[Modern Firepower] Technothriller gear for secret DHS team in 2017

[acrosome]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Fortunately for Agent O'Toole, the Law Tactical AR Folding Stock Adapter makes it possible to store his Carbon 15 rifle in the saddlebags of a Harley cruiser without having to partially dissamble the weapon. And no IQ-based Guns roll is needed to ready the weapon for firing, just a single Ready action to unfold the stock.

Granted, it will also take 2-3 seconds of Ready actions to open the saddlebags and draw the rifle from it, but that's true of everyone who wants to keep his firearm off his person, out of view and in a closed container.

Also bear in mind that the rifle cannot be fired with the stock folded. Or rather, it can be fired ONCE after which it will have launched the bolt carrier and bolt out the back, possibly into the person firing it. So, another Ready maneuver to unfold the stock.

Originally Posted by Icelander

Can you use a regular car antenna for daily use, with longer and more powerful ones that can be stored inside it and mounted if and only if the truck is set up as a surveillance control station?

How big is the antenna? You can have an antenna on a magnetic base that you just open the door (or window, but not if it's bulletproof) and slap it on the roof when you need it. I've seen several models. Even for satellite comms- modern ones are incredibly small, no larger than a soup bowl. And the tactical ones don't look like a dish, actually- they're a central post with four "wings" off the side. An antenna for a satellite phone is no larger than a deck of cards. I've seen techies carrying various radios and computers in a satchel with 3 or 4 magnetic-based antennas to slap on the car roof.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by acrosome

Also bear in mind that the rifle cannot be fired with the stock folded. Or rather, it can be fired ONCE after which it will have launched the bolt carrier and bolt out the back, possibly into the person firing it. So, another Ready maneuver to unfold the stock.

Yeah, that's right. Thought I explained it above, Ready to unfold + the 2-3 Ready to open the saddlebags and pick up the weapon.

That assumes he keeps the saddlebags unlocked when expecting trouble. Of course, Fast-Draw (Longarm) would help, but O'Toole is not a tactical person.

[acrosome]

And why settle for an F-350 when you can have an F-550? :) Ford makes a pickup on that chassis. Might still be hard to get three large motorcycles in there, though. The bed can only be so wide and still be street-legal.

[acrosome]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Does anybody know about interesting after-market luxury computer systems for a truck?

I'm talking about something that can function as a PC for one or more passengers, with screens and peripherals accessible in the front passenger seat and from the rear seats. Also capable of voice-controlled operation of entertainment system, car-phone, mobile phone, sat phone and any number of Bluetooth devices.

Possibly some communication devices designed to boost reception of cell phone data networks, and/or a private WiFi router or satellite modem.

Luxury systems? No. But I know that several companies make mounts for laptops and compact printers for the front passenger seat. It's also common in e.g. oil company field trucks, etc.

All sorts of companies make aftermarket wifi hotspots for cars. Likewise, there are several satellite data systems. Some are portable enough that hikers use them. I know of one that several users can sync their smart phones to and text, email, etc.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by acrosome

And why settle for an F-350 when you can have an F-550? :) Ford makes a pickup on that chassis. Might still be hard to get three large motorcycles in there, though. The bed can only be so wide and still be street-legal.

At some point, trucks reach a size and weight that preclude them from being off-road capable without being tracked vehicles.

We compromised on the load, accepted that we'd only fit two bikes on the bed and still have a good vehicle for the goat trails that they're calling roads in the mountains next to the Juarez Vally. That gives us plenty of spare freight space for fuel, water and gear.

[acrosome]

Originally Posted by Icelander

At some point, trucks reach a size and weight that preclude them from being off-road capable without being tracked vehicles.

FWIW Earthroamer bases their off-road RVs on the F-550, and they are awesome. Especially with the 41-inch military tires. Earth roamer is sort of the North American equivalent of Unicat.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Icelander

At some point, trucks reach a size and weight that preclude them from being off-road capable without being tracked vehicles.

We compromised on the load, accepted that we'd only fit two bikes on the bed and still have a good vehicle for the goat trails that they're calling roads in the mountains next to the Juarez Vally. That gives us plenty of spare freight space for fuel, water and gear.

Originally Posted by acrosome

FWIW Earthroamer bases their off-road RVs on the F-550, and they are awesome. Especially with the 41-inch military tires. Earth roamer is sort of the North American equivalent of Unicat.

Fair enough. OTOH, the GM said pick-up truck, not monster truck.

And the previous owner wanted a shiny armored luxury truck for all-around use, not exclusively an off-road exploration vehicle. He'd use it for driving occassionaly on bad roads and making the odd venture over rock and sand, but most of the time, it would be road-bound.

The DHS would have put bigger tires on it, but the basic vehicle would be more or less as the previous owner bought it, more luxury and fancy entertainment than designed for long-range endurance trips.

