS AN ARTICLE IN THE NOV. 2005 ISSUE OF GUNS MAGAZINE WRITTEN BY MASAAD AYOOB ABOUT THIS 87 THAT I DID MANY YEARS AGO. I WILL ONLY TAKE IN LIMITED TRIGGER WORK ON STREET GUNS ONLY AND YOU MUST CALL ME FIRST. I GIVE NO DISCOUNTS TO ANYONE REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOUR NAME IS AND OR WHAT YOUR STATUS IS IN THIS LIFE. I AM STILL VERY MUCH IN DEMAND BUT I JUST DO VERY LIMITED WORK THAT HAS NEVER BEEN WORKED ON BY SOME ONE ELSE. YOU CAN CALL ME ON MY LAND LINE AT 281 565 6977 MOST ANY DAY AT 10am CENTRAL TIME. I WILL DISCUSS YOUR HANDGUN WITH YOU ANYTIME AND OR ADVISE YOU WHAT TO PURCHASE..........TJ

DAMASCUS STEEL added Oct. 29, 2005
www.tacticalknives.blogspot.com

DISCLAIMER: THIS COMMENTARY AS WELL AS ALL MY PREVIOUS COMMENTARIES ARE MY PERSONAL OPINION AND MY PERSONAL VIEWPOINT. WHEN I QUOTE SOME ONE IT IS COPIED AND PASTED FROM A PUBLIC DOMAIN OF ONE KIND OR ANOTHER. I DO PAY FOR SOME DETAILED INTELLIGENCE REPORTS THAT I SHARE WITH YOU. IF YOU CAN NOT DEAL WITH REALITY, PLEASE LEAVE NOW.

I USE MILITEC METAL CONDITIONER FOR ALL MY TRIGGER WORK.Go to http://www.militec-1.com/I do not sell it and you can buy it directly from Militec.

FOR CERAMIC COATINGS I USE PRODUCTS FROM NIC INDUSTRIESGo to http://www.nicindustries.com/Speak with Brandon Grady, he can help you.

FOR ALL MY CLEANING PURPOSES I USE LPS PRODUCTS, THERE IS NOTHING BETER THAN ZERO TRI OR MICRO X http://www.lpslabs.com/You can purchase these products from http://www.mscdirect.com/

IF YOU NEED A SILICONE PRODUCT FOR YOUR HOLSTERS I USE DOW CHEMICAL SILICONE THAT COMES IN A SPRAY CAN OR A TUBE AND CAN BE PURCHASED AT http://www.mscdirect.com/

I USE THE VERY BEST OF EVERYTHNG. I DO LIMITED WORK AT THIS POINT IN TIME BUT I HAVE NEVER TAKEN ANY SHORT CUTS IN THE SUPPLIES I BUY. I DO NOT GET PAID FOR THESE ENDORSEMENTS. I AM TELLING ALL OF YOU THIS BECAUSE I WANT TO. I CAN NOT BE BOUGHT, MY SOUL IS NOT FOR SALE TO ANYONE.

NIGHT VISION INFORMATION COURTESY OF A GOOD FRIEND.

It is not possible to compare the Nightview Digital night vision monocular with other current military night vision devices because they are based on completely different technologies:
image intensifier tubes vs. CCD’s (see below).

Due to the difference in technologies it is not possible to compare one type of device to the other- it’s an apples and oranges kind of thing. The military night vision devices or night vision goggles (NVGs) are based on an “image intensifier tube”. NVGs are electro-optical devices that intensify (or amplify) existing light instead of relying on a light source of their own. Image intensifiers capture ambient light and amplify it thousands of times by electronic means to display the battlefield to a soldier via a phosphor display such as night vision goggles.

This ambient light comes from the stars, moon or sky glow from distant man made sources, such as cities. The devices are sensitive to a broad spectrum of light, from visible to infrared (invisible). Users do not look through NVGs, you look at the amplified electronic image on a phosphor screen. Light enters the NVG through an objective lens and strikes a photo cathode powered by a high energy charge from the power supply.

