guest at 11:44:25 04-16-2010

Hey whats up all, Im interested in joining your group, so I can learn to build my own night vision scope so I can adapt it to a camera. I like watching the night skies, I live in the mountains by lake Tahoe California. I look forward to hearing from you,Regards Rall   

Hi Rall, I've sent you an email - Happy to help. David. 

guest at 14:15:49 04-26-2010

hi i am  a newbie to night vision and got a link to your web site , And i am very interested in the cascade home build, And very interested in joining your forum, the pictures from the build them selves look very good..

Thankyou - I hope they helped :) The forum is in Beta and doesn't support members yet, but you can still view it. David.

guest at 19:57:27 05-24-2010

Hey nice site i live in NSW close to a army range that do training for the RAAF and i want to see the beams from the FA-18s LITENING targeting pod and the IR Strobes that the personal use on the ground.

Ok thanks if u could get back to me on -email deleted-

Hi JS, Thanks - Unfortunately, I don't know much about the targeting pod on F18's or the strobes they use. If they are InfraRed, you can see a lot with any NV scope - even a Gen1 scope will do quite well and the cascade scopes can be used to see detail. If the targeting pods are NIR or close to MWIR, you'd need to find Gen0 Night Vision ( Still floating around in Australia after a company sold a lot during the 90s - mostly in PVC piping ) since it's the only NV that can see above 1000nm and up to 1500nm easily. Digital is next with good response to 1100nm. Normal night vision only works around 960nm and lower. David. 

guest at 11:19:29 06-13-2010

Hi I am new to night vision and I heard this is the home of the PVS-514. I am also told this is the only true Aussie made night vision device. Is this true ?!

Night vision is very cool and I am here to learn all I can !!  :)

Is ATN night vision really that bad or is that guy over in the US that rags on them all the time just plain nuts ??

Thanks for your help and great site !

Hi, thanks for your comments. The PVS-514 is a friendly "inside joke" within the night vision community. Yes, it is a real scope, but it's more just a way to turn a PVS-5 into a PVS-14 lookalike that works and functions well. You can see how to make one in the projects area. I am, however, the only person currently designing original night vision equipment in Australia that I know of, however there are other devices that were designed and made here. A company in Victoria used to make their own designs ( which were very good ). The Military here use an Israeli scope - the Mini N SEAS. It may be manufactured here under license, but I don't know.  ATN does seem to be a frequent subject on the International NV forums, in part due to customer service issues and part due to their products, with a lot of their customers venting anger about their problems but I can only observe the situation as I don't have any ATN equipment - excepting an ATN Gen1 scope. I know the "guy" you are mentioning and he will explain his position on ATN to anyone who asks. He's actually quite an experienced user with deep knowledge of high-end NV equipment. What I can say, is that I've seen their catalog and many of the NV images appear to be "photoshopped" which certainly seems misleading and would probably be illegal in Australia. That's a shame, because it's not that difficult to take real pictures and include details of the conditions under which they were taken. It also wouldn't help ATNs reputation at all that some of their pictures look to be faked.