Thanks!

I live in a wooded area and am considering this for communicating up to 10 miles. Based on my research, I may need a 10dbi antenna – either mounted to the radio or affixed to an elevated point over the house.

I look forward to reading about your experiences with something like this to add perspective on best practices.

Thank you. I fixed the link.

FYI, your antenna link is the same as your first link.

Adding another switch seems redundant, especially with the protocol backwards, with moonlight last. Just sayin. Goes to how little the Streamlight Boot model is appreciated – with red filter and low/high it sets a standard by conforming to the military’s expectation of how this should work. Given it’s issued to new soldiers not fully habituated in light use, it prevents issues by not allowing inadvertent misuse. It has to be deliberately forced to product more light, rather than kick in “Eye Sear” mode up front.

For personal lights I am at the Streamlight USB stage, – plenty of lumens, programmed full on first touch, but that came from daylight use in warehousing looking for tiny print on auto parts boxes smaller than the palm of my hand. I don’t touch it at 2AM, the Boot gets that job. Single buttons with the first push enabled for a specific task means having them staged for specific tasks, and means you know what it will do up front by what shape it is.

Then there are those lights which have a strobe function, and those quickly rotate to tool box or truck lights where Im not constantly accessing that stupid annoyance. I quickly downselect most lights on the market that offer that, it’s a feature nobody asked for in a casual use flashlight.

JTT is not exclusively a knife blog… but, you are right. I acknowledge it has certainly been heavy on knife content as of late. Most of that comes down to the fact that it has always just been a place for me to write about what I am interested in and a lot of just comes down to the opportunities and time I have had recently.

Thanks for reading JTT and for the kind words.

I have Wheeler Wrench in my shop and a Fix-it-Sticks set in my range bag. Both work. My Wheeler isn’t especially portable but the Fix-It-Stick set definitely is. I would start there for something portable.

I am hardly an expert on bits but there are a few things I have noticed over the years…

1. You are right on with Allen and Torx bits snapping. The small ones are fragile regardless of brand it seems and I think this is preferable as I think I would rather break the bit than the fastener in most cases.
2. Poorer quality flat heads, Torx bits, and other finer bits can twist. I had an old Craftsman set that didn’t have a single straight bit in the set after just a few uses. So I like a bit that can straight over time.
3. I also judge bits on how well they stay in the fastener. This is especially obvious with flat head, Phillips, and some lower end torx bits that seem to want to walk out which can wreck a fastener quickly.

Couple questions: do you have any preferred portable torque wrenches (in-lb)? I’m familiar with Fix-it’s versions and with Wheeler’s, but you always have great tool reviews so I figure you’d know one or three options I don’t.

Also, what do you use to determine bit quality objectively? I’ve had multiple bits, from multiple sets, shear off (mainly torx or allen when removing a way over-torqued mlok rail or something like that).