Our characters want the option of being able to drive over some of the inhospitable terrain in the neighbourhood, but our budget for adding accessories to the nice truck is limited.

Note that the armored Ford F-350 already has a curb weight of 7,500 pounds without passengers or cargo. The maximum Gross Vehicle Weight Rating is 14,000 lbs., but I doubt very much that it will be a capable off-road vehicle at anything close to maximum load.

We're hoping to keep our cargo at 2 tons or so, including the weight of passengers.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

It's a pretty decent camera body, and while it isn't current production since 2013, it looks adequate for many purposes. The things you need for surveillance at range are long lenses and a sturdy tripod. There are plentiful supplies of both, although good lenses do cost noticeable amounts of money.

Adequate seems about right.

Our actual job is to offer a deal to some people. We were issued gear we'd need to make contact and report back. Everything else is PCs scrounging and creatively accounting to have extra gear in case the actual activities they get up to should happen to be considerably more involved than the briefing indicated.

Originally Posted by johndallman

There aren't accessories that will make it take better pictures for all purposes. Its low-light sensitivity is significant, but not up to current standards: get a Nikon D500 for that. Obviously, you can't use flash for surveillance at range. What other needs seems likely?

Well, need is a big word. The camera was intended for use at crime scenes, but O'Toole doesn't really have a pressing need for it. But having tools for surveilance at long and short range, day and night, can't hurt.

Personally, O'Toole wants to find Vargas, confirm his ID (which he might try to do with facial recognition software if he only gets a distant look) and then make contact.

Originally Posted by johndallman

you're taking camera kit without knowing exactly what's needed, you'd obviously take a range of lenses covering wide-angle to long telephoto, lots of storage cards, and a laptop that can read them. You want several spare batteries, and chargers for them, including ones that can run off a vehicle electrical system. Spares of all the cheap electrical stuff, and of all the caps for lens fronts and backs and the body's lens mount. Lens hoods, polarising filters, remote control units. Solid, well-padded carrying cases.

Good, thanks.

Originally Posted by johndallman

Everything needs to be in black finish - the chrome-barrelled lenses that are fashionable are too conspicuous. A skilled surveillance photographer might well take sandpaper to the chrome detailing on black plastic camera controls to cut down on reflections, and will use black tape to cover other shiny bits.

Any equipment that's good for stealth is valuable. A vest of pockets in the appropriate camouflage is very useful.

O'Toole is surprisingly skilled at surveillance, especially technical surveillance. He is, however, very much a city mouse. Protective colouration, to him, means not standing out in a crowd.

He's theoretically aware of Border Patrol missions where agents hole up in rural areas of the Southwest and stare at the desert through binoculars or powerful cameras, but his contribution to those taskings has mostly been making sure the sensor networks functioned and the footage was clear. He usually didn't have to leave the well air-conditioned El Paso Intelligence Center to do that.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

So, I guess, would the DHS have long-range lenses for their crime scene cameras? Or can you use lenses on multiple models of camera?

They would not have very long lenses for scene-of-crime cameras, maybe 200mm focal length at most. But lenses have standard interfaces to camera bodies - approximately one standard interface per body manufacturer - so if the DHS has older models of long-range lens in Nikon fitting than the new and expensive models Þorkell posted, those will fit and work.

The concept in quality cameras for decades has been the "system camera" - a camera body that can accept a very wide variety of interchangeable lenses, viewfinder accessories, and other specialised widgets that make it usable for almost any kind of photography.

The drawback in this is that different manufacturers' lenses aren't interchangeable. You can't put Canon lenses onto a Nikon body, or vice-versa. Some companies make only (or mostly) lenses, and provide versions for several manufacturers' bodies, but this is getting complicated. Individual photographers often have fairly strong brand loyalty, because they like a particular manufacturer's products, and because they have a lot of lenses that only fit that manufacturer's bodies.

Since the DHS was assembled out of several different organisations, different parts of it probably have different and incompatible standards for photographic equipment. So some appropriate long lenses can probably be found somewhere in the DHS, but they may well be old. Lenses that fit the D7000 can be as much as 50 years old. Older ones will be bigger and heavier, and offer less automation, but their optical quality will be good - Nikon have always done that well.

Given that O'Toole appears to be quite young, using old lenses will mean he suffers a TL penalty and an unfamiliarity penalty. There are limits to how much the computers in the camera body can make up for this - the old lenses aren't built to be controlled by the body - although it does have electronic aids to manual focussing, if he remembers to use them. If he's sensible, he will practice with the old lenses to get rid of the unfamiliarity penalty.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

They would not have very long lenses for scene-of-crime cameras, maybe 200mm focal length at most. But lenses have standard interfaces to camera bodies - approximately one standard interface per body manufacturer - so if the DHS has older models of long-range lens in Nikon fitting than the new and expensive models Þorkell posted, those will fit and work.

