Gen 0, Sellers Lament
I was a milsurp fanatic as a teen and bought a sealed PNW-57A unit from eBay age 15. I used to scurry around local woodland with it like a maniac under a strichtarn poncho- it provided hours of fun but was heavy, thirsty (as I was using an 8 D-cell pack, this is before LiOn became as abundant), tricky to focus and whirred like crazy. I had the infrared illuminator it was supplied with and later bought a cheap and cheerful IR LED torch that provided more direct vision.
Fast-forward to last week and I am sitting in a field, unslept, at 6AM, preparing for a car-boot sale. Early buyers are milling around and before I know it some geezer is chewing my ear off about what I want for it and starts asking for my best price. I just “yeah whatever” and sell it for around 2/3rds of what I bought it for, justified by the fact it’s been sat in my garage for the last 9 years getting damp. Attached photo is an eBay listing, my tankers helmet had started dissolving.
TLDR; seems to me the PNW-57A has become more of a collectors item as opposed to a cheap and abundant introductory NVG unit- am I correct in saying, due to its limitations, that it had no real-world viability?
I’d seen rigs people had created with rhino mount adapters and a torch array but surely to other users that makes you a walking searchlight.