RFSV radio

[Ford Blitz]

what sort of radio would have been used in a Norforce Regional Force Surveillance Vehicle?

[Doddy]

Back in the eighties we used F1s (HF) for the patrol vehicles back to 106 set at base.

Assume whatever replaced these radios were used in later landys.

Doddy

[Sixty]

RFSVs do not have a radios fitted.
They use manpack HF.

[Doddy]

Hi Al,

As they say "back in my day" in Darwin we still had s11 and s111 landys and the I don't think the toyotas had come in yet.
Brain going soft after 30 odd years.
Never saw the vehicle mounted hf radios in the landys.
Remember carrying F1 in modified rucksack so there was not much room for other stuff.
Do you know when the F1's were replaced and what took their place?

Peter

[kman]

I think you will find that in later years sat comms provided the long range link. Such gear didn't need to be vehicle mounted and would give greater surveillance flexibility in manpack configuration.

Howard

[AGAS 5]

Do you know when the F1's were replaced and what took their place?

Peter

Across Army in general, they were replaced in the late '80s by the RAVEN RT-F100. Even if the RFSUs went Satcom (no idea) I guarantee they would have carried an F100 as back up.

Cheers,

Pete

[Diana Alan]

Thanks Pete good information. 

If the AWA F1 sets were superseded by the Raven F-100 in the late 1980's is it possible that the early Perenties may have initially been fitted with F1/F3 while the Raven equipment was rolled out across Army?

Were the 106 sets superseded at the same time or had they already been declared obsolete well before the Raven equipment?

[AGAS 5]

In my time (from 1986) I never came across the F1 in a vehicle fit. But that doesn't mean they weren't around.

For HF comms, my FFRs had PRC-47 (Light Radio Detachments) or AN/GRC-106 (qty 2) plus ancillaries (Medium Radio Detachments).

Light Radio did voice and CW. Medium Radio primarily did Covered Radio and Teletype (CRATT), but also voice and CW for engineering the circuit or when HF turned to CRP.

My Heavy Radio detachments used HIPORT and MEDPORT (picture something the size of a shipping container, with an antenna farm about a grid square in size)

I used the 47 and 106 sets right up until the F100 was issued to 2 Sig Regt in 1993. Other units would have done similar, but over different time frames. The RAVEN roll out occured over quite a few years.


Pete

[Sixty]

Hi Al,

As they say "back in my day" in Darwin we still had s11 and s111 landys and the I don't think the toyotas had come in yet.
Brain going soft after 30 odd years.
Never saw the vehicle mounted hf radios in the landys.
Remember carrying F1 in modified rucksack so there was not much room for other stuff.
Do you know when the F1's were replaced and what took their place?

Peter

Gday Peter,

I was on the tail end of the IIA & III's..& F1's...  ;-)

Production 110 RFSV never had any mounts for radios of any kind. The batteries fitted to both the 'original' 110 RFSV & later 'modified' RFSV are wired individually and only provide 12V. 1x is for the veh, and the second x1 is an auxiliary for fridge/gps/or whatever else they purloin  ;-)

During my tenure at Norforce they carried 1x RTF-100 (HF) and occasionally 1x RTF-200 for close comms. They do have the odd satphone but they don't always have reception.

[Welby]

And i'll throw in Pilbara Regt '96 through '06 was the same. RTF 100 and 200 sets, man packed.

[Barefoot dave]

X3 for the manpack RTF100 in 51FNQR.
More reliable than a sat phone (with a half competent operator) as long as someone is listening back at BHQ!
We used the f1 until '92 iirc. Occasionally used UHF to be shady as well.
The F100 kit was very flexible and combined with a patrol sig cse the only limiting factor I found was crappy freq allocations and a 'dynamic' ionosphere. I used fences as very long listening wires, M18/ Don 10 wire dragging out the back of moving vehicles in sky wave and a few other tricks. There was also other stuff used for data TX that helped in poor conditions.
It was only years later that I found the manufacturer prohibition against 20 watt TX within 6m of anyone. Occasionally did that from my back while patrolling! Still managed to make 3 kids though

If you want to create an authentic display on the cheap, just get an AusPack and stick a 3m (note: NOT 10') whip out the top. The purpose built sig pack came in about '93. Well designed, but you know what they say, the bigger the pack, the more crap you take bush. Used one a couple of times then went back to the std pack and starving a little. That wasn't a problem. When I first joined, I carried an F1 and golf bag in the VN era AusPack mk1! Occasionaly I even carried a ration pack
Cheers.

[GGG]

Are we talking about the Vietnam era F1? We had them on an exercise in PNG in 1971 and they were nothing to write home about. A huge dry battery which could last for quite a while or......
I do remember helping sigs hide them in trees as relay stations, all good fun. Fortunately if we had to go walkies the sig got to carry the radio, lucky fella.
We used them in the 2A Rovers by tying them into the seat behind the driver and sticking the antenna out trough the flap in the canopy. A bit dodgy but you have to make do with what is available.

Geoff.

[Diana Alan]

Are you thinking of the AN/PRC 77 OR AN/PRC 25?

They had a huge battery pack, the F1 had batteries about the size of a Betacam or VHS video camera.

[GGG]

We were told this by a W.O. 2 of Signal Corps so when God speaks.........
The unit concerned was a back pack radio which was quite heavy and the battery supplied several voltages which this electrician found fascinating. It came with various antennae with corresponding bases for each one. The "Battle Whip" which looked like a piece of steel measuring tape gave them (it was said by said WO2) a range of about 100metres provide there were no big trees, diggers, nogs, etc. in the way. The next size up which we used in the vehicles was a little more substantial.
The sigs had a larger set which in conjunction with a rather impressive antenna set up allowed them to talk to Port Moresby from where we were on the Fly river on a good day. They all had lots of practice with the phonetic alphabet.
I won't argue about what they were called as I was a driver officially and the unit electrician unofficially.
Geoff.

[THE BOOGER]

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