Bill Horne wrote on 6 May 2008:

Of course, Health and Welfare traffic isn't a military necessity, but
only a fool would neglect the morale of his men, and it didn't matter to
the CO that I knew CW or that I used SSB most of the time - what
_mattered_ was that I knew about long-path propagation, about how
important it was to scrape the corrosion off the coax connectors, and
that I could get the job done. They don't teach anything about operating
"maritime mobile" at Fort Monmouth.

Fort Monmouth is the home of CECOM, the ARMY's Central Electonics
COMmand. The US Army waterborne vehicles are limited to river-
crossing large inflatables although some are sent to USN or USMC
schools for landing craft, hovercraft training. The "AN/" in a
military nomenclature stands for Army-Navy and has for 6 decades.
Any soldier, sailor, or airman can operate an "AN/" equipment if
so authorized. Land field communications equipment is usually
built to withstand total submergence in water. That CAN happen
on land.

Rest assured that field radio and radio relay students at Fort
Gordon, GA, (Camp Gordon in the 50s) DID learn about short- and
long-path [RF] propagation...and how to keep coaxial connectors,
indeed all connectors clean and workable...and MUCH more. NVIS
techniques have been taught for three decades at Gordon, usually
referred to as 'Nevis' as its familiar name.

Fort Gordon has taught operation of the standard small-unit land
radio for two decades, the AN/PRC-119 plus its mobile and fixed
versions (same R/T), plus the airborne unit, the first of the
SINCGARS family. SINCGARS compatible radios don't have frequency
or band selectors in the usual sense. It has a touch-screen
with display to enter both the code key and the frequency-hopping
key as determined by the local signal officer. First operational
in 1989, it was field tested in the First Gulf War, then used
'extensively' in the Second Gulf War plus Afghanistan. Digitized
voice, digital data, selectable clear-channel or encrypted anywhere
in the 30 to 88 MHz region. ITT Fort Wayne, IN, has made 300K+
of those and Harris Corporation now has contracts for more in a
newer, smaller version. It is remarkably robust, especially in
crypto mode, can be netted. Internal time base can be calibrated
via GPS signals via an AN/PSN-11 'Plugger' by plugging it into
a connector on its front panel. There are SINCGARS-compatible
HTs now on duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.


Well, I suppose anyone with a soldering gun could fix a KY-28 when the
pins come off: but only a ham would know that he could get solder from
the tube pins of a trashed PRC-25 and use a fire to heat up a knife for
the job. It wasn't me, but I know it _was_ a ham that did it.

The AN/PRC-25 was solid-state except for the single vacuum tube
in the PA. AN/PRC-77 was its fully solid-state version. Both
were VHF with channelized tuning (considered abhorent by a few
hams) but turned out to be mainstays for Vietnam field radio use.
Both are now obsolete.

Having seen the innards of both up close and personal, there are
plenty of places to obtain solder from it...if that was a real
necessity. Jury-rigged repairs have been going on with ALL
military land equipment since before WWII and not just by licensed
radio amateurs. shrug


I have no personal knowledge of what actually transpires in ANY
"ring" of the Pentagon. I must depend on periodicals and documents
published by defense electronics and electronics professional
associations to yield such information. In those, and in archived
copies of "Signal" (a quarterly of the Army Signal Corps, available
new to signal personnel) there has been NO such statements of any
"favoritism" expressed from a half century ago to today.


PAVE PAWS has been around for decades. [snip]
Since it IS primary in its assigned operating frequency and IS part of
National Defense, that National Defense ought to be considered
primary by US citizens who wish to survive. Is a radio hobby
more important than national survival?

It's at least as important as not allowing oneself to be swayed by
jingoistic appeals to misplaced patriotism.

Opponents to amateur radio use of anything could point (accurately)
to "jingoistic" statements of "misplaced patriotism" towards the
ARRL. shrug There are many sides to any issue.

Ham Radio operators and equipment would be
essential to keep life going. [after a nuclear holocaust]

I've had one complete physical exam since getting my amateur radio
license last March. My primary physician had detected no new
super-human powers in my body. :-)

That absolute statement is unprovable. Radio amateurs are as mortal
as any other human being. As one who has seen electronic equipment
developed for all possible 'radio' environments. Amateur radio gear
is NOT close to rad-hardened military equipment. It is essentially
consumer electronics grade although better than most consumer stuff.
Only two ready-made HT radios (as I recall) are advertised as fully
submersible.

Boosters of amateur radio licensee qualities tend to forget that
there are many, many more 'civilians' who are knowledgeable and
proficient in radio communications equipment and techniques. Their
numbers may be MORE than the total number of ham licensees in the USA.
Licensed radio amateurs in the USA make up only about a quarter of
one percent of the total population.

...Hams aren't just trained to
pound brass: those that homebrew their own gear or compete in Field Day
or participate in disaster-preparedness are trained to think on their
feet, and that means they care about getting the job done, not the
mode(s) they use to do it.

That's a lovely thought, but misleading. Lots of 'civilians' are
also able to "think on their feet" and do so regularly. Utility
repairpersons reacting to large-scale damage repair are one such
example that I've observed up-close and personal.

My observation of 'Field Day' since its onset has been a radio
contest carried out in a park on a nice day in June with picnic
food. When QST had a two-page article on Field Day recipies,
that pretty much wiped out any notion in my mind that Field Day
was any 'emergency exercise.'

AF6AY