Armageddon Gear’s Ultralight Shooting Mat is just what it sounds like. A lot of shooting mats are large padded affairs that will only ever be used on the range due to their too large size when rolled and heavy weight. The Ultralight Shooting Mat is a field usable mat that corrects those problems.
The Ultralight Shooting Mat is made from 500D Cordura so it is durable and lightweight. It has a coffin shape with thin closed-cell foam padding on the parts where your chest and shoulders would be to prevent moisture from wicking through and provide a bit of comfort. It weighs about 1.5 pounds and rolls up to about as small as a backpacking sleeping bag. This is a shooting pad made to be used on the move.
Hill People Gear dropped a sneaky hint about their upcoming pack, the Junction, a few weeks ago and we caught it. We now have even more details and images of the new pack.
Scot Hill said this of the junction, “It is a minimalist daypack just a bit larger than the Tara. Top load, no compression straps but lacing, two wand pockets, and Tara style suspension.”
The back panel has a zippered compartment that is designed to accept a 13″ laptop though that may vary in the production version. The top flap also has a small zippered compartment for organizing small, quick-access items. It also retains all the loops necessary to be used as a compression pocket/panel on HPG’s larger packs.
If you have been looking for something a bit bigger than the Tarahumara and with a bit more organization, this could be it. The Junction is not available for sale yet. Stay tuned for details.
Sometimes you need a little more storage capacity or organization. Sometimes you don’t. PocketUp’s Morph Pockets can be attached to any MOLLE compatible surface and they lay completely flat when they aren’t needed. When they are needed, they can be expanded easily.
The Morph Pockets have a roll-top closure that can be folded down into the pouch to create an open-top for tall items. Both of the available sizes come with removable compression straps.
I’ll just say up front that this sCharger-14 is easily the best portable solar charger that I have used and then I’ll spend the rest of this article telling you why. The bottom line is that the quality is excellent, they are assembled and supported here in the USA, and they have a feature that is an absolute game-changer (more on this later).
Water Resistant: 40 Feet, Corrosion Resistant, IPX7 Rated
Dimensions: 11.6″ x 7.25″ x .25″in (closed) / 11.6″ x 14.5″ x .125″ in (open)
Solar Cell Efficiency: ~20%, Mono-Crystalline
Suntactics sCharger-14 (upper right) shown with another panel during testing. There will be a review available on the other panel soon.
Observations from Use
To understand what makes the Suntactics panels so great, it helps to have some context for the state of the solar charger market and some experience with the challenges of solar charging devices in the field. I’ll try to provide that context before explaining how Suntactics addresses both.
Regarding the state of the market – It only takes a quick search on Amazon to see solar chargers from a variety of names you don’t recognize and a few that you might. Many of these brands are based in China and appear to exist solely for the purpose of selling inexpensive electronics on Amazon. In my experience, their quality is often dubious and their specifications aren’t trustworthy.
Suntactics, however, has been making excellent portable solar panels since 2009 and their panels have been very well vetted by several demanding user groups including the through-hiking community and military personnel They work. Their panels have no moving parts. They are laminated in such a way that they submersible and they shrug off poor weather conditions. I have used a USB voltmeter to verify their output claims and this panel will often deliver a charge in conditions where my other panel gives up the ghost which speaks to its efficiency. On top of that, their electronic design is superior to anything I have tried… which brings us to the game-changing feature.
Regarding the challenges of solar charging in the field – You may be aware of the fact that the sun’s position in the sky changes throughout the day. You may also be aware that things occlude the sun, like clouds, exist in significant numbers. What you may not know is that many devices like battery chargers and cell phones just aren’t built to handle the realities of solar charging and the voltage changes that come with it.
In many cases, a cloud passing in front of your solar panel will cause the output of the panel to drop which induces a charge error and the device stops charging. Many cell phones are also a little picky about their charge level and will simply not adjust as the panel output changes with the solar conditions. This can lead to more charge errors or slower charging than is necessary. Basically, all of this means you have to babysit your solar charger at all times so that you can unplug and replace the USB device as necessary to reset any potential charge errors.
All Suntactics panels have a feature that addresses this issue very elegantly. They call it “Auto-Retry” and it basically means that the panel automatically restarts the charge every 5 minutes. It is as if you are standing there unplugging the device and then plugging it back in every 5 minutes. You can leave Suntactics panels unattended with the peace of mind that comes with knowing that charge errors will be dealt with automatically. It’s basically magic.
This photo was taken during testing to illustrate some very challenging conditions. See the next image for actual multimeter readings during these conditions.
In this real-world test, the sCharger-14 was still putting out 4.59 volts at .44 amps with the sun occluded by clouds. The other panel tested during this time was producing charge errors.
