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Posted: 6/7/2011 12:10:53 PM EDT
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My first time was when my step-father brought home a pair of "cyclops" goggles back in the early 90's. I have no idea what kind they were. They had a seperate power supply that hooked onto the bottom of the carrying case (green or brown), Generation 0, and made that noise like a disposable camera flash when powered on. He sold it about a week later.
And currently I have a GT-14 from TNVC. My sons' first exposures were pretty cool. ETA: also bought it because my then 8 year old son liked them on COD4. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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My first time was buying a commercial gen 1 unit for my brother for Christmas about 10 years ago. He had a bass boat and fished all the time. I couldn't resist and tried it out before giving it to him. It was okay at best, so I returned it to Walmart and got him something else.
Years later, I got another gen 1 unit that I took in trade. I figured my nephew could play with it. He was not impressed and neither was I. So I ended up selling it as well. About a year back, I started seeing the Russian gen 1 mil-surplus AK side mount rifle scopes for sale from a guy in Finland. Unfortunely, he sold his last one right before I emailed him. As i was looking around for another, I found a NAIT NVPS-10 gen 2 unit cheap. Now that was pretty cool and really changed my view on night vision. I now have several gen 3 units and absolutely love them. Now I have to get my first thermal unit. This is a bad, bad road I am on. |
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My first was a set of pvs7's ...first time I'd ever seen them was at night getting my night driving certification 2 days after getting to my unit out of basic. E-6 telling me put these on and drive.
"Hmmm, I can't see anything sergeant.". "Well, adjust them." "This is the first time I've ever touched them, I'm not sure how." It's as close to zero illum in the back 40 as I've ever seen. He says "Try them again." I say "I still can't see anything sergeant." "You can't see, or you can't see well?" " I cannot see anything at all." He says "Just drive." Off we went, I might have well been wearing a black prisoner hood. Scary shit but prayer kept me on the road and before too long it was over. After that I got my own pair and figured out how to adjust them. Once I got it figured out everyone said I drove faster with nods than in the day time. Good times... |
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I had a long history with near IR working with electronics, so moving through CCD based IR cameras and Gen0 was all gradual for me - fun but no WOW factor. My first major NV experience was when the boss came into the office one day with a box from Russia. This was just around 1990 and the Russians were starting to sell all kinds of stuff. Most of it was Gen1 ( I didn't understand Generations at all ) but one device, a Rostov riflescope stood out. Heavy and unweildly, it was different from the rest. So I took it home for the weekend to play with. There was no moon and not a lot of development around at the time, but they had just cleared the trees behind my house to make room for a new development. I jumped the fence and sat in the darkness, amazed that unlike the other scopes, this one let me see a lot. Tire tracks in the dirt, trees in the distance, embers climbing up into the night sky like fireflies escaping from burning log piles that had stopped smoking the day before. Then out of the darkness at the edge of the scrub came an animal. At first I thought it was a dog, but as it came closer I saw it was a fox. It walked within a few meters of me before I made a noise and startled it, but before then, I was just sitting quietly, observing it. The scope was a cascade Gen1 and I didn't realize how good they actually were before then. I was seriously impressed and that was when the bug bit. I bought a scope from him - a Baigish 5P - though it would be more than a decade before that died, sending me looking for something better... A search I'm still on today. :) David |
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My first experience was when I bought a pair of ITT 5001 Gen III PVS-7s in 2003. It was like magic. I was speachless.
Think about it. For 5000 years of human history, humans have wanted to be able to see in the dark. Now, we can. I have a better Gen III PVS14 now. It is still amazing to me. |
My very first scope is embarrassing to say the least. It was Gen 1 and many years ago. It took a 9 volt battery and it did color things green. That is really about all it did. I thought it was really cool at the time. It was a Russian Moonlight brand POS gen 1. Don't like to tell this story because it makes me want to punish myself and go sit in the corner. 
After that it was a ATN nightmare which I won't bore anyone with the details. Then I bought a ITT Gen 3 160 which was the first time I went WOW ! I then stepped up to a PVS-7 and after that the list gets really long. 
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August - September 1992...
I had just got to my unit in the 7th ID at Ft. Ord a few days prior...we rolled down to Ft. Hunter-Ligget for a 10 day field problem. We're in our position for the night and next thing I know, I have guard duty. The guy I'm relieving hands me a pair of PVS-5's & tells me not to lose them... I put them on, look up and...HOLY SHIT!!! I can see about 87 bazillion stars that I couldn't see a minute ago and even a couple of satellites going by overhead... It was a fun couple of hours... 
