If anyone in the US wants a Baofeng, get it now, FCC is blocking imports and sales of non-compliant sets. This will also apply to any other brand of two-way VHF/UHF sets not in compliance.
http://archive.is/1JB7g
Think about modularity. With prices that low, you can splurge and actually set up different loadouts; for grab and go. I've got a recon/light loadout using a chest rig and a heavy/mounted setup using a plate carrier with NIJ Lvl-3 plates.
Vests offer better distribution of weight on your frame and allow for ease of access to items of importance. With that being said, many vests are designed to be used in conjunction with a ruck, like PLCE, ALICE, or IIFS. Think if it like this, items you may need immediate access to are in/on your vest (mags, compass/navigation tools, IFAK, tools, water carrier, ect…) and your ruck carries less important items that don't require immediate access.
>What is the amount of ammo you should have?
As much as you can reasonably afford. Don't be hording 10,000 round, because if you have to leave you location in a hurry, you can't hump 10,000 rounds on your person and even if you have a vehicle, loading that much ammo is just a liability and space waster. If you're going to invest in a very large quantity of ammo, it should be an ammo that is multi-purpose. Something like 22LR is decent due to it's size and is good for rodent hunting, killing smaller varmints and pests, and in a real pinch can be pressed in a self-defensive role. Another decent is 9mm, smaller, very common so good for trade, will kill any mansized target will do everything .22LR does, but far better.
>Should you buy a gun twice to just have a backup in case the first breaks down?
No, buy spare parts that are known to have a common MTBF. If you have a platform like an AR, make sure it's a decent one and make sure your load bearing parts of higher quality. Buy a few of the inexpensive "oopsie kits". If you don't have a ton of cash, something like the BCM SOPMOD Bolt upgrade is a must.
>What are the most dead-reliable firearms?
Most are, with few exceptions. Remember MOST military arms are built for durability and reliability.
>I see. If you can carry all that stuff in your pockets/belt/hip pad is there any reason to use a vest then?
It allows for ease of movement and in the event you need to shed it you can simply remove the vest and either stash it or ditch it. My advice pack your pockets/belt/hip pad full of what you would carry then just walk around with it, see how it works for you, see if it restricts and limits you in any way, see if it's bulky or annoying. Then do the same with a vest, see if it's too bulky, see if it causes you any problems.
If the goal is to be as low profile as possible, then it's a matter of determining what bare essentials you'll be carrying on your person without making yourself look like a walking hardware store hiding under a coat.
Thanks Strelok, I'll do some digging.
How about this; rather than argue against the use of GIS, you should be learning and using all available means of intelligence gathering and navigation, building a system of redundancies based on their reliance of ancillary needs (ie. batteries, gps, map, ect..) with the last form of navigation in your system like SOCKNAV.
>Instead of "night vision" consider Seek Thermal mini-cam that works with smart phone. Pretty cheap at under $200 and you can spot humans at night at a few hundred yards. You can also see neat stuff like people behind fences, which cars are "hot" from 100s of yards away, and if someone has been sitting in a chair, etc.
Nigh vision is a far better investment, even a Gen-1+ offers more than a cheap FLIR can. Not only does most NV provide a better overall image in terms of visual clarity for IDing targets, it isn't dependent on a secondary device to function and provides the ability of simple act light intensification, your standard NV run off of readily available AA batteries. (TL:DR FLIR is for acquisition, NV is for targeting and ID.)
>Kevlar helmet says "shoot me" or at least search me for weapons.
It's a mission dependent tool, it's not something that should be worn at all times. In a SHTF scenario, you're not going to be making friends…you going to be trying to survive and anything that aids in that is an asset, but you need to know when an asset is an asset or a liability.
>Even the most rudimentary recon would give you that information without needing the infrastructure to maintain the level of map generation.
Sure, a hasty recon can give you a "general" frame of intelligence based on what you can visually see, but "recon by map" exists for a reason, either because the area in question is non-permissive or their is a time element involved. GIS also only requires infrastructure until you put it on paper, you compile the data before SHTF and have it printed, then use it in conjunction with your other tools like topos, recon, intel, ect… anyone worth their salt is going to utilize all assets at their disposal.
>Every one knows that water means lower elevation.
I get the gist of your point, but no, not everyone knows water equates to lower elevation. (speaking from experience as a skills evaluator in a SAR background with extensive time in orienteering and navigation with map, protractor, compass, ect… which incidentally we would occasionally use in conjunction with GIS and other imagery assets such as hyperspectral and FLIR when available.)
> I appreciate your autism, but going innawoods with friends and a map and you can learn this stuff, I'm a city slicker and I know this.
This isn't about entry-level orienteering and navigation, it's about using all available assets to better form a macro-level view of intelligence on your AO.
>All the tech in the world doesn't supplant skill and knowledge.
True, except to use that "tech" requires skill and knowledge. It's about prioritization, you should have your basic nav and intel skills finely honed before delving into more complex assets like GIS.
>You could give a kid a mgrs gps app in a phone and this enclosed map, tell him blue is east, yellow is north, funny circles mean hills and you can put him in the fight.
A cellphone relies in infrastructure and has ancillary needs, as well as being able to be can be tracked so long as it's connected to the cell network…which is constant, even if it isn't apart of a service plan.
>SHTF isn't going to be a cross country campaign, but a decentralized group of local insurgencies, something even sandniggers understand.
Which has little baring in this discussion and said sandniggers had to be taught and supplied, prior to US involvement with the Majhadeen during the Soviet Invasion those sandniggers were being killed by the bushel.
>I'd almost want to write a GEOINT follow up to the Strelok's SIGINT manual, but it'd just be a clumsy rewrite of the QGIS manual.
You wouldn't happen to have a copy of the SIGINT guide, I have no idea what I did with my download of it and I think a GEOINT write-up would be a good addition, even if it was just a summary of QGIS. I have experience as an end user, but very little in terms of actually compiling any GIS datasets.