Personnel markers

[Quixoticgeek]

I have taken to doing a weekly evening hike in the woods with a couple of friends. It's good exercise, we see a different side of the woods. We often end up following each other single file without no torches on (to preserve night vision). In this situation it would be useful to have a dim marker on each of our packs, so you can track where the person in front has got to, without blinding yourself with a torch.

The obvious solution would be the mini glow sticks that you can get for sticking on fishing floats, but I can't see an obvious easy way of clipping these on to a backpack and the cost would soon add up to the cost of the alternative, which is a Tritium glow stick. These seem to be about the same cost as 150 of the mini glow sticks, so are obviously not the cheapest option, but they do at least provide a very obvious means of attachment.

Are there any other options of missed out? Any ideas of easy ways to fit the mini glow sticks to a pack? What would you use?

Julia

 

[greensurfingbear]

I have a little single bulb red LED on the pack. Will find link


Orric

 

[weekender]

I've got one of those single LED thingy's I got it from work, will look also...


Sent from somewhere?

 

[Joonsy]

Get a piece of clear silicone tubing, thread a piece of string through it and tie a knot in the ends, push the glow stick into the tubing and hang it off your pack by the string (perhaps add a little clip through string if you wish). The glow stick needs to be a tight fit in tube so that it stays put. Glow sticks sold for fishing usually have a piece of tubing included in the packet for this purpose, they come in different sizes and in both green and red colours. See photo below. -- PS Edited just to add, you can get a pack of two glow sticks for less a pound, even 50p-80p, shop around the price varies considerably, some packs have only one while some packs have two.

 

[greensurfingbear]

This is the LED I use http://www.niteize.com/product/ZipLit.asp


Orric

 

[Wildgoose]

I've used the glowing bracelets as personnel markets in the past. Just make a loop around a strap etc.
pound land had them last Halloween, 25 sticks with the connectors for A pound.

 

[rancid badger]

Just get a red led bike light from a pound shop or similar. They usually come in very cheap sets with a front (white) and rear (red) . Most of these have spring clips as well as frame/bar mountings, so attaching them to a pack will be a doddle.

We used to use these years ago ( although they weren't cheap as chips back then !) as pack markers for recruits on night nav exercises.

just a thought.

Steve

 

[fishfish]

how about tritium key rings? shines for over a decade: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nite-Glow...90101?pt=UK_Keyrings&var=&hash=item20deac57d5

 

[woof]

LED keyrings off ebay.

Rob

 

[British Red]

If you cut a hole in a ping pong ball, and put an LED key ring inside, you get a nice soft glow all round - nice cheap personal marker

 

[The Lord Poncho]

The military use luminous 'cats eyes' on the back of their helmets for this purpose, and sometimes stick self adhesive luminous tape on the fastex buckles on their daysacks/bergen. The latter also helps you find the clips to undo them in the dark. Once your eyes have adjusted, they glow perfectly ok to follow in a very dark wood if you are close.

 

[janso]

I've used the glowing bracelets as personnel markets in the past. Just make a loop around a strap etc.
pound land had them last Halloween, 25 sticks with the connectors for A pound.

I've also used that in the past with students doing a night nav ex; works like a charm and the oddest of views at night!
Dead cheap to buy as well.

Students loved being out and found it really useful as an exercise of using night vision and how the black actually takes shape after a while. Sorry to minor hijack the topic; really love the idea of using the fishing lure sizes with tubing and lanyard - really good idea, again, dead cheap and effective!


Sent from my hidey hole using Tapatalk... sssh!

 

[cbr6fs]

Have to ask (sorry) why risk injury walking through a wood at night without a headtorch?

If you are somewhere you are not supposed to be i can understand that you wouldn't want to give your position away.
But in a civilian context on land you have every right to be on, i can't see any possible gain by not having a headlight on and only a far greater risk of tripping and/or injury.

Back in the old days when bulbs were not as efficient as modern LED's and batteries had no where near the storage capacity they do now, we would use very dim lights to preserve our night vision because we wouldn't have enough light to see well or the shear weight of replacement batteries would be a worry.


These days you can have a 600 lumen headtorch that lasts over 2 hours on a single 18650.


So why not embrace technology and reduce the risk of a fall or injury?

 

[Bishop]

Alternatively why not embrace chemistry

Who remembers Glow-In-The-Dark stickers that use phosphorescence to produce a dim glow that lasts for hours and can be recharged with a quick blast from a flashlight or natural daylight.
Argos and any good high street arts & craft shop will have them http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2687593.htm

 

[ozzy1977]

There is a version of the tritium keyring about that is sunlight charged and half the price

 

[Toddy]

How about something like the flashing dog lead thingies ? They'd clip round a pack strap (or a wrist) and they come in different colours too. 99p
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-Colors-...-Light-up-Flashing-Belt-Leashes-/271620989537

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Ahah, that is what I was thinking of. Shall investigate which of the ebay sales include the silicone tubing. This would be perfect.

