@@TheJon2442It was a very effective system (if the protocols were followed) and last I saw it being taught was about 2010 well after the encrypted Bowman system came in (in case the radio lost its “fill”). I had very little to do with Signals at that point though, tail end of my career. All the best, Ian
Started on MAPCO and SLIDEX - nightmare! Our first lesson on BATCO, a pompous scalyback said: I might as well be speaking Arabic to you, you can't crack it, so two of my colleagues started talking to the scaly in Arabic and he lost the plot and stormed out. Priceless! 😂
Your dad would have been on the big boy stuff as a scaley. He would have been on the highest level of communications with Ptarmigan and other burst communications. Serious stuff. Here's to his memory 👍
BATCO was brilliant IMHO. I prepared a unit card for Berlin which I shared with the rest of the Berlin Brigade. Mainly it consisted of landmarks in West Berlin. The rumours that the grid reference for Charlottenburg was that of Mon Cheri’s were greatly exaggerated…
Radio comms - it’s all some kind of sorcery! 😳 I Remember Griddle - vaguely. I Remember Slidex. I Remember BATCO; MAPCO But to drive the Regimental comms Staffs and Div Scaly backs mad - the unofficial - BREVITY CODES! 🤣🤣🤣 But thank heavens for electronic encryption. Contact! Contact! Wait-Out! Where; When; What; What; What. Great for a T-Shirt?
I remember Larkspur series. I was a member of the first REME ECE course at SEE to be trained in repair of these sets in addition to normal ECE duties. The Tels guys were not happy to find some of us had been so trained so we got lots of Mickey Mouse head sets to repair after the officers had dropped an armoured hatch on them. They would appear and drop their mangled headset and try and steal yours! The point of Clansmen which was being introduced when I left was that it had a plug in computer to fault find but the computer always collapsed when in transit and had to be repaired before the radios could be plugged into it. This kept Tels occupied on a permanent basis.
As a radio ham, I use the Clansman 'Skywave' antenna system. A 5.6m 6 section mast (there was an 8m version too), 2 sets of guy ropes and two 30m long wires for the antenna itself. You unroll the right amount of wire depending on the frequency you are working on. I have all the original bags for storage, and even today it still works great with modern HF transceivers.
@neilfoster814 - we were on an exercise using Clansman. I said 'I bet I can contact someone in some erotic place!' 'Bet you can't said a know it all, JNCO.' So I selected a frequency in the 20 metre band, and a few adjustments. A ham calling 'CQ De ...', so I called him, and he returned - gave him my G4... and we had a QSO. I have the QSL card. Oh he was in VE7 land, we we 'somewhere' on Salisbury Plain!' A few dropped jaws including the JNCO 'rentabrain!'
I was 86C ("Holdfast") in old money, lol (My call sign before the change) I was really impressed to hear the RRW using Welsh language in order to flummox the IRA on the streets of Belfast during a handover. Gurkhali was used similarly by the Gurkhas elsewhere as that too was quicker than trying to en or decode.
What’s that saying about Warfare - ‘Long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror’. I can only claim to have gotten bored whilst awaiting the order to move forward with a bridge train whilst the infantry and armour got themselves established. Beyond that rarely had the time to get bored!🤣
I never understood, why some, often total a holes would get on their high horse about VP. Most users tried their best. I must admit I did take very well to the typed Comms as used during the Olympics. Some were afraid to use. However, if I spotted an error. I would either amend, or ring the operator up and advise to correct in a helpful manner. Even COs when they visited the main Ops room would come up and sit next to me and thank me. Happy days...
The Clansman kit we used was the 321/322 family, and we used 2 8m masts. Always got icy cold in the winter when you were extending them so wearing gloves was good. The antenna was raised between the 2 masts, and then when a frequency change was needed, you lowered the antenna and shortened or lengthen the braid according to the new frequency. Radio kit was in an FFR Landrover. Life as a scaleyback, happy days! Set up on exercise, get comms in, and then get a brew on!
