Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?
If you are a civilian contractor, you definitely want to pay attention to the tips that follow. Life in the field and on post can suck ass and inflict upon you long stints of boredom; plain and simple. The conveniences and ‘On demand’ lifestyle we are used to back home just doesn’t exist in the foreign Countries we are battling in today.
..But here’s the good news, there are electronics available that can make your life in the field a bit more sufferable.
I consider all of the electronics below essential gear and pack all of these items with me on the road every mission. I am always looking to cut corners when it’s a safe thing to do and create more enjoyable free time for myself as well as provide for some creature comforts. These tools and devices do just that.
MP3 Player or IPOD.
Music can drown out the madness of the third world and help you center before missions or shifts. I am constantly banging to tunes to get me in the right mood for work – Metal, Rock, Grunge…you name it. If it motivates me, I am all about it. My IPOD and headphones also helps me decompress when I come in off the road as well. I can’t tell you how many times I have passed out with ear buds stuffed in my head. If you don’t have a way to tune out the drama, buy an IPOD or the like and get it on.
The Black Berry Communications Device.
You’d be surprised at how affordable some service plans can be to get unlimited internet, email, and phone access in remote areas. I have a Berry and service plan that allows me to crunch out emails, and make essential calls all over Iraq with reception and service that’s reliable.
The Black Berry is an indispensible tool for those cruising the roads in the Red Zone. It’s a professional’s tool that allows you to keep in touch with command as well as the sweetheart you have at home. If you don’t dig Black Berries, look at an Android or IPhone of your choice. The point is – get a device and stay connected. Life can be a lot less complicated if you stay on top of things in a timely fashion.
NetBook or Laptop.
Access to reports, movies, pictures, and internet service can’t be had conveniently in a lot of places if you don’t carry your own computer gear. Netbooks are swimming in the $350.00 range these days so there’s no excuse to not be packing a computer on your journeys.
I have a netbook squared away with Microsoft Office that saves me tons of time by being able to write reports in the field as well a catch a movie when I have some down time. Computers are just as essential on the battlefield today as they are when you’re sipping a Starbucks coffee in a local bookstore.
For more info on laptops check out ELECTRONIC GEAR: Tough Laptops for Hard Use Environments
Media Storage Devices.
It’s amazing just how fast you’ll fill up a media storage device these days with things past porn, music, and mission records. Have a couple of these on hand to back up necessary files. You won’t be sorry. Data loss in the field is a fact of life due to hard use and environmental conditions. Be ready for this. (and back up your porn files 1st)
Camera or Video Recorder.
You can’t catch those ‘cool guy’ or ‘I was there’ snapshots without these tools. They are also good when documenting incidents and are useful for a number of other intelligence collection duties and routines. Have both. I carry a SONY Camera as well as a Flip Video.
What Electronic Gear do you consider essential in the field?
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~Bubba G
Editor at Large
Bubba G. is an active protective professional presently performing contract duties in the Middle East and has well over 15 years of military, high risk contracting, international training and martial arts experience.
Not sure how well it works overseas, but I’m sure it’d work the same as CONUS. I’d add a GPS device to it as a just in case item personally. You can get some decent ones in small enough packages that it won’t add a lot of weight.
I also might consider personally a satellite air card for the netbook or laptop. Prices on some of the plans aren’t all that bad and I’m sure it would work just fine overseas.
But with an iPhone or Blackberry, they’ve got the GPS features built in, so it may be doubling up.
Good article, good information, I’m sure most of them would be pulling double if not triple duty.
Norm(Quote This Comment)
I agree a thousand percent on the Blackberry. My life is so much nicer in the last couple of months since I got one. All the ways I just happened to hear to be at a certain place at a certain time when good stuff happens (like getting paid…).
On the netbooks, of course your results may vary — I got a Samsung from ATT, it lasted two months and the wireless card (built in) went out of it. Despite a great girl working in the ATT store, it took weeks of emails and calls to get Samsung to fix it. The fix lasted nine days…. Hey, if you want it, let me know your address cause I am going to shoot the fucking thing and call the $300 gone (no, ATT won’t refund and Samsung won’t refund).
Meanwhile, when it died, I went to a Best Buy and got some other brand they like, can’t recall the name but started with “A” – didn’t get that grade, lasted 10 days. I took it in for a refund and the manager offered to meet ATT’s price on a Blackberry Bold 9700 (I think that’s the number), so I finally was set. Bottom line, I think netbooks suck ass.
I guess if you left them on a table with perfect voltage, great. I will go read your article on tough laptops, might get one of those, but never again on the netbooks. And, the Blackberry can come very close to doing what a netbook can do if you can get tired eyes to focus on the little screen.
And with an 8 gig card inside the Blackberry, it holds tons of songs.
Great article, got me thinking about essentials that make life easier.
David III(Quote This Comment)
My wife and daughter both have BlackBerries and theirs are absolute POSs. They heat up, battery life sucks, our daughter’s dropped its memory when she changed the battery. My wife’s is just as messed up. She could charge it today, and by nightfall, it could still be fully charged or it might be down to 20%. When we upgrade, they’re getting Droids. Besides, I read that RIM ( the maker of BBs ) is having financial and management problems bigtime, so I wouldn’t waste my time if I was looking for a new phone first time. I’d look at Nokia, Samsung, or LG.
Jeff(Quote This Comment)
David,
I hope Lo Szabo chimes in here, I’m pretty sure he recently got a netbook. Not sure what kind though, it was either that or an iPad when he was trying to figure out which one and circumstances led him down the path to pick up a netbook.
