THE WORLD'S LARGEST GUN SALES ... - ATN night vision

ATN’s ThOR line includesseveral devices in increasingperformance levels. The lowend model retails for $5,699,while the model seen here isover $12k!As befits a precision device atthis price point, the ATN thermalsight arrived nicely packed in afoam-lined hard case with manual,batteries and a lens cloth.This model incorporates a 50mm objective. The focusring is located just behind the objective lens.A tight-fitting rubber cover helps keep dust out.judged today. The popularity of the PVS-14 is due to acombination of factors. This includes its excellent performance,wide availability of spare parts and accessoriesand a price putting it within reach of many.As much as I respect the PVS-14 and passive night visiondevices in general, there are some applications wherea different technology, namely thermal imaging, would bea better option. While passive night vision devices allowyou to see in the dark, things can still hide from you.With thermal imaging, though, the body heat of ananimal makes it jump right out from the background. Thedownside to thermal sights, though, has always been theirsize and cost. Let’s face it, thermal sights are much tooexpensive for anyone but government agencies, right?Well, while this used to be true, prices have droppeddramatically in recent years. Just as the units themselveshave gotten smaller, they have also come down in cost.While certainly not cheap, certain thermal sights arestarting to at least be within reach of many. More importantly,for some it is actually the better choice than atraditional Gen 3 passive night vision device.Currently American Technologies Network Corp. offersan array of thermal sights in their ThOR line thatrun from a low of $5,699 all the way up to $13,699. That’sa pretty big spread, and $5,699 is certainly not cheap.However it shows this technology is indeed comingdown in price. To find out more I contacted James Munn,president of ATN. Asking him about the company hestated it’s a small growing company almost 20 years old.They specialize in electro-optics and offer Gen 1–3 nightvision as well as thermal units.Currently they have approximately 50 employees withR&D here in the US. However unlike their night vision,ATN’s thermal line is completely made in the USA.When I asked him about this he stated, “We wanted fullU.S. content and to make it here. We wanted to hire U.S.workers and expand manufacturing. Our vision is tobring a quality product to market at a great price. As theworld goes digital, technology is taking things in a wholenew direction. We launched this line about one year agoand feedback has been very positive. We knew there wasa market for this type of device and we were right. Enduserslove it.”While I wanted one of their basic models, I receivedone of their Mini ThOR 640-2.5x 30 Hz Thermal WeaponSights in for review. This sight retails for $12,199, so itis by no means inexpensive. For that much coin the unitshould look good, and this one did. It appeared nicelymade and had an attractive gray finish.The unit itself measured 8.2 inches long, 2.7 incheswide and about 2.7 inches tall. My scale showed it toweigh 33.5 ounces without the rubber eyecup. Examiningit, I noted it features an adjustable diopter at the rearand a focus ring towards the front of the body behind the50mm objective.What looks like a round knob on the left hand side isactually a battery box that holds three 3-volt CR 123 batteries.An ARMS QD mount is fitted to the bottom toallow easy mounting on MIL STD 1913 rails. The controlsconsist of a power button, an enter button and fourarrow buttons. Mounted onto the right side of the bodywas a short rail section for mounting accessories.Once the unit is powered up, different features can beeasily accessed by simply pushing a couple buttons andmaking selections on the display. The display brightnesshas 10 levels and can be set to display white hot or blackhot polarity.Or it has 10 color palettes you can choose from to bestfit your terrain and needs. The color palettesgive it a bit of a “Predator” flair. Digitalmagnification of this unit consists of 1X,2X, 4X and 8X.You can also choose between five reticletypes and four different reticle colors (red,green, white and black). These buttons arealso utilized when zeroing for windage andelevation corrections. Due to the amount offeatures available it initially took me a coupleminutes to figure everything out.But it’s a straightforward design that issimple to use. The only issue I encounteredwas accidentally pressing the Power buttonwhen I was trying to hit the Up arrow button.This is simply due to how close theyare.The device is designed to be utilized aseither a hand held-viewing device or as aweapon sight. I utilized it mostly as a handheld viewing device in a variety of light conditionswith an eye towards hunting.Both passive and thermal units are verypopular with pig hunters and coyote huntersin states where they are legal. It didn’ttake very long for me to notice an advantagethermal has over, say, a PVS-14. Using theunit as a handheld viewer on a dark night,I was able to spot animals at distances Iwould never have seen them using a PVS-14.A rubber eyecup attaches to the ATN unit’s diopterocular. The eyecup can easily be folded back for usewith eyewear or can easily be removed altogether.The first time I took the ThOR out, I spotted a possumslowly meandering along some 200 yards away crossingmy freshly tilled garden. With the ThOR he not only easilystood out but was also easy to identify.On another night I noticed a heat signature in a treesome 100 yards distant. Walking towards it, I could seethrough the ThOR that something was there but couldn’tidentify it. At 25 yards I put a white light on it and sawjust the two eyes and nose of a raccoon staring at mefrom between the ‘Y’ of a tree. Obviously the fiend stealingthe cat food off the porch at night.Use these buttons to easilytailor the device to your needsin regards to magnification,reticle style and color, imagecolor and brightness and more.An ARMS QD mount is fitted tothe bottom of the unit. Also notethe video port, which allowsyou to record images producedby the sight for future viewing.AN AFFORDABLE THERMAL SIGHT?

Push a button and the ThOR switches from blackand white to color. Reticle design and color can alsobe switched. This is a Blazer about 100 yards away.Downside? You can’t see through windows or into heatedbuildings with thermals. Plus large heat sources can causethermal washout. As an example, during one engagement anIraqi fuel tanker was hit and set on fire right in front of us.In this case the intense light from the fire washed out passivenight vision and the intense heat washed out thermals.At times during the 2003 engagement at the laager therewere so many troop transports burning it was washing thethermals out so you couldn’t see what was beyond the burningvehicles. You had to wait until the next wave moved upin front of the wrecks so you could detect them. Then, afteryou destroyed those 10 or 20 troop transports you hadmoved the wall you couldn’t see past a bit closer.Fortier: While they both have strengths and weaknessesdo you prefer one over the other?Johnson: Although a passive device likea PVS-14 is a great tool, I really like thermals.For hunting pigs or coyotes at nightwhere that is legal, thermals would be mypick. You can easily detect animals whichwould be hard or impossible to spot witha PVS-14.Thermals have a lot of uses. The downsidehas always been their size and price.As technology has advanced though, we’veseen thermal devices which are not onlysmaller but also less expensive. Cheap?No. But they are much less expensive thanthey used to be and they will be even moreaffordable five and 10 years from now. Ifyou have only ever used a Gen 2 or 3 nightvision device then a quality thermal devicewill surprise you. Is it a perfect do-all gadget?No, but it is a very effective tool.—For more information on the exploitsof SFC Dillard Johnson (Ret.), his Bradleythe Carnivore and the troopers of the3/7th Cav check out the recently releasedbook titled Carnivore written by JamesTarr and Dillard Johnson.SourceATN Corp.800-910-2862 / www.atncorp.comMINI ThOR 640-2.5x 30 HzTHERMAL WEAPON SIGHT — SpecificationsSensor (microbolometer):Type:Material:Image Size(output resolution):Frame rate:Video output:Thermal Sensitivity, mK:640x480UncooledVanadium oxide (VOx)800x60030 HzDigital NTSC / PALDisplay: Color OLED matrix, SVGA< 800x600,color background + color reticle