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| Our patrol division has a few we could check out...I was working in the rural parts of our county so I'd take the pvs14 out and play around....after loving it so much I saved up my ot pay and bought a nice pair of pvs7's. Although not as good res as the 14s the image had less blems and overall quality was good. |
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My first night vision experience were two sets of Russian PN-14K goggles with Gen2+ tubes (ATN NVG7-2I)
One with P20 green phosphor, the other one with P43. Specsheets said around 45 lp/mm and SNR 19. Despite of ATN's bad reputation I could not find a single flaw on these devices. The performance of the Russian Gen2+ tubes left me quite disappointed with the first Gen3 I have later tested (AN/PVS-7B OMNI III) |
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Fort Campbell, Kentucky. I'm a brand-new Private with cellophane still stuck to his boots, doing his first field problem. An M16A2 with blanks, a PVS-5 brick strapped to my face and I was even issued a real flare for my M203. John-Motherfucking-Rambo. Actually no. I still missed spots when I put camo paint on my face. I hadn't even figured out how to really tie up my Jungle Boots... yeah I capitalized that on purpose. My first three days after in-processing and I'm hitting the woodline with my new platoon. We're doing an FLS takedown and wouldn't you know it, I'm the driver for a .50 truck. Anyhow, we do our little FLS seizure mission and I'm supposed to "close the door" for our platoon's rear security in a sort of mounted patrol base. We aren't expecting any OPFOR (bad guys) contact, but I was excited to just be out there and I was pretty ramped up to see if I could "kill" some OPFOR. Fast forward a few hours and I'm still on guard. My relief was my section sergeant and he basically refused to get up and the man after him moved and camouflaged himself. So I'm basically stuck pulling guard in a game of "Fuck Over The New Guy" I was watching my sector and then some, I found another truck adjacent to me while I was roving around and checked in with them periodically. Bored and tired out of my skull at that point. About 0230 and I'm buzzing on adrenaline, some instant coffee powder I was eating and my very first-ever pinch of Copenhagen. I'm wired for sound. I'd long-since figured out how to focus the goggles they gave me, but the humidity and poor adjustability of my NODs kept them basically permanently fogged, the scratched-to-shit objective lenses weren't a help either. Those NODs looked like they were stored in a paint mixer full of nails. I was basically just staring at the same hazy green jeep trail and it's edges for hours... then I think I see some movement. I kneel down to change my perspective a little, yeah... those are legs. I go prone and load my Almighty Flare, the legs are steadily walking down the trail closer and closer. They're well within twenty meters when I issue a challenge. The legs freeze, no response. I give the challenge again, this time the legs start moving towards my voice... pretty fucking deliberately and very carefully. I I finally decide to fire my flare and I see the legs freeze while I roll away into the brush towards my truck. I'm on my feet and running just after the flare lights up the fucking world, no choice... I hafta move and those shitty night vision goggles would kill me if I ran with them. I could hear the other guard across the street muttering expletives at me, probably in response to the flare. Whatever he was saying, he sounded tired and confused. I wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying, mostly because of the Mongolian horde-sized OPFOR element that was illuminated on the jeep trail. They saw me running and some were actually going to try and either a) shoot me with blank-equipped laser guns or b) capture me. As the Kurds say: No Bash I don't know what the fuck went through my head besides "wake everyone up". So, as I ran up to the [very camouflaged] HMMWV it was a pretty natural movement to take the front bumper with one step, the hood with the next step and my last step put me on the roof. You know, the roof of the Humvee... with the ring turret that holds a blank-loaded .50 caliber machine gun. I did what any red-blooded American boy would love to do, I dropped into that turret as fast as I could, charged the gun twice to make sure it was loaded and played the better part of a can of ammo across the surprised OPFOR squad that was now entering our sector of fire. Now I'm not gonna say I knew he was there, but my shitbag Section Sergeant just happened to be sleeping across the two rear seats. Under the turret. My Platoon Sergeant was pretty aware of what his subordinate NCO was doing when he got treated for some burns from a brass shower. I didn't get in trouble, but the gunner did for not having a brass catch bag. Does this have anything to do with PVS-5 goggles? Sure it does, -5 goggles work so well I had to use a fucking M203 flare to see. At any rate, I never had to use them past that field problem. I was so high-speed that they put me on a SAW... with a PVS-4.  |
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The late 80's or early 90's. Living in the boonies near Fort Hood TX. Army choppers liked to run the oil pipeline right next to my house five or six in a row just above tree top level at night blacked out. It was loud and shook the house, but I thought it was pretty cool. One night I expanded their training to include hostile Q-Beam spotlight attack.
