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From: John Smith on Aug 27, 4:52 pm
Len: Unfortunately, the only things more dead than CW is the brain dead amateurs too dumb to stop sounding ignorant, I mean, before they opened their mouths (or fingers on the keyboard) we only wondered, now we know, having been shown time and time again... frown Well, so be it, I'm saddened to see. I'll just try to inform these poor souls (or pour souls in some, they obviously pouring something before writing) what military radio IS, not what they imagine it to be. Ackshully, FM 24-18 is a good tutorial for a beginner. In re- checking the link given, there's a download-the-whole-thing link at the bottom but the file is roughly 10 MB in size. Takes a few minutes to get. [glad I already had it on a CD) It has an objective comparison of wire antenna gains in various terrain/environment, untainted by advertising claims and myths of some amateur users. FM 24-24 is available from the Army Training and Doctrine Command Digital Library. It is a veritable catalog of land force radios and communications devices as of 1994. Public distribution. I've given the link to it before in here. The ATDLS website has changed slightly so those precise links I gave before won't get there, but anyone can do so from the 'web, through their home page. Some of the equipment shown has gone obsolete in the past 9 years, or it is in storage in a depot "just in case" or whatever. The ITT 'web page has more informative technical material on the SINCGARS family of radios. Aerospace and Ground Division at Fort Wayne, Indiana, at the old Magnavox plant. Harris Corporation has some more plus future things they are trying to get contracts on, forgotten division name for the moment (somebody will pipe up with the correct name in triumph and imagined glory). Harris has already sold some SINCGARS-compatible work-alikes to the UK last year. SINCGARS is interesting in that it doesn't have so many of the conventional controls. From day one it has a Touchscreen for entering frequency, for entering net properties (frequency hopping pattern). A little OS built into the internal micro- processor. When commanding it to frequency/net operation, one enters a "hopset" (colloquial) which is a rather large data group with its own authenticators from a separate piece of equipment to be used at local Net central. Internal power demand at idle (such as in transport or listening only) is so low that it all the entered data is retained until the LiON battery is replaced. Internal time/frequency accuracy is phenomenal over the full military environmental range. Newer models (the SINCGARS Improvement Plan or SIP versions) will allow the "Plugger" (AN/PSN-11) GPS receiver to connect to it to synchronize the internal time/frequency to the GPS. The "Plugger" (military refined nickname in place of what GIs have called it - the PSN) saw its first field operational duty in the First Gulf War. A very few PRC-119s were tried then, but not many fielded in 1990 since the first ones went to Army forces in Korea. The frequency hopping rate is 10 per second, damn hard to get a handle on in the field for either DF or interception. With digitized voice or data, SIP versions have built-in crypto (selectable) while the older versions needed external COMSEC keyers. It is also "QRP"-like in that there's a three-position front panel switch to select RF power output; DX it ain't but that isn't needed in small-unit ops. The vehicular model with larger PA can push out some RF for (easily) up to 200 miles. It ain't yer daddie's old backpack raddio and it beats the old (but still neat) AN/PRC-10 I once wore on weekly sojer training sessions in the 1950s. The Harris AN/PRC-150 covering HF through UHF is compatible with some more bells and whistles in it, all in manpack size and weight. The AN/PRC-104 IHFR (Improved High Frequency Radio) family debuted in 1986 out of Hughes Aircraft Co. Ground Division. For those missions where HF is thought to be better, it can do so nicely, even the manpack version having an automatic antenna tuner (using latching relays to hold the L and C selections for the internal L network). Little microprocessor in that, too, also controlling the frequency synthesizer permitting good SSB performance. COMSEC is external with that model but they handle all the voice/data crypto formats. Early PRC-104s had a KY-114 knee key (why, I don't know) which was left out of later models. Back in World War 2 times, someone at the Pentagon thought it a fine idea to improve the horse cavalry radio...a lighter and better version than the 1930s model they did have but needed to be set up and operated while the troop was stopped. The answer was in the BC-511, the infamous "guidon radio" (set was IN the combination guidon-bottom with top mount whip antenna, carried like the old horse cavalry guidon pennant). That was thunk up around 1942. However, at the same time HORSE cavalry was disbanded in the U.S. Army! Motorola in Chicago made a bunch of them. Neat little sets, AM and on low HF, crystal controlled. So, a whole bunch of horse cavalry radios being made with no horse cavalry to use it! Stagnated old-soldier thinking in DC. Infantry got some of them, GIs calling it the "pogo stick," terribly clumsy to use on foot. Some new-soldier thinking got vehicle adapters for them but those pogo-sticks went surplus storage when the BC-1000 