A Gizmo, A Backpack, and Thou-1997-09-30-Gadgets for the electronic backpacker-Steve Bass

"Hey, Bill, can you hear me?" Pfssst! Kerchkt! Pop! Zthwap!!

"What? ... Huh? Say again ... Oops, OVER!"

I was on top of Bishop Pass, 12,000 feet high in the Sierra, shouting into a Motorola two-way radio. My buddy Bill was a mile down the trail and probably shouting back.

But we weren't shouting for fun. This was a business backpacking trip. We were testing equipment worth an 80 percent deduction on my Schedule C. The rest I stuc ... ummm, expensed to Computer Currents. Whatta racket, eh?

Motorola's TalkAbout Plus radios are small and rugged looking in a yuppie kind of way. They measure about 4.5 by 2.5 inches, weigh seven ounces, and use three AA batteries. They also have a backlit LCD display showing the channel and battery level. They're sold practically everywhere; it's too bad they don't work everywhere. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Thanks to some arm-twisting at the FCC, the radios use the Family Radio Service (FRS) band. The advantage is they don't require a license and there's no age restriction. The downside is the FCC limits them to 0.5 watts, which is good for a range of up to two miles. But the radio has 14 channels, so I never bumped into anyone on the same frequency.

I tried a pair of TalkAbouts in a few settings, giving one to a buddy who's a Disaster Planner for Los Angeles County and uses portable radios regularly. I sent Bill up a hill (hey, this was my test, OK?) until we were about a mile apart. We checked in regularly and had remarkably good reception, as long as nothing big came between us. But when I stepped around a hill, we lost contact.

Back at the house and after a couple of Anchor Steams, Bill walked down the street. Within three city blocks, his signal weakened and we lost contact. I had another beer, and for all I know, Bill is still shouting into the radio.

The backcountry test was more valuable because we really needed the radios. I dropped my sunglasses and had to backtrack while the rest of the group carried on. There were few obstructions, so we were able to stay in contact.

One cautionary note: Take extra batteries. Although the company claims 30 hours of use with 90 percent standby and 10 percent talk time, it ain't so. And thanks to a poorly designed on/off button, the radio accidentally turned on while stashed in my backpack. Motorola assured me this feature would be changed in the next model.

These are handy radios for, say, car caravans or chatting short distances but not for emergency help in the backwoods. But you can sound like Broderick Crawford in the old "Highway Patrol" TV series shouting into his radio. Isn't that worth the price?

Snooping in the Dark

I was in a tent in the middle of the night in the middle of the woods. I heard a snuffling sound outside. Was it a bear looking for human canap�s? Sasquatch? Bill?

I crawled to the front of the tent, carefully peeled open the flap, and clicked on my Moonlight night vision scope. "Ye shall see everything!" I thundered. "Albeit in a sickly, phosphorescent green!" Apparently I scared whoever was snuffling outside, but I never did see him or it.

And that was the problem. I'd always wanted a night vision gizmo, but the $300 Moonlight NV-100 Compact wasn't it. Oh sure, it worked as advertised: I could see in the dark. But the images were so fuzzy I couldn't differentiate between a tree and my buddy with the radio.

You could mistake the NV-100 for a cross between a small video camera and a round single-lens reflex camera. It's cylindrical, 8 inches by 3.5 inches, and weighs a hefty 1.9 pounds. The 58mm, F2 lens has 2x and 4x with a 15 degree viewing angle and a maximum relative viewing range of 300 feet.

Like most night vision scopes, the Moonlight NV-100 works by amplifying any existing light thousands of times. Where there is no light, it throws out a beam of infrared light so you can see what's what. Well, so you can see that something's there. Bill. Sasquatch. Or maybe Smokey the Bear holding barbecue sauce.

Steve Bass talks to the trees ... but they don't listen to him. But he still writes PC World's Home Office column and he continues to wear the ringmaster's hat at the Pasadena IBM Users Group. Go into a dark room and send him email at stevebass@earthlink.net.

Where to Buy

TalkAbout Plus
Motorola
800/353-2729
www.mot.com/LMPS/RPG/NA/portables/talkabout/index4.html
Street price: $149

Moonlight NV-100 Compact with Illuminator
Moonlight Products
619/625-0300
List price: $349.95