Anyone that’s met G.W. Ayers will attest that while he’s a nice, typically soft-spoken guy, he looks like someone shaved a gorilla(1) and hung LBE on it. This shouldn’t be taken as an insult—he’s a smart guy and we like him. It might, however, explain our initial hesitation at the sight of those outstretched paws(2) when he reached out and offered to take us over to check out his new radio pouch. We got over it and rode along.
Glad we did.
This pouch is an outstanding piece of kit and is another one of those forehead-smacking ideas. It came to them from an SF operator in the field, who explained what he needed and stood by. GW was quick to sic his custom shop on it. The result is now in use in a number of places, including several SOF organizations.
Designed for the Harris 152 radio (AN/PRC-152 Falcon III for purists and grognards), this modular pouch addresses the biggest problem you can have with your radio pouch—once it’s in there, you have to pull it back out to make adjustments and sometimes even to use them. Says GW, “What we’ve done is design this so it’s MOLLEd [note: that’s a verb, not a typo] onto the gear, then the radio will fall free at 45 degrees so you can change your channels, then you secure the radio. It’s a one-handed operations, so that you don’t have to pull the radio out of the pouch when you have to deal with it.â€
(From the description on their site: ‘Releasing the heavy duty quick-release buckle on the front of the pouch allows the entire pouch to lean out, giving the user easy access to the keypad and screen, which faces the wearer and remains protected by a clear window.’)
The pouch will also carry the MBITR radio in the same configuration (yes, AN/PRC-148 MBITR radio, we can use the official cool name too), if you’re using that instead of the AN/PRC 152. GW’s folks developed wings on the side of the pouch to Velcro open and shut, so if you had to get to the buttons for some reason, or the data port on the opposite side, you have no issues. This is going to be really well liked for some of the AF guys that have to run a lot of data through(3).
So far the pouch has been a slam dunk for Tactical Tailor and they expect it to continue (note: they haven’t made these in our size yet, but give them time). It retails for $30 and is available in Foliage Green, Coyote Brown, MultiCam and Black. (No word on ABU or MARPAT, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.)
As you might have expected it’s constructed of 1000D Cordura nylon and heavy-duty hardware. Attaches to any MOLLE or PALS style gear with two long MALICE CLIPS® (included). Buy it here. Seriously, go buy one, or two. And tell GW we sent you.
As usual, if you have any ideas for us to review, drop us a line at BreachBangClear.com or FaceBook.com/MadDuo; unless you’re going to complain about our opinions, writing style and philosophy (or if you are Joy Behar or Keith Olbermann) . In that event you should feel free to go play in traffic and Foxtrot-Sierra-Oscar(4). MAD DUO OUT!
1 Gorilla GeeDuya GeeDubya, not Gorilla beringei beringei.
2 This should not be interpreted as hyperbole. Have you seen his mitts? He’s got fingers like bratwursts. Just sayin’.
3 It would probably be just as well received by Security Forces anyway, though they’d prob’ly lose it or break hours after guardmount—which is better than what the grunts will probably do it. We won’t go into that here.
4 The middle one is “Smoothâ€. We don’t have a brevity code for it, but you get the idea.