Walkie-Talkies were built (also by Motorola in Chicago, also beginning in 1943). The SCR-300 (using BC-1000 R/T) was FM voice-only on low VHF. It weighed the same as the cavalry pogo-stick but was in backpack form and much more mobile on foot, worked far better in the field as a radio. Some of the "old radio ops" just can't give up morsemanship. It must be part of their religion or whatever. Like the never-quit horse cavalryman of long ago, their beliefs insist that "CW" or on-off keying of a carrier is somehow "necessary" for today. They can't be budged from that in "the service." :-) It's like 60+ years ago, the cavalrymen insisting that all "good soldiers" had to know how to ride a horse...even when the horses were put out to pasture, glue, or pet food. So it is when all other radio services have abandoned morse code for communications purposes, U.S. amateur radio morsemen INSIST that morsemanship MUST be in the amateur license test. Horsesnit. |
#3
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Len:
ahhhhh.... I like to build antennas... I like to experiment with them... But, I am a software engineer, not a hardware engineer (some of the math interests me) and frankly, anyone who will pay attention to my rants about the either consider me a loon frown... something has to seem like "magic" to me--or I will lose faith altogether! grin I tend to look at the whole antenna as a "tunable balun" which interfaces the signal from the transmitter to the ether--the ether being a near-superconductor, or at the very least--a "superior conductor." I am still stuck on just studying, devising new feeds for, and generally playing with the 1/2 vertical on 10 meters, nice size to work with, some local amateurs on the freqs there, etc... and the lack of need of a counterpoise (virtually) makes the 1/2 wave interesting and fun... I have built dozens of them and given quite a few away... my "coaxial match" is my most exciting development to date, simple, stable, almost bullet proof and an excellent performer! I am waiting for the next revelation as I type here, and type here, and type here, and type here, and type here... deep-in-thought-and-highly-intellectual-look-on-the-face-to-fool-'em! John On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 21:59:15 -0700, wrote: From: John Smith on Aug 27, 4:52 pm Len: Unfortunately, the only things more dead than CW is the brain dead amateurs too dumb to stop sounding ignorant, I mean, before they opened their mouths (or fingers on the keyboard) we only wondered, now we know, having been shown time and time again... frown Well, so be it, I'm saddened to see. I'll just try to inform these poor souls (or pour souls in some, they obviously pouring something before writing) what military radio IS, not what they imagine it to be. Ackshully, FM 24-18 is a good tutorial for a beginner. In re- checking the link given, there's a download-the-whole-thing link at the bottom but the file is roughly 10 MB in size. Takes a few minutes to get. [glad I already had it on a CD) It has an objective comparison of wire antenna gains in various terrain/environment, untainted by advertising claims and myths of some amateur users. FM 24-24 is available from the Army Training and Doctrine Command Digital Library. It is a veritable catalog of land force radios and communications devices as of 1994. Public distribution. I've given the link to it before in here. The ATDLS website has changed slightly so those precise links I gave before won't get there, but anyone can do so from the 'web, through their home page. Some of the equipment shown has gone obsolete in the past 9 years, or it is in storage in a depot "just in case" or whatever. The ITT 'web page has more informative technical material on the SINCGARS family of radios. Aerospace and Ground Division at Fort Wayne, Indiana, at the old Magnavox plant. Harris Corporation has some more plus future things they are trying to get contracts on, forgotten division name for the moment (somebody will pipe up with the correct name in triumph and imagined glory). Harris has already sold some SINCGARS-compatible work-alikes to the UK last year. SINCGARS is interesting in that it doesn't have so many of the conventional controls. From day one it has a Touchscreen for entering frequency, for entering net properties (frequency hopping pattern). A little OS built into the internal micro- processor. When commanding it to frequency/net operation, one enters a "hopset" (colloquial) which is a rather large data group with its own authenticators from a separate piece of equipment to be used at local Net central. Internal power demand at idle (such as in transport or listening only) is so low that it all the entered data is retained until the LiON battery is replaced. Internal time/frequency accuracy is phenomenal over the full military environmental range. Newer models (the SINCGARS Improvement Plan or SIP versions) will allow the "Plugger" (AN/PSN-11) GPS receiver to connect to it to synchronize the internal time/frequency to the GPS. The "Plugger" (military refined nickname in place of what GIs have called it - the PSN) saw its first field operational duty in the First Gulf War. A very few PRC-119s were tried then, but not many fielded in 1990 since the first ones went to Army forces in Korea. The frequency hopping rate is 10 per second, damn hard to get a handle on in the field for either DF or