Homeland Security Flashlight

Since Tom Rich wants every true blooded American to have a few flashlights ready, I was wondering which light would be the best "kitchen drawer / bedside table / dang-they-just-blew-up-the-power-plant" HSF (Homeland Security Flashlight)?

My vote would go to the Surefire A2 with the low / high switch and redundancy of light bulbs.

Yea, if you can get one! I'll vote for the Xenergy 3in1 since it does the same thing and you can get them right now...



Brookstone even has a 3-C model...



http://www.brookstone.com/shop/product.asp?product_code=370213&search_type=search&search_words=flashlight

A surefire L1 does the trick nicely, long run time on low (50 hours+) only 1/2 lumen of output though, but you still have the 15 lumen high output and it EDC's very nicely.

5 cmg infinity
1 3D cell driven 1 watt LS
1 Tigerlight

Ought to cover most items...

The Lightwave series are excellent lights (all LED). I have the 4000 and Illuminator. I also put Versalux PR-2 LED bulbs in my 2 C and D lights.

I favor LEDs and longer runtime, but, I have a Legend LX for when I need it for short periods. Such need is rare for me. This is one reason I have a custom 2C pack for my Arc LS on order.

Anything using Lithium batts and long runtime. Does no good if the Alkalines are dead or it lasts only and hour during an emergency.

For the cost of the A2, I shy away from a single item as a single point of failure. I also don't depend much on a single, general-purpose item when there are so many tasks.

I would diversify into some long-runtime lights, and some brighter ones, always favoring something light enough to always carry.

-a jimbo modified *ag light!!!
-ultrastinger
-arc aaa
-maxabeam (i wish!)
-crap loads of batteries

luxeon mods running on d-cells are great due to the extreme runtime. i've had my jimbomod on for over two months before giving up on the runtime test.

Homeland Security Flashlight??
i'll vote for PT surge (several hrs output)

Homeland Security...

Finally, a true valid reason to buy more FLASHLIGHTS!!!!!!!

Tom

Originally posted by SilverFox:

Finally, a true valid reason to buy more FLASHLIGHTS!!!!!!!

Tom[/QB]

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Uh huh. I spoke of this yesterday. Spoken with about as much sarcasm as you can imagine I was told "yeah, you sure don't already have enough lights"

There are some folks you just can't reach.

Originally posted by Blikbok:
For the cost of the A2, I shy away from a single item as a single point of failure. I also don't depend much on a single, general-purpose item when there are so many tasks.

I would diversify into some long-runtime lights, and some brighter ones, always favoring something light enough to always carry.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I was going to purchase the $200 ARC-LS3 last Saturday when I read a CPF post about flashlight redundancy.

I ended up purchasing the ARC-AAA, SureFire E1e/KL1 and the SureFire E2e, all for about the same price ($228).

I'm really happy with the redundancy and different levels of lighting, from 1-lumen to 60-lumens. I also have multiple layers of run time by swapping the SureFire-KL1 head.

I found out that the ARC-AAA is good for not stepping on something right under your feet, say 5 to 10 feet away.

The E1e/KL1 is great for searching a large house or small yard.

The E2e is great for field searches, like looking for a cave or seeing what's up a telephone pole.

I think I would go with what I have: E2o, E1e/kl1, and SF M6 for when you really need to fry some retinas! Rechargeables would be totally useless unless you have a generator to charge them with, then what's the point?

My view on the e2o e1e/kl1 setup is, you can get an hour of bright incandececent light and and hour of bright luxeon light, then when the batteries are too dead in the e2e/o to run the incan lamp, just swap heads (put the kl1 on the e2o and the e2o head on the e1e) and you have another hour or so of luxeon light. Plus if you carry the M6 you have a fairly large supply of batteries in there to run the kl1 for a long period of time if you need to.

Dang i wish the power would go out....

My vote would be for this combo: Arc AAA, CMG Infinity Ultra, Princeton Tec Surge (with spare bulbs), plenty of rechargeable high-capacity NiMh AAA and AA cells, Maha C401FS with car kit (available inexpensively at http://www.thomas-distributing.com ) and any solar panel capable of putting out about 15-20 Watts at 12Volts.

With this combo you will be set for light for a minimum of 3-5 years! You may have a hard time finding food and drinkable water during such a long-term emergency, but you would not ever have to be in the dark.

L1/M2

I think that CPF should get any big honkin light and have "Homeland Security Flashlight" printed on the side - and start mass marketing them - maybe we could make some money. Heck, why should the sellers of duct tape and plastic sheeting have all the fun?

Arc AAA or a M*g AA with leds.
Small, quiet generator and a cord.
Glock anything with a SF.

I've got a self powered night vision scope, several solar panels that will recharge batts. or my SL20XP, 3 ARC LS's w/ 2AA batt. holders, several dozen AA nimh's, 5 dozen SF123's, 2 E2E's, 2 E1E's, 2 D cell Electrolumen mods that are very bright w/6AA's and run a loong time on 2 D's, 10 D cell NIMH's and 3 CMG Task lights. I don't think I'll be in the dark but I might get hungry. If I can get there I'll probably go to our 400 acre deer hunting property w/ 2 lakes and 7 ponds in BFE Texas to wait it out. We got deer, pigs, turkey, a little over 100 cows and fish. Can't forget my many firearms and over 3000 rounds of ammo. Might be able to make it.

SurefireM6, I said need, and such need would be rare here for using the LX. My LED lights handle 99.99999999 percent of my needs, whether current or planned for.

I also prefer Lithiums, where I can use them (AA and 123).

P.S. Who is "Tom Rich" ?