Night Ops - disection

It was a successful effort, some things went well, other things can use improvement.

Communications Plan - The very first thing that happened as we started to move out is I found out the repeaters I had programmed the night before were out of range from our area of operations. TacNet had to read me new frequencies over the cellphone. I usually program my radio in a well lit office or living room with a manual, and web browser open. I had to do it in the dark, in a moving car. It took me almost 5 min, 2 tries to set everything up from memory. Good lesson on knowing your gear, testing ahead of time, and not being lazy and programming ALL linked repeaters in your area of operations.

Lights - You can't have too many. I am glad I had as many lights as I did.

Underarmour cold gear - It was great to layer up once the temperatures started plummeting and the wind kicked up.

APRS - The APRS built into my radio and all the TinyTrack 3 boxes performed well. It is unfortunate that there are some spots in the county that don't have APRS coverage - but now we know where they are. It would be nice if we could get fill-in digipeaters on cell towers out there.

Dead Spots - we were out in boonies where all UHF, VHF and cellphone coverage was 0. Even once we got to tops of the hills and I could hear the repeater, my ht still couldn't hit it. Very frustrating. In the future I will have a magmount antenna on the car, and will add MBITR style antenna back onto my body armor. If something had gone wrong SPOT2 would be the only viable means of signaling.

Sheriffs Deputies - Deputies did a great job helping teams out by providing escorts. When request for investigation was radioed in, it was acknowledged and followed up on.

Volunteers - This was a mixed bag. People came out wanting to do good and help. I commend everyone who came out. Some people didn't make it for various reasons and never called, didn't pick up the phone when called...

Some of the volunteers who were supposed to know the area and scout around beforehand didn't do such a great job. I realize it wasn't their area of expertise. They did the best they could and I commend them for going out and trying.

The way to make this better would be better coordination with state police, sheriffs deputies in the area (no township police out there), coordination with township, and perhaps some planning/collaboration several months beforehand using a wiki and google maps.

Maxpedition Gearslinger Monsoon - I keep trying to use this bag, I want to try and like it but it is a terrible terrible bag to use for a blow out bag or techie bag. It is hard to pack things well in it, and it is hard to find things in it without dumping almost the entire contents of the bag. I think it has to go...

Glock 35 and spare mags - Thankfully I didn't need to use them but there were 2 times I was very glad I had them. Being in the dark, in unknown area, without cell or radio coverage and with possibility of armed mentally unstable people around it was comforting knowing I had them.

Merrell hiking boots with goretex - kept my feet warm and dry even when I was pushing the car out of mud after it got stuck (someone else was driving).

Diamondback tactical chest rig - took a while to set up to be comfortable but once I did it was decent. The flashlight pouch is too small for anything but 2AA maglight. Pistol mag pouches held glock 20rd mags well enough. Access was cumbersome. The radio pouch and closure is not well thought out at all. Not a keeper.

We have discovered some interesting abandoned structures. As expected the structures had been broken into by someone. There were also numerous ferile cats around.

In one location as we were checking out a location we saw a suspicious vehicle. I had a pretty good idea of what was going on and when I shined the 3D sized light at the car from the distance the car took off. I suspect the delay was the buttoning of pants and blouses in the car.