Wasteland Survivalist: A Scientific Guide to Post-Apocalyptic Survival

Gu Lang took out his phone and opened the offline map to check.

Hetuala is located just east of the service area, only a dozen kilometers away as the crow flies.

Exit the S10 expressway at the nearest exit and take the G229 national highway to get there; the journey is only about 20 kilometers.

He went back to the gas station and found a tourist brochure.

After flipping through a few pages, I quickly found the introduction to the ancient city of Hetuala.

Historically, this place was the birthplace of the Manchu dynasty, and even the royal ancestral tombs are located nearby.

As the first capital of the Later Jin regime, it had a strong military presence.

It is a typical mountain town built on the mountainside, with a double defense of inner and outer walls.

It is surrounded by rivers on three sides, faces a lake on one side, and is protected by mountains to the east and south.

It is situated on higher ground, offering a panoramic view of the surrounding passageways.

There are only two roads leading up the mountain, which has natural barriers and the advantage of high altitude.

There is a well called "Khan Wang Well" in the city. The water is clear and sweet, which can solve the long-standing drinking water problem.

Due to its age, only a portion of the original earthen and stone city walls remain.

However, the pictures show that the city gates and walls have been rebuilt after the area became a 4A-level tourist attraction.

To prevent tourists from evading tickets, domestic scenic spots often install an additional layer of isolation fences.

If that place hadn't been affected by the "madness," it would indeed be a good defensive position.

Gu Lang put down the brochure and opened a pack of compressed biscuits for lunch.

As afternoon approached, the fog showed no signs of dissipating.

He then drove around on the highway and arrived at the service area on the north side.

The buildings here are like mirror images of the south side; apart from being in a different direction, their structures are almost identical.

There was clearly a battle taking place here; not only were all the windows shattered, but there were also many bullet holes in the walls.

The main building was almost burned to ruins, and there was a strong stench of decay inside.

Fortunately, there was no explosion at the gas station, and after confirming that no one was around, [the situation was resolved].

Gulang began extracting the required diesel fuel using the old method.

The oil tank contained a large amount of oil, which quickly filled the six metal drums.

After collecting enough fuel, he returned to the relatively safe southern service area.

Seeing that it was getting late, I parked the car directly in a nearby grove of trees.

It will take some time for the fog to clear.

He was going to follow the tutorial on his phone to build an infrared night vision device by hand.

After setting up the early warning system, Gu Lang took out the last remaining dashcam.

This model was deliberately kept until now because it comes with a small display screen.

Connect the power bank via USB cable and the machine will start immediately.

When the interior lights are turned off, the infrared auxiliary lights automatically illuminate with a dark red glow.

The image on the screen also turned black and white.

In fact, infrared light with a wavelength of 850 nanometers is invisible to the human eye.

The reason we can see the red light emitted by the fill light is because...

This is because the light emitted by the LED beads is not a single, absolute wavelength, but rather a very narrow band.

Although most infrared light is invisible to the naked eye, a small portion still "leaks" into the visible red spectrum.

Manufacturers prefer this wavelength of LED chips mainly because most CMOS sensors have the highest sensitivity in this band.

The faint red light it produces can also serve as a warning to some extent, telling people that "there is surveillance here".

If you want completely lightless, covert surveillance, you need to use infrared LED beads with a wavelength of 940 nanometers.

These LED beads have almost no visible light leakage, and can truly achieve "complete darkness".

However, the trade-off is that the lighting effect and effective distance will be reduced.

Gu Lang circled around the service area and quickly found several security surveillance cameras, from which he removed the infrared LED beads.

Carefully pry open the dashcam's casing to reveal its compact internal motherboard structure.

Around the lens, a ring of small LEDs is neatly arranged.

He carefully removed the original 850nm LED beads with a soldering iron and replaced them with 940nm ones.

After reassembly and powering on for testing, the original red light indeed completely disappeared.

Because the newly replaced LEDs have higher power, the illumination distance has actually increased by about one-third.

Next is the wearable solution.

Gu Lang took out his outdoor helmet, which had a standard guide rail interface on the left side.

He chose a universal action camera holder and compared it to the size of his dashcam.

Use a file to smooth the joint area to ensure a secure installation and a stable center of gravity.

During the initial trial, it was found that because the screen was too close to the eyes, it was actually difficult to focus.

On a sudden inspiration, he pulled out a pair of binoculars that had been seized from the bandits and carefully removed the eyepiece assembly.

This optical lens assembly can serve as a simple magnifying device.

Through repeated focusing and adjustments, he used hot melt glue to fix the eyepiece in front of the screen, thus forming a basic imaging system.

Finally, the entire device is snapped into the helmet rail, and a monocular active infrared night vision device is complete.

To use the device, simply flip it downwards; your left eye will gain night vision while your right eye retains normal vision.

This design not only allows for quick switching of observation modes, but also effectively avoids temporary night blindness caused by suddenly removing the night vision goggles.

After nightfall, Gu Lang conducted field tests at the edge of the woods.

The modified equipment has an effective observation range of about 30 meters, and the image has obvious noise and slight delay.

The field of view is also rather strange, and the image has some distortion.

Fortunately, it functions perfectly and did not become loose even during vigorous running.

Because it has an eyepiece, it's essentially equipped with a built-in sunshade.

This virtually eliminates the problem of screen light leakage, ensuring privacy in the dark.

However, he was also aware that the somewhat clumsy homemade equipment in front of him had significant limitations.

At best, it's only at a basic level for civilian use; ultimately, it's just an emergency solution.

Although infrared light is invisible to the naked eye, it can be detected if the enemy has similar equipment.

Turning on the infrared fill light is no different from using a flashlight.

In the dark, it is very easy to expose one's position.

This is precisely why modern military night vision devices have all been upgraded to low-light imaging technology.

The low-light night vision device uses passive low-light imaging technology, making it extremely stealthy.

It does not emit any light itself, but it greatly enhances the faint light already present in the environment, such as starlight and moonlight.

Compared to toy-like infrared night vision devices, this represents a qualitative leap.

Not only are their size and weight significantly reduced, but their observation distance can also reach over 100 meters.

The image is usually green or blue-gray.

Future military night vision devices will also be equipped with thermal imagers to enhance target identification capabilities.

As if using a cheat code, it marked the enemy's location in the darkness.

However, low-light night vision devices are already expensive in normal times, and now it's hard to buy them even if you have the money.

Making it by hand is absolutely impossible; to obtain such a thing, one would probably have to look for it in the SWAT team.