I spy

The call came in on my cell phone at dusk as I was driving home. Lee, you can’t say that. You gave up your cell phone after your last column, out of some misplaced sense of guilt about it ringing in public. It’s hypothetical, okay? Buford, the canine member of the Schlesinger family, had run off after a family picnic in the state park. Honey, that’s ridiculous. Buford only has three good legs. Yes, but they don’t know that. Could I please hurry and come help look for him?

It’s good to be the head of the family. They’re always calling on you to accomplish things no one else can. Like knocking down bees’ nests. Or removing a dead bird from the pool. Or finding lost pets.

Luckily, I always travel prepared. I pulled over to the side of the road and pulled out my trusty iPaq Pocket PC. What are you going to do, read the e-book version of Seven Highly Effective Ways to Find Your Dog in the Dark? Silly–e-books were my column topic last year. I might not know exactly where this state park was, but this little computer would, because loaded on the handheld device was a copy of TravRoute’s Pocket CoPilot.

Pocket CoPilot includes a Compact Flash unit that fits into an add-on sleeve around the iPaq. (Some Pocket PCs include Compact Flash slots, meaning no sleeve needed. TravRoute also sells a model built into a sleeve, and one with a Y-cable for connectivity.) Into its top you plug a cable for a less than two-inch-square antenna that sits on top of your dashboard. The antenna pulls in signals from 24 global positioning system (GPS) satellites orbiting 10,900 miles out in space. Once it has a fix from three satellites, it can triangulate your position down to a few yards.

That’s all very well, but most of us tend to know our general positions from day to day. TravRoute, however, also throws in an electronic map, and maps your current coordinates to it. You can then enter a destination, and the software will talk you from your present position to your destination, telling you where and when to turn in a pleasant computer-synthesized voice.

The same type of GPS route guidance system is built into some of the newer model cars. Don’t even go there–no new car. The only way you’re getting to try this thing out is because they sent it to you for this article. We’re not paying $349 for it.

With the help of the Pocket CoPilot I found my way to the state park in no time. My poor family was distraught; obviously there had been no further progress in finding Buford, and by now darkness had fallen like a blanket of sable over the bosky woodland, turning an erstwhile bucolic venue into a setting of mystery and fear. Are they paying you for this by the word?

As previously noted, I travel prepared. From my glove compartment I pulled out a hanky for the missus, lollipops for the young’uns, and a night vision monocular for the task at hand.

Night vision equipment is a product of the Cold War. It’s just what the name implies: optical equipment that lets you see better in the dark. A special tube takes the light entering the lens and gathers otherwise invisible near-infrared photons and amplifies them, presenting a greenish display to the eyepiece. Because it uses light wavelengths not normally seen, contrast and brightness can be slightly off from what a viewer is used to or might expect.

A lot of low-end or generation 1 night vision scopes comes from Russia. While they’re available at prices starting at less than $200, technology has moved on. You can get generation 2 and 3 equipment now, which do a better job and present a clearer image, though at a much higher price.

The $2,000 ITT Night Quest 160 is a generation-3 device made in America; in fact, you can’t export it without a special license. $2,000? You’re sending that back after you finish writing the article. I uncap the front lens and the eyepiece, and press the little button that turns the unit on. Immediately the murky park lights up like midday. A twist of the focusing ring around the lens makes the trees clear. The picture quality is like that of a TV, complete with a slight snowy static effect that’s almost imperceptible.

Were I being paid by the word, I’d tell you how I fearlessly marched into the trees Want to take your GPS system so you can find your way out again? Oh ye of little faith and tracked down the pup, only to find him standing guard over a baby bird that had fallen from its nest, defending it from the jaws of a hungry fox. Scaring off the evil predator, I returned the chick to its mother, scooped the tired but triumphant Pomeranian up, and returned him to my adoring family. Oh brother. But they call this column Electronic Life, not The Great Outdoors, so I’ll have to skip that.

Because not everyone has $2,000 to spend for what for most people is just an expensive toy You can say that again, I also tried out the $200 generation-1 Night Owl Discovery NODS3. The image it produced was darker than that of the Night Quest, and the picture quality was somewhat warped, with a clear view only in the very middle of the display. On the other hand, it comes with built-in infrared illumination, and magnifies the image like a telescope–features the more expensive model lacks without extra-cost add-ons.

Still, given the choice of $200 or the monocular, I’d rather spend the money taking my wife to a really fine restaurant. Now that’s more like it. On the whole it’s a better investment.

Lee Schlesinger wishes to thank his wife for her practicality and common sense. Hmph.