Well, I can find mentions of 'Nikkor 5x zoom lens' and 'AF-S VR Zoom Nikkor 24-120mm' lens as something that seems to be extremely widespread in federal law enforcement inventories 7-12 years ago.

Originally Posted by johndallman

The concept in quality cameras for decades has been the "system camera" - a camera body that can accept a very wide variety of interchangeable lenses, viewfinder accessories, and other specialised widgets that make it usable for almost any kind of photography.

The drawback in this is that different manufacturers' lenses aren't interchangeable. You can't put Canon lenses onto a Nikon body, or vice-versa. Some companies make only (or mostly) lenses, and provide versions for several manufacturers' bodies, but this is getting complicated. Individual photographers often have fairly strong brand loyalty, because they like a particular manufacturer's products, and because they have a lot of lenses that only fit that manufacturer's bodies.

Since the DHS was assembled out of several different organisations, different parts of it probably have different and incompatible standards for photographic equipment. So some appropriate long lenses can probably be found somewhere in the DHS, but they may well be old. Lenses that fit the D7000 can be as much as 50 years old. Older ones will be bigger and heavier, and offer less automation, but their optical quality will be good - Nikon have always done that well.

Ok, thanks for that. I'm really not familiar at all with any aspect of photography equipment.

Originally Posted by johndallman

Given that O'Toole appears to be quite young,

He was born in 1989, which makes him 27-28 at the time of play, depending on when his birthday happens to be (the player didn't specify). That means he's never known anything but TL8 and, in fact, only spent his first 11 years in the 20th century. All of his technical education would have taken place in the heavily Internet-dependent world of the 21st century.

O'Toole served as a communications technician in the US Army for two years, probably between 2009 and 2011, but it might vary a year in either direction, depending on precisely when he dropped out of Boston College. After his service, he finished college at UMass-Boston, graduating with a BS degree in Exercise and Health Sciences (his focus being sports psychology) and a minor in World Cultures.

O'Toole would have started working for CBP in 2013-2014, starting out doing work closely related to his military experience, but eventually attending FLETC. At the Office of Intelligence and Investigative Liaison, O'Toole had wide scope to develop his abilities at technical surveillance, intelligence collection and analysis. The most exciting work O'Toole did was as part of a special surveillance team that worked with ICE-HSI on organised crime at the Southwest border.

Of course, working for the CBP, O'Toole isn't actually a Special Agent (1811), with arrest and investigative powers. He's a GS-1801 investigator and he's fully qualified at all the investigative work that he's empowered to perform, but not actually trained to perform arrests and high-risk warrant service. That's why he's so inept at tactical policing.

It's only after he was assigned to Onyx Rain that O'Toole got ID that say 'Special Agent' (of the DHS OIG), but that actually only entailed a few weeks of extra training at an OIG facility, which mostly involved learning about DHS-wide bureaucratic regulations, not tactical policing.

O'Toole has taken federal law enforcement courses on both surveillance and crime scene photography and a few photography classes in college. In GURPS terms, he has 2 points in the skill*, largely because he has used it under fairly challenging real-world conditions in addition to his training. His entire experience and study of photography has taken place after the year 2006, which means he will not be familiar with a lot of older equipment.

On the other hand, at FLETC, the cameras used for training are almost always Nikon DSLR models (point and shoot occasionally, but that is usually in older sources, before O'Toole's time). I've found references to training on Nikon L5, D2X, D4, D60, D70S, D80, D90, D600, D800, D5100, D-7000 and D-7100 for various tasks with federal law enforcement. No doubt there are many others in use. I also saw that Canon cameras are sometimes allowed, but seem much less used at the courses offered for federal LEO.

*Combined with his awesome IQ 14, this makes him an expert photographer. As he has had at least three years of experience where his job required him to do things that required Photography, albeit more often through remote equipment than personally, this is fairly realistic, at least for someone who qualifies as a bona-fide genius. Of course, just because O'Toole's character sheet indicates that he should be a genius does not mean that this has been reflected in play.

Originally Posted by johndallman

using old lenses will mean he suffers a TL penalty and an unfamiliarity penalty. There are limits to how much the computers in the camera body can make up for this - the old lenses aren't built to be controlled by the body - although it does have electronic aids to manual focussing, if he remembers to use them. If he's sensible, he will practice with the old lenses to get rid of the unfamiliarity penalty.

At the very worst, I suspect that inventories from the time where US Customs and other Treasury agents had to carry out all surveillance using telephoto lenses will include plenty of 90s vintage lenses that are not used now that drones and remote IR video cameras are doing a lot of the same boring surveillance.