The energy charge accelerates across a vacuum inside the intensifier and strikes a phosphor screen (like a TV screen) where the image is focused. The eyepiece magnifies the image. At their best, NVGs cannot provide the same level of sharpness to what you see as what you’re accustomed to in the daytime.

While normal vision is 20/20, NVGs can, at best, provide only 20/25 to 20/40, and even this is possible only during optimal illumination and when you have a high-contrast target or scene. As either illumination or contrast decreases, the NVG’s visual acuity drops, giving you an even more “fuzzy” image.

The Nightview Digital night vision monocular used solid-state digital technology, specifically, CCD’s or charge-coupled devices. CCDs are similar to microprocessor and memory integrated circuits, in that they are fabricated on silicon wafers in a series of elaborate steps using photo lithography to define and build various functional elements within the microcircuitry. Each wafer contains tens to hundreds of identical devices, each fully capable of producing a single CCD chip for use in digital cameras.

Before this device, the only place CCD’s were used by the military was in special purpose satellite technology. Now, apparently the cost has gone down to the point where they can be incorporated into consumer electronics. The night vision industry has evolved through three stages, or "Generations," of development.

Generation I technology is obsolete in the US market. More recent developments include Generation II, II+, III, and III+. Each generation offers more sensitivity and can operate effectively on less light.

A Brief History of Night Vision Development-The heart of any night vision system is an image intensifier tube. The intensifiers are rated as either first, second or third generation.

Image intensifier tubes basically consist of a photo cathode which converts light images to electron images (these, in turn can be amplified); and a microchannel plate (in the 2nd and 3rd generations), which converts the flow of electrons back to a light image.

The FIRST GENERATION image intensifier tubes, or GEN 1as they are known uses simple grid shaped electrodes to accelerate the electrons through the tube.

The SECOND and THIRD GENERATIONS of tubes (GEN 2 and GEN 3) use complex MCP (MICROCHANNEL PLATES) that not only accelerate the electrons pulled from the photo cathode, but increase their number. This increased charge then causes the phosphors to glow more brightly in response to the light reflected.

Generation I Amplification: 1,000x The early 1960's was witness to the beginning of passive night vision. Technological improvements included vacuum tight fused fiber optics for good center resolution and improved gain, multi-alkali photocathodes and fiber optic input & output windows.

GEN I devices lacked the sensitivity and light amplification necessary to see below full moonlight, and were often staged or cascaded to improve gain. As a result, GEN I systems were large and cumbersome, less reliable, and relatively poor low light imagers. They were also characterized by streaking and distortion.

Generation II Amplification: 20,000x The development of the Micro channel Plate (MCP) led to the birth of Generation II devices in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Higher electron gains were now possible through smaller packaging, and performance improvements made observation possible down to 1/4 moonlight. The first proximity focused micro channel plate (MCP) image intensifier tube was an 18mm used in the original AN/PVS-5 NVG.

Generation II+ provides improved performance over standard Gen II by providing increased gain at high and low levels. Generation II+ equipment will provide the best image under full moonlight conditions and is recommended for urban environments.

Generation III Amplification: 30,000 - 50,000x The current state-of-the-art, the Generation III intensifier multiplies the light gathering power of the eye or video receptor up to 30,000 times. Requiring over 460 manufacturing steps, the GEN III intensifier is typically characterized by a Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) photo cathode, which is grown using a metal organic vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE) process.

The photon sensitivity of the GaAs photo cathode extends into the near-infrared region, where night sky illuminance and contrast ratios are highest. Sealed to an input window which minimizes veiling glare, the photo cathode generates an electron current which is proximity focused onto a phosphor screen, where the electron energy is converted into green light which can then be relayed to the eye or sensor through an output window.

The GEN III Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) photo cathode is uniquely sensitive beyond 800 nanometers, considered to be the critical near-infrared region where night sky illuminance levels are greatest. This spectral response shift to the red region results in improved Signal-to-Noise Ratios over GEN III's predecessors, delivering a three-fold improvement in visual acuity and detection distances.