interception. With digitized voice or data, SIP versions have built-in crypto (selectable) while the older versions needed external COMSEC keyers. It is also "QRP"-like in that there's a three-position front panel switch to select RF power output; DX it ain't but that isn't needed in small-unit ops. The vehicular model with larger PA can push out some RF for (easily) up to 200 miles. It ain't yer daddie's old backpack raddio and it beats the old (but still neat) AN/PRC-10 I once wore on weekly sojer training sessions in the 1950s. The Harris AN/PRC-150 covering HF through UHF is compatible with some more bells and whistles in it, all in manpack size and weight. The AN/PRC-104 IHFR (Improved High Frequency Radio) family debuted in 1986 out of Hughes Aircraft Co. Ground Division. For those missions where HF is thought to be better, it can do so nicely, even the manpack version having an automatic antenna tuner (using latching relays to hold the L and C selections for the internal L network). Little microprocessor in that, too, also controlling the frequency synthesizer permitting good SSB performance. COMSEC is external with that model but they handle all the voice/data crypto formats. Early PRC-104s had a KY-114 knee key (why, I don't know) which was left out of later models. Back in World War 2 times, someone at the Pentagon thought it a fine idea to improve the horse cavalry radio...a lighter and better version than the 1930s model they did have but needed to be set up and operated while the troop was stopped. The answer was in the BC-511, the infamous "guidon radio" (set was IN the combination guidon-bottom with top mount whip antenna, carried like the old horse cavalry guidon pennant). That was thunk up around 1942. However, at the same time HORSE cavalry was disbanded in the U.S. Army! Motorola in Chicago made a bunch of them. Neat little sets, AM and on low HF, crystal controlled. So, a whole bunch of horse cavalry radios being made with no horse cavalry to use it! Stagnated old-soldier thinking in DC. Infantry got some of them, GIs calling it the "pogo stick," terribly clumsy to use on foot. Some new-soldier thinking got vehicle adapters for them but those pogo-sticks went surplus storage when the BC-1000 Walkie-Talkies were built (also by Motorola in Chicago, also beginning in 1943). The SCR-300 (using BC-1000 R/T) was FM voice-only on low VHF. It weighed the same as the cavalry pogo-stick but was in backpack form and much more mobile on foot, worked far better in the field as a radio. Some of the "old radio ops" just can't give up morsemanship. It must be part of their religion or whatever. Like the never-quit horse cavalryman of long ago, their beliefs insist that "CW" or on-off keying of a carrier is somehow "necessary" for today. They can't be budged from that in "the service." :-) It's like 60+ years ago, the cavalrymen insisting that all "good soldiers" had to know how to ride a horse...even when the horses were put out to pasture, glue, or pet food. So it is when all other radio services have abandoned morse code for communications purposes, U.S. amateur radio morsemen INSIST that morsemanship MUST be in the amateur license test. Horsesnit. |
#4
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John Smith wrote: Len: ahhhhh.... I like to build antennas... I like to experiment with them... But, I am a software engineer, not a hardware engineer (some of the math interests me) and frankly, anyone who will pay attention to my rants about the either consider me a loon frown... something has to seem like "magic" to me--or I will lose faith altogether! grin WHATEVER you do, don't ask for any antenna advice from these "higher" hams on RRAP. I made that mistake. Once! |
#5
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wrote in message oups.com... John Smith wrote: Len: ahhhhh.... I like to build antennas... I like to experiment with them... But, I am a software engineer, not a hardware engineer (some of the math interests me) and frankly, anyone who will pay attention to my rants about the either consider me a loon frown... something has to seem like "magic" to me--or I will lose faith altogether! grin WHATEVER you do, don't ask for any antenna advice from these "higher" hams on RRAP. I made that mistake. Once! There are some individuals here that can and or could answer antenna questions....I think you would find a better selection of knowledgeable individuals at... rec.radio.amateur.antenna Dan/W4NTI |
#6
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Dan/W4NTI wrote: wrote in message oups.com... John Smith wrote: Len: ahhhhh.... I like to build antennas... I like to experiment with them... But, I am a software engineer, not a hardware engineer (some of the math interests me) and frankly, anyone who will pay attention to my rants about the either consider me a loon frown... something has to seem like "magic" to me--or I will lose faith altogether! grin WHATEVER you do, don't ask for any antenna advice from these "higher" hams on RRAP. I made that mistake. Once! There are some individuals here that can and or could answer antenna questions....I think you would find a better selection of knowledgeable individuals at... Perhaps. They've got "thier" own little wars going on over there. I never dreamed that antenna discussions could cause such disharmony within the ARS. |
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