I left the Royal Signals in 1978. We used C42 VHF, C11 HF and the ex Navy D11's mounted in a box on the back of a 3 tonner. We still used morse code with the C11 and D11 as we were told that was the only comms that would work through radioactivity. C42 were all line of sight comms, D11 had more range and worked over hills, D11 would go round the world with the right antenna. We used the 27ft mast but they had the knurled ring clamps with a peg spanner for tightening. Sods when they froze up in the winter, usually the peg spanner was replaced by a big hammer - didn't do the ring clamps much good though. I did use an A41 briefly on a para exercise, carried it 20 miles just to call in a chopper for evac. There was talk of Clansman when I was in - I think it was being tested by Special Forces.
We were trained on Larkspur too but in Battalion, we got issued Clansman. That was at the end of 77 and we took it on its desert trials to the Sudan in 78. What a game changer. Far from perfect but compared to what went before....
Ex royal signals here. Brought back some memories there having worked with both clansman and bowman as a radio systems operator. Keep the vids coming 👍🏻
i went on a radio ops course in the late 60s,i passed,but on exercise the radio was tuned more into radio luxemberg than millitary stuff,your right about that telescopic aerial
Ex Royal Signals (22 years) I hardy ever touched a radio my job was telephone exchanges, satellite links, ECM and other duties like SQMS. But it was hard work trying to explain to infantry lads on ops that you could not help them with their radios.
I remember us having competitions to try and break Batco. It was generally in hours. The trick was ignoring the Batco per se and listening to the Clear Speech
There was both an 8m and 12m mast for clansman, your Sgt would most likely have the PRC 352 which was a PRC 351 with an amp attached to it and this would be bolted to the Dexian grill behind the front seats and as you said links into the Tuning Unit Automatic Antenna Matching. This 352 could also be manpacked, just make sure you don’t touch the pressel switch when it’s on your back.
@@LetsTab59-bd4fd There was also a 5.4 meter mast that was man portable (supposedly) Made out of 6 fibre glass tubes that slotted together. Stuck an 8 inch or so base plate on the bottom, 2 sets of guy lines to keep it upright and you stuck a GSA (ground spike antenna) on top. It was usually paired up with a 352, which was a 351 with a 20W amplifier attached between the radio and battery. I carried that rig quite a few times as mortar platoon signaler, fortunately my PC was a good egg and carried the spare batteries as it weighed quite a bit
In north Norway in winter. Next to the CP was a radio det.... I was told to pass them a message for transmission.... Both were in their doss bags all the time!
Quick (true) anecdote: Section exercises somewhere in Germany 198-; Section Commander and 2 ice cream not the best of mates; Section Commander allocates the A41 man pack to the 2i/c for a 10 miler; About 5 miles in the i/c tells the 2i/c to send a sitrep; The 2i/c looks at the i/c and just shrugs; The i/c realises the 2i/c doesn’t have the A41 and hurriedly scans and asks the rest of the section whose got it; No one has! The i/c asks the 2i/c where it is? The 2i/c responds that it was heavy and he got fed up carrying it and left it at a brief halt several miles back! Boxing match ensued with section hauling them apart; The whole section had to yomp back hoping to find it (they did). 2i/c and SC both got busted and 2i/c got 7 days ROPs. 🤣🤣🤣
I was a gunner signaller in Germany for the platoon commanders Scimitar, absolute nightmare coding and decoding batco messages in a dimly lit turret going over rough terrain bouncing about all over the place. 😢
@@LetsTab59-bd4fd it took some doing mate with the platoon commander shouting every two minutes, ' what was that message corporal' while I was trying to decode it. 😂
C42, C13 and B47 trained when I was in RAC. Then trained on Clansman conversion. Spent a happy winter in Canada in BATUS, ripping out all the old Larkspur gear out of the Chieftains and CVRT and refitting Clansman before the training season restarted.