I’m going to hold off on too much on the netbook/toughbook discussion though, I’ve got an article coming up that compares, talks about them, but I will say this, for the price of both of them and the specs, in a non-hostile environment, I’d got with a netbook, a hostile type environment, definitely a toughbook.
Norm W(Quote This Comment)
Oddly The best netbooks on the market today are the intel Classmate lineup
Fairly rugged design ..dust and water resistant screens and keyboards. WiFi and the like. The one we like around here is a Tablet model with a 160 gb HD,10 inch screen and some other nice features.
Flash drives. Easy to use …a bunch on the market are made to a rugged spec and some are encrypted. heck CRKT even has a switchblade FlashDrive.
Nick O(Quote This Comment)
Nick – as you know, I’m going with a toughbook (thanks again!) — to be fair on the netbooks and after some reminding from my girlfriend… I tend to have some neat toys that sit around and don’t get used, but she said my netbooks fell into the category of my carry 1911 — they got pitched over the truck seat, fell off the dash, bounced around in Jeeps, dust, mud, etc. So, it’s probably much more likely that I didn’t do enough research when I bought netbooks. Had I done that, I would have learned that they do what they are supposed to do but are not built for the abuse that I gave them. Honestly, I am pretty new to all of these electronic toys. For a long time, my sole job was sitting in front of a big computer in a building – not much abuse there…
David III(Quote This Comment)
Guys don´t rely on your smartphones, when it comes to navigation! It´s nice to carry an Iphone, but it can never replace a serious gps device such as the garmin series. I own a etrex vista and it´s such a great little device. Needless to say that it makes it so much easier to navigate in the field, but it also works as a regular car navigator if you have maps like citynavigator on it. they´re though, waterproof, don´t need much batteries, always have a signal (even if you carry them in one of you´re pockets) and they´re sold at a reasonable price now.
btw: which blackberry would you guys recommend? I consider buying one.
Manu(Quote This Comment)
Checking out the garmin right now (thanks for the recommendation – I have GPS in my phone but it isn’t very user friendly). I am really new to this little technology thing but I have not found anything that my Blackberry Bold 9700 won’t do — and it has very decent battery life, well over 24 hours with maybe 20 emails sent received, 50 texts, 50 go to whatever websites… (I do almost no real voice calling though).
David III(Quote This Comment)
We like the Garmin stuff around here. The Garmin Rino has the added touch of being backup comms if your running the frs or gmrs radios. has some other nice features too
Nick O(Quote This Comment)
But the Rino isn´t produced any longer, right?
Manu(Quote This Comment)
Rino is still up and in production we have them is stock …and our vendors have plenty on the shelf
Nick O(Quote This Comment)
Great article Bubba. Norm stole my thunder. As I was reading your article, I was thinking “needs a GPS on here.” I’ve had a Garmin eTrex now for over 10 years and that little thing just keeps going and going. Nothing fancy, it plots your location and will give you a heading and bearing with an ETA. Highly recommend anything from Garmin.
On laptops; have y’all looked at the MacBook Pro? I just picked-up the 13″ Pro in February and it is really nice. It’s got the all aluminum body, I think this thing is going to last forever. Before this new lap top I had a Mac iBook. That little thing is about 10 years old also and it is still working fine. Trust me, it has taken it’s fair share of hard knocks too. It’s travelled everywhere with the family, numerous TDY’s and been to Iraq too. Still got it sitting in a drawer at home. It’s pretty slow compared to the current lap tops, but I can still watch DVD’s on it, connect to the internet and use Microsoft Office on it. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the Mac’s (for me anyways) are built for the long-term.
Take care,
Buckaroomedic(Quote This Comment)
MacBook’s are for hippies and girls
~James G
James G(Quote This Comment)
Gentlemen, if you are serious about a laptop in harsh conditions there is ONLY one proven choice to make, and that is the Panasonic Toughbook. Time proven by military and law enforcement as well as virtually every war corespondent who really got out there on the front line. They are worth every penny they cost because they hold up, are repairable and are designed to work in the worst of conditions.
Scott S(Quote This Comment)
About the Toughbook… Maybe I expect too much, but i’ve seen them fail, and fail hard, expect to be using that “repairable” option. Of course, multiple users, 24-7 in 140 degree heat, 90% humidity, and immature, angry, bored “engineers” in a navy propulsion space is going to be hard on any equipment.
Random Dick(Quote This Comment)
Panasonic Toughbook’s are kick-ass hard use laptops, I used to field them in Iraq – but at 5K+ they are out of reach for most folks. They are also overkill for most people’s usage – unless you are humping through tough terrain and weather then they are not worth the expense or processer/video card sacrifice
Thanks for the comment man
~James G
James G(Quote This Comment)
Thats why most of the ones we sell to guys like you are the factory Refurbs. i sell the 5-7 grand ones to the agencies …keeps the costs lower for the little guys. Not that James G. is little by any stretch
Nick O(Quote This Comment)
Has anyone heard about a rugged, reliable tablet for use in the woods? I don’t need one ( I’ve got a Samsung Convoy phone and it beats the snot out of the iPhone I have at work ) , but there’s got to be a market for an Android-based unit that’s tough enough for OCONUS use. My wife has a Galaxy Tab, but her idea of roughing it is going to the local dirt track. Since tablets are replacing laptops little by little, what’s the word on any new hardware?
Jeff(Quote This Comment)