There are some additional developments (Gen III+, Gen IV and Gen V) in the night vision field, however, the military deems them to be “sensitive” in nature and public domain information on this is spotty at best. Besides these devices are not open to public sale at this time. In essence, image intensifier tubes are an analog means of light amplification while CCD’s are their digital equivalent.

Much like the difference between say cameras which use 35mm file (analog) vs. cameras which use digital technology or a slide rule (analog) vs. a calculator (digital). In general, digital technologies will tend to be lighter in weight, more expensive and still developing in capability. Analog technologies are older & bulkier, less expensive and are proven mature technologies.




Back to where it all started
Al-Qaida making Somalia new safe haven -- again


Top level

G2 Headlines
Author: Joseph Farah

© 2005 G2 Bulletin
Publishing date: 21.10.2005 10:23

Merely a week following the U.N. Security Council’s extension of a weapons embargo on Somalia, the arms business continues to flourish in the lawless northeast corner of Africa.

Scene from "Black Hawk Down" In its routinely powerless decision-making process, the U.N. Security Council extended the embargo by six months, a move which gained very little attention in the world community and has no real bearing on the gunrunners. In addition to many well or lesser known arms dealers and merchants of death diplomatic sources in New York and East Africa say at least three governments are actively involved in shipping weapons and other military equipment to Somalia.

Ethiopia and Eritrea denied any on-going involvement in the practice whereas the Yemeni government disclosed its air force was involved in nine missions flying to Somalia 5,000 guns, magazines and ammunition, and 15,000 sets of uniforms. These shipments were delivered to the so-called Somali interim federal government, a hollow body residing mainly in Kenya, which also hosts the Somali parliament.

Prime Minister Yussuf Abdullahi, 72, a former warlord of the breakaway region Puntland, claims his native place is the only region where he can expect a friendly reception. Attempts by Abdullhai and some of his lieutenants to reach Mogadishu have failed as at lest on one occasion a so-called government convoy was stopped on its way from the air port to the capital only to be turned back by gunmen who made sure the officials left behind their watches, sunglasses, and some even their shoes.

This chaotic situation has been going on for 14 years, since the 1991 downfall of the dictator Muhammad Siad Brre and the colossal failure of the U.N. to pacify the country. Paradoxically Yussuf Abdulhai’s government continues to play the role, not only of a legitimately elected government, but also as the official body representing an alleged national agenda to the 3.5 million Sunni Muslim population divided into groups and clans.

This unstable situation is causing further deterioration and is slowly developing into a serious security threat, a concern to those fighting global terrorism, predominantly that of the jihadi kind. Abdulhai and his army chief of staff recently went to Sanaa on a weapons purchase mission. The fact Somalia has no real military or an effective police force was of little concern to the two or to their hosts for that matter.

Yemeni air force transporters carrying military hardware were quick to cross the Gulf of Aden and land in Bossaso. This delivery came in addition to eight admitted shipments, which arrived between July 2 and July 10. The final destination or exact whereabouts of the Yemeni weapons is a question open to imagination and speculation. Claims “the equipment was purchased and delivered for the national Somali Police,” were described by a Kenyan observer as “lines straight out of an opera,” reminding of Somalia’s past as an Italian colony.

As if dealing with a government in control of a real army and real law enforcement agencies, the Yemeni government received new orders from Abdulhai and his chief of staff. Their extensive list included an undisclosed number of RPG anti-tank rocket launchers, anti-aircraft SAM-7 shoulder operated rockets, 85mm anti-tank guns, mortars and even a number of helicopters, all available in Yemen’s military storage or junkyards.

A French officer serving with a special unit based in neighboring Djibouti reacted to the news about Yemen’s arms deals by saying: “It is interesting to watch the Somali ghost police needing anti-tank guns.” Foreigners in the non-functioning Somali capital Mogadishu joked about the Yemeni uniform shipments, suggesting they are probably meant to serve a Somali version of the comic series The Invisible Man.