I originally purchased my sCharger-14 as more of a preparedness item than a backcountry item. It is the largest panel that Suntactics makes in the sCharger line but I still find it to be quite portable and lightweight compared to many panels so it has seen time in the mountains. That said, I would like to pick up one of their smaller and lighter panels eventually for backcountry use with my preferred power banks (see previous article regarding power banks).
I’ve done things like charge 2 cell phones at once (though only one USB socket will have the Auto-Retry feature). I have charged 18650 batteries in the field at 2 amps (the panel will do it if the charger and solar conditions allow)! I can’t do either of those with the other chargers I have tried. I should also note that this particular panel tops off my battery banks relatively quickly which I appreciate.
Wrap Up
I am not an electrical engineer so I likely won’t dive that much deeper into the stats or tech for this panel. I’m just a guy who has spent too much time screwing with other solar chargers before stumbling on a brand that works. The Suntactics panels are efficient, exhibit great quality and efficiency, and that is all great but… What really sets these apart is that they have obviously been designed to address the challenges of solar use in the field.
Suntactics makes a number of sizes and configurations in the sCharger line. They seem to be made in batches and their website is kept up to date with only the particular panels that are available at that time. Suntactics.com
They also sell direct via Amazon with Prime shipping which is where I purchased my panel: Suntactics on Amazon.com.
I remember when I purchased my first hydration bladder. It
felt like a superpower. I could basically just conjure water like a wizard.
Abrakadabra… Hydration. Several years, experiences, and broken hydration
bladders later, I now question whether they are even a good idea.
Why…
A list of grievances:
Hydration bladders are more fragile than almost any bottle. I have broken at least 6 hydration bladders from a wide
variety of manufacturers including your favorite. In the best case, your stuff
gets wet. In the worst case, you lose your most vital resource.
They don’t handle the cold as well as a bottle that is built
for cold. Granted, the bladder itself is usually
well insulated enough inside your pack to prevent freezing but your mouthpiece
and hose will likely freeze. This can happen even if you are careful about
blowing out the hose if it is cold enough.
They are more expensive especially compared to free bottles. That’s right. There are some really good bottles that are
basically free with the purchase of something like Smartwater, Gatorade, or
maybe those tradeshow freebie sports bottles. Even if you have to buy some
bottles for specific purposes, they are less expensive than a bladder (and they
lost longer with less maintenance).
They are terrible to clean. If something requires tablets, special brushes, and weird expanding drying rack to clean, it kind of sucks. Those bladders and hoses get really, really nasty if you don’t clean them well.
They make it easy to over-utilize your resources. “Gee whiz, this climb is kicking my tail. I’ll just take a quick swig.” Do that a few times and before you know it, you’ve knocked back all 3 liters and you’re looking for a place to refill. You need to hydrate but hydration bladders make it easy to take in more than you need.
They have the word “bladder” in their name. That’s a little weird, right?
I will grant you that they do have some advantages. The convenience can’t be beat but, again, this is a double-edged sword. They are also often lighter in weight than the bottles required to carry the same volume of water.
This pack in this photo (HPG Ute) has 6 liters of water on board. 5 liters are in bottles on the outside of the pack and an extra liter is tucked inside in preparation for an overnight trip with no water access.
How…
The “how” basically boils down to a few key factors. The first is having the right gear. You need to make sure you have the bottles you need to carry a sufficient amount of water and then you have a pack that will support your new hydration bladder-less existence.
The bottle part is easy. Just find bottles that will let you carry as much water as you would have with a hydration bladder. I like to use the big Nalgene 48-ounce bottles. They are the same diameter as the typical 32-ounce bottles so they fit all the same pouches. Two of them will carry roughly the same amount of water as a 3L bladder. Alternately, the 1-liter Smartwater bottles are a great shape for packing in a backpack.
Speaking of backpacks, I like Hill People Gear packs for carrying a lot of water since they typically have ample bottle pockets and provisions for attaching bottles to your pack belt. I can easily and comfortably carry 5 liters of water on my Umlindi or Ute without even having to stash any water inside the pack. I can place additional bottles in the pack as necessary.
This Hill People Gear Umlindi has almost 5 liters of water on board in preparation for a day far from any water source.
Once you have the gear sorted out, you can address the convenience aspect. This is important because, while hydration bladders can lead to over-hydration, you still don’t want to make it hard to take a drink. My standard is that I must have at least once bottle that can I drink from without having to stop to access it, drink from it, or stow it again. I like to use a sports bottle as you might use on a bike but really, almost any bottle will work. The key is to make sure this bottle is easy to access like on your waist belt or lashed to your pack strap. I just rotate water to the easy access bottle from other bottles when I get a chance.
Don’t submit to the tyranny of hydration bladders any longer. Save money, save headaches, and save water by switching to bottles.
Attaching a bike bottle to your pack strap is easy. Photo Credit: Hill People Gear