A40 etc was a box clot. We tested the manpack clansman in Brecon 1979 {Para Reg} They were crap in the snow cold storm weather but much lighter than the A40/41/42. It was an 8 metre mast Keith. Easier assembly to set up. As with most signals gear, mountains and wet weather caused issues. The one time I lent the Mast up against a farmers fence and got comes with it bouncing off the mountains, much better than rigged up strait. Tab on.....
great video , brought back memories, being a NIG in first RA regiment went on excise in FDC. 3 nights in got buged out so 8 different units all connected together . making this huge place where the top brass would win the battle from . all trying to get the hell out of the position , NIG {ME } commanded the 432 in the pitch black straight over the Tarmigan 20 thousand pound cable that connected it all together , wrapped around 432 tracks lol lol .being the NIG just held hands up said well thats the way you told me to go . being in front of a huge 432 in pitch black at 17 years of age .....
To me a Clansman is some sort of Scotsman, we had 42's and 45's . I was a scaly between 70 and 76, the fun of a 27 ft mast when it was frozen solid on excercise.
Another Good video due to an excellent memory. My tab. Germany exercise crusader in the 80's as enemy forces. We got to work with the 82 US airborne after they dropped direct flight from America. Had 12 Chinooks to raid around the Country attacking. The 1/2 ton FFR x2 were great for movement in the chinook as a company HQ mobile. No need for any coding all contact as enemy, very liberating. The OC let the 2 IC have a raid as development, so stayed at the base. 2 hours later I had to fetch him to the radio as it was a brigadier calling. Apparently the 2IC raided what he thought was the target. Turns out after wrecking the brigade signals and echelon base in a large wood he flew off victorious. Unfortunately they were all set up to receive the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that afternoon. That was cancelled. The 2IC captain arrived back early from the landing as the troops marched back. So no witnesses too his very physical debriefing from very angry Major who had been summoned to Brigade for his debrief. The signals worked fine as every one got the message. Attack the right location.
I remember being on exercise years ago, I was a section commander at the time, and we had tabbed for miles. We were carrying the world on our backs and we were all well and truly on our arses. The message came from zero that we had to move to a new location. I looked at the grid and it was about 15 to 20 clicks from where we were, so I thought "Fuck that". I got on the net and said, "Say again over", they relayed the message again, so I hit them back with, "You're very difficult, say again over", they sent it again, I did this a couple of times and they kept sending the same message, in the end I hit them with, "You're unworkable, out", and we stayed where we were. The headshed knew I'd been bullshitting but couldn't prove it, and my section got a good nights rest. Smiles all round, (except for the headshed who were bouncing). Little victories. I think you're right about the clansman mast, I'm pretty sure it was 8m, but I might be wrong. If there are any scalies watching they could put us right.
Scalyback here! Nope - can't remember a damn thing about the techie details now. I do remember lugging a manpack around the Yorkshire Moors in the dead of night because I'd got on the wrong side of the Sqdn Sgt Major. All I can remember is that it was bloody heavy and I made a point of never peeing him off again. Much nicer to roll around Germany in my lovely 432! :-)
Not doing so well, my wife is again in hospital due to her heart operation not working as well as expected, and my son and I are doing the out-house tango with gut problems. Such is life.
The frequency changes every 12hrs - If you don't know the new frequency - lost comms is a nightmare. Always make sure you have spare batteries. In a jungle environment - nightmare.
This needs some prefacing, so bear with me: In my time as a conscript in the Bundeswehr, I was in a company which set up a computerized (even in those days) version of what on old phone networks would have been the operator. We were a node for a number of phone lines over radio. These lines then got mixed by electronic witchcraft and sent out over an antenna. Before the mixing, each lines was run through an encryption device (controlled by...punch cards, which even then were electronic dinosaurs.). At some point, it was found that certain of these devices would not work with other devices on the receiving end. So a Kamerad of mine who had worked electronics testing prior, was tasked to check out each device against every other device with me as his henchman. So we set up a matrix on a DIN A3 sheet into which we could enter good/bad for each pair of devices. Then we thought, maybe a copy or this could come in handy later, so a few photocopies would be nice. So we went over to battalion HQ which had the only photocopier and asked "Sir, please, Sir, may we have another?" and were told to leave it in the in tray and come back in the afternoon. Back in the day, you could "verlängern", sign up after your twelve month for another six month or more. That was the moment where I knew (I did not intend to anyway, but this brought it home) that I would not "verlängern". If a simple photocopy takes all day, what would the Bundeswehr have done if the Russkis had rolled up? Or if they had sent units down to the first Gulf War? Tell the enemy to fill out the proper forms and come back the next day?
