I've been looking around the Internet and can only find this and that.  Seems like some of the new portable radios are pretty sweet.  Is there a place that describes more about all the radios the army uses, short range, long range, man portable, vehicles, etc.?

Visit the Survival Forum..I'm starting a discussion on this very topic.

google for:

SINCGARS

ASIPS

and of course the ubiquitous motorola saber

im my personal experience, big heavy fuckers that always lose their comsec as soon as you get out the front gate, and whos batteries die halfway thru a ruckmarch.

the newest SINGARS are alot smaller and user friendly than the older ones

SINGARS

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You found the treasure!!

The new Singars aren't that bad. The battery lasts longer. I didn't have any problem with them. They weigh a hell of a lot less.

Sincgars are pretty common,  and the Army has a radio called EPLRS, which is more dedicated to data vs. just voice, though Sincgars can do data streams as well.  The Sincgars are easier to use, IMO.

I've seen alot of those Motorola talkabouts being used, even in a picture thread by Lumpy today.

Those worry me, as I'm not sure how sophisticated any commercial scrambling is.

Quoted: Those worry me, as I'm not sure how sophisticated any commercial scrambling is.

No such critter on the little Motorolas, that's for sure.....

Quoted: And you'll need a license to operate them on the MILITARY bands ... or the ability to hide really quickly as you get triangulated on. Try ham radio ... it's cheaper, lighter, more powerful and legal.

Eh, I was just asking because I was curious, not because I want to buy the same radios! In fact I am studying for my ham license.  

I used to work on the Mililtary radio....It's now all in a network.  Their transmission are all scramble. Transmitter send a scramble radio message via a microchip then descramble at the other end receiver by another microchip. If you happen to pick up on the radio wave....Good luck.

Quoted: Quoted: Those worry me, as I'm not sure how sophisticated any commercial scrambling is. No such critter on the little Motorolas, that's for sure.....

Some of them use frequency inversion for rudimentary "privacy".  

we wont even get into freq hopping and side-banding  hahahaah

ive seen the new singars, they look great, the national guard here has them, but not the first infantry division, another reason i hate europe.

we use the talkabouts for nonsecure communications, like finding out whos going to chow when, and where the hell your buddy parked the truck, that kind of crap. the next step up is the motorola stx 5000, which is appparently secure, and fits allright in a pocket. we also use the little icoms, but not very much because the range sux, and they seem to be a general pain in the ass.

we also use our singars for data transmission, one singar dedicated for voice, and one for digital.
theres some new stuff out, and some of us have it, but its not used alot, because they are few and far between. besides, the singars seems to be sufficient for what we need.

we dont have ASIPS in the Corps yet...well not in my unit. will the ASIPS do a re-trans like the sincgars? hook 2 of them together and sit on a mountaintop as a 2 man repeater station...thats the best!  you and your buddy, 2 cases of MREs and 10Gal of water...beats the shit out of patrolling the wire.

Quoted: we dont have ASIPS in the Corps yet...well not in my unit. will the ASIPS do a re-trans like the sincgars? hook 2 of them together and sit on a mountaintop as a 2 man repeater station...thats the best!  you and your buddy, 2 cases of MREs and 10Gal of water...beats the shit out of patrolling the wire.

The ASIPs (RT1523E) can do everything that the standard SINCGARS (which are SIPs, the A just stands for Advanced), the only big difference is it is smaller and lighter.  They are pretty widely distributed in Divisional units now, and are actually starting to get replaced/supplemented by the PRC-148  MBITRs.  However you will almost never hear it called an ASIPs that is an army term, throughout the Marine Corps they are referred to as Foxtrots (no one really knows why the E version of the radio is called a Foxtrot.)

Quoted: Sincgars are pretty common,  and the Army has a radio called EPLRS, which is more dedicated to data vs. just voice, though Sincgars can do data streams as well.  The Sincgars are easier to use, IMO.

The EPLRS is a data only system, there is not a provision for a voice handset, you have a data key board that you do all your set up and tests with.  Once you have the ANCD (AN/CYZ-10) set up properly the EPLRS is very reliable means of digital communications.  Once units switched from SINGCARS based digital comm to EPLRS we saw a marked increase in the reliability of our digital communications.  The only issue the EPLRS has is that it is line of sight only and it sends out a very detectable signal every 9 seconds, if your fighting someone with a RDF capability it might give you away.  

The SINCGARS (Single Channel Ground Air Radio System) allowed digital traffic, by setting a setting a data rate via its keyboard, however the data transmission was more like that of an modem.  You actually could set what data rate you wanted the transmission to go at.  The RT1523E ASIPs SINCGARS actually has improved abilities to transmit data, but what you found was since it was lighter it ended up being given to foot mobile troops who don't normally do digital traffic.