Fast forward to present day. My son works at a tactical gun range frequented by military types and meets a older helo pilot. Upon learning where my son lives, relayed a story about this crazy guy that blow out his night vision with a spot light. He not only got in trouble for the NV that he had to pay for, but also for flying so low. He was still mad about it. Said something like "I'd like to find that son of a bitch". $20 spotlight wins against multi-million dollar technology. Who knew? |
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My first NVG experience was when my father was doing some of the first work getting the A-10 cockpits revamped for use with the ANVIS goggles. Prior they were killing all cockpit lights and using green chem lights in those little windowed tubes. Turn the tube and the window get smaller, lowering the light output. They'd velcro them all over the cockpit to provide illumination.
We went down to his squadron one night to play with these cool new toys, did the whole test pattern adjustment thing. The coolest thing was when we took them outside and looked at the Hale-Bopp comet. HOT DAMN!!!! You could see the trail halfway across the sky!!! I'm waiting for the next Perseid meteor shower to see what it looks like through my PVS. I didn't know it at the time, but I was really spoiled as a 14 year old kid looking through a matched pair of aviation-spec tubes. I'm either going to save up the cash for a set of -9's, or buy a set of matched aviation-spec tubes and see if I can buy the ANVIS parts or make a ghetto set out of AB NVM-2AA housings. |
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Boy Scouts when I was in junior high or high school. We took a tour of our local army reserve station or post or whatever its called and they let us try whatever the helicopter pilots use on their flight helmets. I don't remember much about it except that it was pretty cool.
ETA: Must have been in high school cause I was in the middle of reading Chicken Hawk by Robert Mason for the third time. I kept asking all these technical questions about the black hawks and the guy giving the tour kept giving me all these wtf looks cause he couldn't figure out how I knew so much about helicopters. |
| I bought a Russian scope that was as big as a 32oz cup. The entire end screwed off ad if you looked @ ny lights it would wash out every other object. I think it cost $500 or so and I wasa glad to get rid of it. I found a great deal on a gen 3 GT-14 monocular and it is incredible. I'm shocked every time I go outside w/ it. Technology is great...........................................................................when it works. |
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When working as police office in Innisfail NQ in 1990, a army blackhawk helicopter landed at the local airport. The crew rang and asked for assistance, that assistance being a lift into town to get a pizza for dinner. As it is a quiet little town we were happy to give them a lift.
When we took them back to the airport we got to try out the NV gear they had fitted to their helmets. I believe they may have been Gen3 ANVIS6/9 very nice, I was addicted immediately. Now 20 odd years later I have spent a small fortune trying to get something with the same performance, as yet no success, damned ITAR. 
My NV journey has been rewarding I now have friends all around the world thanks to various forums.
cheers Ian |
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The first time I turn on my PVS-14 I was simply in awe. The night seemed to turn into day time! I was quite impressed and you could see as far at night as the day time.
I'm on vacation this week and was messing around with the night sky on clear nights. While laying on my back to save my neck from a neck cramp, I'm panning the clear night sky. The stars just jump out at you like your in a planetarium. In addition if you watch, you can clearly see satellites orbiting the earth, and possibly other UFOs. I can't say I saw them change direction, but some of the moving dots are doing thousands of miles an hour! I have also seen them in pairs so did I see 2 satelites side by side or something else? Anyway, this is something you must check out if your into sky watching! |
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My first contact with image intensifiers was 1994, shortly after I entered the service. We, the new recruits, were setting up platoon defensive position when our instructor presented a green boxy bag, very much the same size as our ammunition tins. He was about to lecture us on the use of image intensifiers which were then handed over to us play with. The lecture started with a warning that if lost or broke the damn thing the govt was going to charge us with a price of car. Poor as young lads could be, that did get our full attention.
The device itself was Leica's (I believe Vectronics these days) BIG3 sporting an unknown tube. To us it indeed was impressive piece of gear, and not only for it's price. I remember still the following night, when I was given one and tasked to lead a team to recon enemy positions kilometer or so away. Naturally this was exciting as it gets for a young lad and to make things better we managed to evade an enemy forward position/ recon team with this magnificent thing, find the enemy formation and report back without undue incidents. I must have gotten the bug back then. :) |
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