I have a friend who did his national service in the Bundesmarine, he signed on for the longer period so that he could travel overseas. He enjoyed it for that reason. He proudly showed me a photo of a 'Mig' that buzzed his ship. I served in the British Royal Artillery on guns comms and air defence missiles, so I knew my aircraft recognition. He was so disappointed when I told him that the photo was the Saab Draken 😂. He really thought they were in mortal danger. He lives a few kilometers from me in South west France.
Keith.... We ensured only vital information was sent barcode.... So only a few words needed to be converted.... However, As a young Cpl, when using radios. We knew everyone on the net by their voice.... Often we would transmit utter crap to each other. Just to annoy 0 who was a complete ass.... He would be furious etc....
As a Regimental Signals platoon radio op, we used the C42 in or LR's rather than the C45 which was more for the armoured vehicles, we also used the A13 (another of the Larkspur Family). The difference being the C42/45 were omni directional ground signal radio's with a range of about 10 miles at best, The A13 utilised sky wave so you could in effect bounce your signal of the ionosphere to get a greater range. While in Germany a couple of us played around with different sky wave aerials to see how far we could transmit using morse. With a man made aerial made from a piece of plank and 2 F sections from a veh antenna nailed to it at either end and the coax split to the 2 sections we managed to send a morse signal to Belize. We also found that CB radio's had a greater range and were some what smaller in size lol. So we would install a CB in our command vehicles to chat normally and throw the scalley backs who would monitor our radio's for breaches and unsecure transmitions. We used them mainly to organise meet ups for Bratty and chips while on exercise lol. This was a great way to get our platoon commanders together for informal chats and briefing's lol. Although if you asked anyone if they had one they used in their vehicle they would deny it and say "We would never be that sneaky" lol. Also as one of the first 16 men to form the NIPG we were introduced to the Clansman PRC 320, which was a step up in coms from the A41 back packed around the province. At the time it was still in trials so had not yet got to the Regiments on the ground. And to all you Navy men out there, Regimental signals also used semaphore and was part of your training to become a member of Regimental Signals Platoon.
Despite being a Gun No. in early 1977 I did my Basic Signals course. I remember with the "C45s"? You had to get a good swing on the needle in a dial (dunno the name), 1 bloke was so heavy handed that he found this nigh on impossible, drove the DSs nuts. Antenna Theory was my Achilles heel, a constant truant until getting expelled aged 14 my maths wasn't quite up to scratch but managed to pass the course ok. Following a career on the Guns the only benefit I got out of the signals course was twice being 1 of the 3 signallers working as a Relay station on Site Guard duty. Just had to man the radios in a RCT barracks (8RCT?) Probably the best job on Site Guard which was 1of the least enjoyable tasks in my time in the Army. I'd done the towers and running around like a blue a**ed fly twice previously and became more spookier (if that's the right word) after a Gunner in another Bty in 40 Regt RA shot himself and died in one of the Towers. R.I.P. that Gunner (wont mention name)... Like you I also remember when the Clansman system entered service, made things easier, got rid of the swinging needle for one thing eh? Another great video and subject mate. Respect 👍
@@LetsTab59-bd4fd Tbh mate, my Linda reckons I'm more like the old me b4 my brain condition went up a gear. My long term memory hasn't been affected so is almost as good as b4. I quit all social media 5yrs ago but she's noticed that commenting and replying on your and similar channels on here perks me up a bit. So on our behalf thanks for that mate. Sorry if I waffle on a bit, probably get a bit carried away as remember more. So sorry about that although people can just skip to next comment if their not interested eh? Lol
@harrymonti6586 well first of all Harry please never apologise for commenting you're definitely not waffling on mate. My channel is not brilliant but what I have noticed is that there is alot of veterans on here that seem to relate to my waffle lol. I'm sorry to hear that you've had some issues mate, but I can tell you're not a quiter, that's probably the squaddie in you. Please keep your comments coming I really enjoy all the comments and stories I get on here and read them all. Chin up mucker all the very best to you and Linda!