This is the LED I use http://www.niteize.com/product/ZipLit.asp

How bright is it? I'm after something not much brighter than one of the tiny glow sticks.

I've used the glowing bracelets as personnel markets in the past. Just make a loop around a strap etc.
pound land had them last Halloween, 25 sticks with the connectors for A pound.

How reliable are those? I've played with them in the past, but was never overly impressed by the connectors.

Just get a red led bike light from a pound shop or similar. They usually come in very cheap sets with a front (white) and rear (red) . Most of these have spring clips as well as frame/bar mountings, so attaching them to a pack will be a doddle.

We used to use these years ago ( although they weren't cheap as chips back then !) as pack markers for recruits on night nav exercises.

This was discounted as way to bright. Stick a bike light on someone's pack, put it 10ft in front of you, and turn the lights out. All you'll see is the bike light. Far far too bright.

how about tritium key rings? shines for over a decade: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nite-Glow...90101?pt=UK_Keyrings&var=&hash=item20deac57d5

This is the sort of thing I've been considering. Are they worth the money?

If you cut a hole in a ping pong ball, and put an LED key ring inside, you get a nice soft glow all round - nice cheap personal marker

I like this idea, shall investigate.

Have to ask (sorry) why risk injury walking through a wood at night without a headtorch?

If you are somewhere you are not supposed to be i can understand that you wouldn't want to give your position away.
But in a civilian context on land you have every right to be on, i can't see any possible gain by not having a headlight on and only a far greater risk of tripping and/or injury.

Back in the old days when bulbs were not as efficient as modern LED's and batteries had no where near the storage capacity they do now, we would use very dim lights to preserve our night vision because we wouldn't have enough light to see well or the shear weight of replacement batteries would be a worry.


These days you can have a 600 lumen headtorch that lasts over 2 hours on a single 18650.


So why not embrace technology and reduce the risk of a fall or injury?

Why not? Turn the lights off, and let your eyes adjust, and you an actually see rather a lot, easily enough to navigate by. Any bits that you might have doubts over, that's what walking poles are for. We still carry torches, I carry a petzl zipka 2+ and a LED Lenser P7.2. But I'd rather not use them if I can avoid it.

Last night we were descending a small slope, and the moon was out, and there was a tree silhouetted against the sky, and it was just beautiful. Blundering along with a search light on your heard, you would miss it.

Technology means you can now spend 780 quid on a 4500 lumen bike light (not a typo!). Doesn't mean that you should.

Night time in the woods is an amazing place, enjoy it.

Julia

 

[cbr6fs]

Why not? Turn the lights off, and let your eyes adjust, and you an actually see rather a lot, easily enough to navigate by. Any bits that you might have doubts over, that's what walking poles are for. We still carry torches, I carry a petzl zipka 2+ and a LED Lenser P7.2. But I'd rather not use them if I can avoid it.

Last night we were descending a small slope, and the moon was out, and there was a tree silhouetted against the sky, and it was just beautiful. Blundering along with a search light on your heard, you would miss it.

Technology means you can now spend 780 quid on a 4500 lumen bike light (not a typo!). Doesn't mean that you should.

Night time in the woods is an amazing place, enjoy it.

Julia

I'd say about 60% of my hiking is done at night, in winter i can only get out after work and it's dark, in summer it's too hot to go out during the sunlight hours so i go out at night.

I can understand what you are saying, in my experience though unless it's a bright moon on a open trail (i.e, not in woodland as your first post indicated towards) even with eyes fully adjusted you still can't see the terrain properly.
To make matters worse depth perception is extremely difficult in black and white, so not only can you not see the terrain well you can't perceive the distance and height anywhere near as well as during daylight.

For me this meant i had more than a few tumbles before i started using torches.

You can still see around you even with a bright torch on, it's not like you are enveloped into a tunnel the second you turn it on, you can see silhouettes, you can see all around you, but more importantly you can see the terrain you are walking on and where to put your feet.

It doesn't need to be a massively bright light either, a friend finds his 100 lumen headtorch more than enough for night trail running.
If you get a bit innovative and mount it low so as to cast shadows over obstacles and terrain then you might even be able to go lower, plus you're not shining it on others eyes if they turn around.

Hopefully your group gets lucky, but traipsing through a wood at night without any illumination seems like a recipe for disaster to me, it's not a case of if but when someone falls.



BTW 4500 lumen is not a lot these days, i've just ordered a Acebeam X60M that puts out just over 10,000 lumens.
It's not really just lumen output that's important though, the tint and beam pattern are just as important for the tasks you do.

 

[Paulm]

Tritium markers are excellent in my experience, well worth a few quid, green tends to be brightest, the other colours a bit less so but still good. You can get quite small ones quite reasonably that are good for attaching to key rings and the like and would work well on a pack I would think.

Cheers, Paul

 

[Tracker NTS-054]

Glow in the dark morale patches work great for us..