Posted: 2/6/2012 7:07:20 AM EDT
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So I just had an argument with 2 NCO radio operators. Over what? The band limits of VHF I was saying something about 30Mhz to 300Mhz and they gave me an odd look. So then they told me that VHF is 55Mhz -290Mhz At first I was just thinking about their allocations but that wasn't the case since a couple of the freqs we use out here fall within the ITU region 2 2m band. They even pulled out an official guard chart from their command that had a "cheat card" on the back and sure enough it said 55-290.
I sat down to talk to them to find out they are taught a couple days of radio theory and the rest is all the high speed ALE and SatCom and learning how to load crypto. They can set up an encrypted up/down link to a geo sync bird and transmit data over it from a remote station, however they could set up a single channel plain text simplex voice channel to save their life. (And in this line of work it really can save lives) Is this what .mil comm is comming to? Our radios are things of art. Built in ALE, removable faceplate ect ect but how good is any of that tech if our radio operators don't know the difference between vertical and horizontal polarization? /rant |
| I don't expect them to be able to past a tech test just by sitting down, but I would think they should know the difference between an omni directional and directional antenna. I too have come across a few good comm guys but they are very few and far between in the units I have been in. |
| .mil NCO HAM operator, in a non-comm MOS here. It has been a long time since I got my Tech no-code license, but I still remember enough. Most of the .mil comm guys are very basic end users of the equipment. They aren't really instructed on all the theory that we are, that and they don't care enough about it to educate themselves. Just my personal experience. |
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.mil NCO HAM operator, in a non-comm MOS here. It has been a long time since I got my Tech no-code license, but I still remember enough. Most of the .mil comm guys are very basic end users of the equipment. They aren't really instructed on all the theory that we are, that and they don't care enough about it to educate themselves. Just my personal experience. Ditto. Im a Arty scout NCO so we relay totally on comms to do our job. Our net was down the other day so I had to get a comm guy to come check the crypto, I told him I have a bunch of videos and power points on antenna theory and propagation. He showed no interest, he just wanted to get back to his corner so he could finish watching his movie. I have done all the 06xx MCI's and they are very limited in what they talk about but they were also about 30 years old 
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Our RATT guys were squared away in the HF stuff. But that was 25 years ago.
S-250 shelters on a HMMWV towing a generator. Kind of my instiration for Jeep TJ HF camping rig that I am working on. Being only a vehicle driver for a Comm section and only OJT I got pretty good at wire, RF, crypto, and thermal mobile fax setups. |
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Myself (0311 LCPL at the time) and our radio chief were the only two who knew how to get HF up and running my first time in Iraq the comm guys hated me because every bit of downtime we had I'd be trying to teach them something..... my leaders loved me because I did all the troubleshooting on the comms systems though that and 4 years of college got me my plt RO spot.... I liked it.... no radio theory is taught in comm school anymore though. Just how to be an operator. I was sent to the SOTG comms package class and came out 1st in the class, with a bunch of radio guys........ it has to be your hobby to actually know the stuff, unfortunately
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| I was trying to get into that SOTG class on Lejeune but they wouldn't let me because I wasn't a 06 (maybe you ruined it?) Our ROs came back and that first field op they set up dipoles for single channel mode, 3' each leg the entire dipole was the length of the hard top of a hmmwv. I asked them if it might be a little short for 5ish Mhz and got told length doesn't matter. |
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Quoted: I was trying to get into that SOTG class on Lejeune but they wouldn't let me because I wasn't a 06 (maybe you ruined it?) Our ROs came back and that first field op they set up dipoles for single channel mode, 3' each leg the entire dipole was the length of the hard top of a hmmwv. I asked them if it might be a little short for 5ish Mhz and got told length doesn't matter. ahahahaha well, technically it WILL work..... (damn .mil tuners will tune a paperclip) actually "work"? no way
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Well then there is the flip side of the story. My son was a comm type 10th Mountain then a tour in Iraq onto 3rd Aviation. Had a training accident that eventually led to medical retirement, as an E-4. All his .mil comm led to a job as a radio tech with the guys here in town that take care of about 2/3 the southeastern part of the state. All the public service agencies, multiple civilain contracts even a contract for a mil base in West Texas! Oh and along the way he became a Tech now a General and hopefully next month an Extra.
So it does occassionally pay off both for the soldier and for the ham community! Sarge |
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Quoted: Well then there is the flip side of the story. My son was a comm type 10th Mountain then a tour in Iraq onto 3rd Aviation. Had a training accident that eventually led to medical retirement, as an E-4. All his .mil comm led to a job as a radio tech with the guys here in town that take care of about 2/3 the southeastern part of the state. All the public service agencies, multiple civilain contracts even a contract for a mil base in West Texas! Oh and along the way he became a Tech now a General and hopefully next month an Extra. So it does occassionally pay off both for the soldier and for the ham community! Sarge of course, if you love your job and wish to excel at it - you will..... unfortunately men like your son are few and far between...... for comm for infantry for intel etc etc.... if you love what you're doing and make it your hobby also, you're going to be shit hot
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I don't know if many of the lower enlisted radio guys on our ship knew their ass from a hole in the ground about comms. All they knew is how to pull the tape and take message traffic to the officers.
To talk to someone with real knowledge you'd have to talk to a comm Electronics Tech...like me. Of course I could talk to ya but then I'd have to kill ya since my stuff was classified. 
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Quoted: I don't know if many of the lower enlisted radio guys on our ship knew their ass from a hole in the ground about comms. All they knew is how to pull the tape and take message traffic to the officers. To talk to someone with real knowledge you'd have to talk to a comm Electronics Tech...like me. Of course I could talk to ya but then I'd have to kill ya since my stuff was classified. lets grab some coffee and chillax in the SCIF BSing about radios and ARFCOMMERS  |
I have only been in for a little more than 4 years, and every month i feel a little more 
Firing while moving ranges are more like firing while crawling All ready said enough about comm The amount of times we have ran drills saying "Bang Bang" Motor T is about as bad as comm. It took 3 months to get a new belt for my truck after they used to small of one to bypass my power steering pump. (I wondered why it was hard to turn) And whenever you think you have it bad try to explain "Angle-T" to a fresh LT. I love it and just re up'd for another 4 but there are times that really make me question our tip of the spear-ness |