Masts came in both 8m and 12m, TUAAM is Tuning Unit Automatic Antenna Matching. BATCO was a pain in the arse, the little Kipling keyboard/printer you could plug into the sets was a godsend. I actually enjoyed being a signaller, especially as we were armoured infantry so didn’t have to hump sets and spare batteries around on our backs. (Plus driving out to a rebro site and sitting there for a week on Pond Jump West in Canada, was much easier than tabbing around a training area).
In the Network at Brigade through to Div level the signals ops would communicate between themselves using the vehicle modification plate that every signals vehicle had and told the reme what state of modification the vehicle was in. We also used to refer to ranks by using the lightbulb wattage CO being Kilowatt, The top telecoms officer was Megawatt, Senior op 100watt, senior technician 300 watt and of course Sgt Major was ……..you guessed it 1 Watt!!!
Hello1 this is 1,1...Grid 12345678...HE2 square...Fire mission Battery over... Hello1,1,this is is 1... are you sure over... Hello 1, this is 1,1...sorry sent my coordinates...wait out... The Royal Artillery...more special needs than special forces...😂😂😂..
I was daft enough to volunteer for the signals course to gain my crossed flags as part of my section commander training. Batco was the system then with the clansman various models. The 8 +12m mast installation was a real P I T A to complete, as per normal regulations, done in the p****ing rain. Well someone has to be able to call in for spare box of 'izal' sheets when it hits the fan. 🤣 Another fine memory wander Keith. Stay safe both.
Saracen ambulance driver out of McRory Park W Belfast 81 & 83 .p Part of first parade o waggon was send radio check on Brigade & Battalion net before checking the Entinox gas we carried otherwise sound like Niel the Hippy😂 Didn't always get it right 😂😂
I set up a dipole using braided wire AE 3/4 length for the 320 using sticks around 2m long. I got comms perfectly..... no need for that 8m mast. (man-packing 320, infantry, no mast )
Hi folks pronto from brava c/s s I did the last Larkspur course at Warminster. After the course I returned to the Battalion and Clansman had already been issued. The whip you are talking about was a 36 to 60 the frequ rang of the larkspur VHF sets. We had some great sets any one use an A16? the little square HF set. To this day I still talk in slidex and can do morse at 16 WPM.
Batco was easy enough to understand, but in practice, it took too long, and god forbid you got a message back to verify! I seem to remember we used Storno radios in NI ( 1982 ) 1st Bn Queens.
In the Chieftain tank we used C42s and (???) B57s (or something like that - used for short range communication at the squadron level). This was back in the 70s
I worked as a Radio Tech back in the day, even into the 90s there was still a fair bit of Pye equipment about that was still using Valves. The Pye handhelds were a nightmare to work on.
Clansman was in use by about 1978 although I was working with armoured trials vehicles, so the system itself might have also been trialling along with the vehicles. I can remember Slidex and the daily code change and 'Griddle' rings a bell but I think that was a slang term. I left before BATCO came into being and at Longcross we didn't have a need for it anyway!
Firstly I never watch ads but have done for this...not sure if you're monitised or not but hopefully watching the ads gets you a couple of pennies Secondly the radio story...my dad was ATC at RAF Wittering late 70s to mid 80s and i remember him laughing about a young lad doing YTS with the RAF and he spent a couple of days with my dad up in the tower, one morning my dad decided to go out in the field with a backpack radio to simulate field control, they went across the airfield and my dad (the bugger) said to the YTS lad "the signal is really poor here so we need to get a better signal" , he then unscrewed the antenna and handed it to the lad and told him to run parallel with the runway holding the antenna high up over his head....30 years later it wouldn't be funny due to Bluetooth etc...back then No1 sqn pilots had a chuckle between Pimm's and brylcream cocktails
Cracking story thank you for sharing that 👍. The tricks we use to all play on the new guys 😆 I suppose today it would be viewed as bullying. How sad and no fun
I _think_ they still teach (and use) BATCO in the Army Cadet Forces. I used to listen to their weekend contests a couple of times a year, also also to their evening skeds. Not listened for a few years though, do they still do that?