Against the backdrop of illegal arms shipments landing in Somalia it is obvious supplying governments and independent gunrunners, some of whom fly over the Indian Ocean or from North Africa via Niger, Chad, Sudan and Ethiopia, to Somali destinations, have more clients in mind. Among them are Somali breakaway governments, warlords and jihadi elements, setting up shop in the country. The most important concern is over Somalia becoming a strong supplier of hardware, training and recuperation, for African al-Qaida supporters.

The independent breakaway republic of Somaliland, the only well organized and democratic entity in the once united Somalia, announced its police force had arrested al-Qaida operatives, among them a Comoro Island native by the name of Fazul Abdullah Muhammad with at least four of his colleagues. Immediately following the September 29 elections, Somaliland sources said they had apprehended more al-Qaida and Jamaa Islamiah loyals who were on a mission to assassinate leading members of the Union of Democrats Party, UDUB. No details were given about the hit team’s full identity but a source in the capital Hargeisa told visiting analysts from Kenya the assassins had also targeted leaders of other political parties in the 82-seat parliament.

The nature of al-Qaida’s involvement became clear as a leading Muslim clergy, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, said in Mogadishu he and other hard line clergy envision a Somali Muslim entity based on the Taliban model -- in other words a new al-Qaida stronghold. The sheikh is on record as saying: “I would advise the western world to change their mind about Muslim fundamentalists because all of the time they call the Islamic countries, the Islamic people terrorists which is not true.

This will be one thing that has been pulling Islamists and the western world apart.” Local warlords and gang leaders in Mogadishu and in the countryside say Sheikh Aweys is gradually receiving a legendary Osama bin Laden-like image. One gang leader involved in the weapons’ business as well as in piracy and robbery said, according to a British analyst: “Aweys is the only one who can bring all of us together and even lead a jihad, not only in Somalia but also against the traitors in breakway Somaliland and Puntland, who cooperate with the Christians of Ethiopia and Eritrea.” According to Shabtai Shavit, a former head of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, quoted by Michel Moutot on a South African news website, there is a growing danger Somalia will become an al-Qaida stronghold.

Shavit warned that sooner or later terror leaders such as Jordanian born Musab al-Zarqawi, the man behind most of the terror campaign in Iraq, will have to move out of Iraq or even opt to do so voluntarily since “a terrorist organization cannot exist without territory, al-Qaida cannot stay in Iraq forever, they (will) have to find another place.” Jiuseppe Pisano, Italy’s interior minister, expressed similar views in the same article, cautioning the Horn of Africa is becoming al-Qaida’s next comfort zone and said: “…where, in stateless lands, al-Qaida has arrived and settled and from where it tends, in various ways, to dispatch its followers into Europe and the rest of the world.”

The U.S., together with a number of other western countries, maintains a small military response team in Djibouti. The U.S. share is 800 strong only with no signs of accompanying the military presence with diplomatic or military initiatives to support Somaliland, the only democratic part of Somalia. Sitting idle, watching a brewing disaster in the making, is an unfortunate and dangerous position to hold. It is possibly not too far fetched to assume the need to re-enter Somalia with a full force, under a U.N. or coalition flag, will dictate some sort of pre-emptive action to eradicate a new al-Qaida territorial safe haven before it dominates the whole country.

It wouldn't be the first time al-Qaida was in the driver's seat in Somalia. It was bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorists who planned the operation that led to the "Black Hawk Down" mission that forced a U.S. withdrawal from Somalia during the Clinton administration.

G2B contributor Yoram East

Zechariah Chapter 14

יב וְזֹאת תִּהְיֶה הַמַּגֵּפָה, אֲשֶׁר יִגֹּף יְהוָה אֶת-כָּל-הָעַמִּים, אֲשֶׁר צָבְאוּ, עַל-יְרוּשָׁלִָם; הָמֵק בְּשָׂרוֹ, וְהוּא עֹמֵד עַל-רַגְלָיו, וְעֵינָיו תִּמַּקְנָה בְחֹרֵיהֶן, וּלְשׁוֹנוֹ תִּמַּק בְּפִיהֶם.
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the peoples that have warred against Jerusalem: their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their sockets, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

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www.tacticalknives.blogspot.com/ (Blogger by TJ)

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Teddy