After a few weeks of absence taking care of a few new projects and getting settled back in after the LMS Defense Customer Appreciation Weekend (check AAR Here) it is good to finally be putting up another product of the week.
This weeks product is AmeriGlo Light Sticks. An obvious addition to our Low Light segment of products, providing users with a safe, cool to the touch, disposable light source for direct illumination of an area or for signaling in various ways.
A little information from the manufacturer:
Our most popular item! AmeriGlo's 6" light stick is always individually foil wrapped to insure bright and dependable light when needed.
Used by military, law enforcement, paramedics, campers, hikers, scouts, utility companies, hotels, schools, boaters, and well-prepared individuals. Emergency personnel and troops alike prefer AmeriGlo light sticks for its versatility in the field, using this special locking hook.
Color Specific information from the manufacturer:
Green is the brightest color in the 12-hour product category. The 6" green light stick provides adequate light for a standard-sized hotel room (or household bedroom) for 12 hours.
Yellow is the 2nd brightest color in the 12-hour product category. The 6" yellow light stick is ideal for illumination, marking, and signaling.
Red is often used in training exercises when many colors are needed. Red is also a 'stop/warning' indicator.
The infrared light stick can only be seen (in its glowing state) via certain grades of night vision devices. The AmeriGlo IR stick has special raised bumps (patent pending) on the stick's housing, allowing the end-user to quickly and safely distinguish the IR stick from a visible spectrum colored light stick prior to activation. This unique feature can be a life-saver in covert operations
While AmeriGlo makes a wide variety of colors and sizes of light sticks we have opted to start with the most popular colors field use which also happen to be the colors (visible light sticks) used for triage during mass casualty incidents, so these can pull double duty for our customers that are First Responders and looking for a light source or signaling capability for an aid bag. The IR light sticks are something that have been requested by a number of our customers for training and operational use under night vision, for those not familiar you must have a night vision device to observe light produced by the IR light sticks.
In a market where numerous companies produce a similar product it is the fine details that stand out and make a single product lead the pack. AmeriGlo and their light sticks are that product. Details such as the following are why we choose AmeriGlo:
-Small latching hook at tip of light stick for clipping onto gear
-Innovative product development such as stippling on IR light sticks for tactile identification under light discipline
-Durable packaging to increase shelf life
-Consistent product
-Ease of interaction and customer service
A few photos of the light sticks:
Visible colors
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IR (should have an adapter for my DSLR soon to shoot with my PVS-14 and get some good low light shots)
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Latching Hook:
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Solid Loop:
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And of course I mentioned in the intro that I had a new hack this week. For a long time guys have been carrying light sticks on their tac gear, now I dont want to go into too much detail about the why but while playing around with shooting photos today I found what may be a solid new way to carry these for rapid deployment. A little background on the motivation: I am always trying to streamline my kit by reducing weight, bulk, and anything that can catch the environment around me when training or working. Anytime in the past that I have carried light sticks on my vest for quick deployment I have hung them off a carabiner through a loop of 550 cord or if I was using another model of light stick I had to tie 550 cord through the enclosed loop of the light stick and I just clipped the cord loop into the carabiner. Not liking the carabiner because of the bulk and the likelihood of it snagging on something I have looked for a better solution. Today while setting up a photo I decided to clip some of the light sticks into a grenade pull ring and then clip into the biner. Looking at the system the biner suddenly seemed unnecessary and I pondered other ways of attaching it to a section of MOLLE on my vest.
I ended up coming up with the idea to simply use a small section of 550 cord to larks foot around the pull ring and then larks foot around the MOLLE. This created a low profile, stowable clip in point for my light sticks that was less likely to catch on stuff, quieter, smaller, lighter, and all around cool. Below is a setup guide on how to put this together since my ability to paint a picture with words may not have been sufficient:
Take a pull ring and larks foot a section of 550 cord through it. I found that a 13-14" piece of non gutted 550 is just long enough to complete both larks foots and minimize excess. You could probably make it shorter if you gutted it.
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Slide the 550 cord through a section of MOLLE (shown on clear section of MOLLE)
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And larks foot around the MOLLE (I stowed the knot behind the webbing, photo may be slightly deceiving):
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| From Blog album |
Hang your light sticks:
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I like to hang mine between pouches that have a small gap so that they dont bang around as much (reduce profile, noise, and possible loss) so you perform the same technique on an occupied section of MOLLE between the pouches:
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| From Blog album |
End Result:
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| From Blog album |
Another Angle:
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As I said before, I literally just came up with this today so it will take some time on the range and in the shoot house to vet but it may be a solid solution to streamlining and cutting ounces from your gear. Not to mention pull rings are cheap as long as you have a source for them ;-).
Where to buy this stuff, huh? Right here:
AmeriGlo 6" Light Sticks in visible spectrum colors (Red, Yellow, Green) at Austere Provisions Company
AmeriGlo 6" Light Sticks in InfraRed spectrum at Austere Provisions Company
That's all for this week, stay sharp, stay safe,
Mike
I'm a big fan of chemical lights. I've got a few of those new electronic chemical lights. Basically diffuses a colored LED light down a plastic tube. Meh. Those are good, but not as bright. And too heavy. I still keep two or three chemical lights in my kits anyway. And most last far beyond their 12 hour life expectancy. I've got about a dozen 6" 12 hour sticks I bought 5 years ago in a halloween box and they've never been wrapped up and still work fine.
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