Fall of 1975 I did the 6 week, level 2 signalman’s course, told there were only 2 levels at that time and the Royal Signal’s were all Level 1 Signallers, at Elizabeth barracks in Pirbright, which was kind of backwards, as when we were in Belize the summer of 1975 I was the platoon signaller or what we called man packer lol. The good thing about the course was it set me up for when we moved to Munster in January 1976 and I was responsible for the platoon radios in the 432’s. Happy days humping the A41 got me put on my JNCO course summer of 1976, because the platoon commander thought I was a Kenner 😂. Other than the A41, I believe we used B12?, and C42 in the 432. When I was releasing in 1982 we did the big summer ex Lion heart? And that was the first time I had seen Clansmen radios with the infantry units that were attached to the HQ group as security. 💂♂️🪖⛑️🏴🇨🇦
We had Larkspur fitted in a FFR Land Rover LWB that had seen better days. I think the batteries came out of the Ark! Always needed charging (electrically). This was while REME LAD to Lt Gun Field Regt RA 1976-1980. On Admin net for cockups, sitreps and orders. Gridle for map ref. I think our call sign was 99. Those daily orders serials were a nightmare. Pages and pages of info to write down and decode, if you got it all, cold sweats sometimes. Especially for move reps. One good thing we had was the radio mast socket and bottom section welded to the rear nearside bumperette. So the mast could be raised/lowered from the back of the wagon. Ours had the knurled lock rings so was a bit easier. Radio tuning was a nightmare as well. As I said FFR past its best. When in location, cammed up, engine running to charge those batteries we were dead easy to spot as exhaust fumes used to drift across the fields like a blue fog. You couldn't see anyone coming, but they could see you.🎉
Well Barry, I was in a 5.5" battery in 1979 (which moved to L118/L19 a couple of years later) we used Larkspur at the time and as a noob CP Assistant, one of my tasks was to fight my way through the camm net to the TUAMs at the front of the CP (Land Rover series III) and tune the antenna . This particular cam net hated any living thing and would devour you if it could, not too bad on a sunny day but in the small hours in a raging gale up on Redesdale Ranges that was a right bitch. Often ended up like a hobbit in Shelobs web. Getting new guns and Clansman was like moving out of the 50's into the modern day. I still have an aversion to that bronze dark green that a lot of the old kit was painted in, shame really it's a nice colour but it's got too many associations with grim shit kit. (and don't get me started on the ZBD radar...)
Me was a sparky in my RGJ platoon i used the larkspur system cant remember the designation but it was blinking heavy and those great big ear pieces lol, clansman was awesome wow what a differance like night and day cant belive i can still recite the phonetic alphabet of by heart, good times, some things were drummed in like hello bravo this is alpha citrep over, bravo wait one cor like yesterday dont time fly. thanks tab
I remember back in training (80's) being told to send SITREP and having to say something like.....i'm in Dover and rolled the landrover over on the flyover....over. Or something like that 🙄😂
On exercises in Libya I was for a short time the only Ordnance bod among the battle group (or as they called it then, the "Battalion Group" the Warrant officer who left me behind was "Rickshaw" so I asked him, "Am I rickshaw now that you're off Sir" - "I don't know about that, but you can be called Richard if you like" - He was a great bloke and went on to lead a campaign against council tax and ended up being a martyr and going to prison!.
Remember the A,sets and c, sets really well was on command post and Op, hated the carry frame the A sets used there was always a sharp edge that jabed you in the back,if we were manpacking we would strip the A set down to battery and radio unit and fit it into your 38 patten large pack we manage to scrounge and put our personal kit around the radio.great times keep tabing👍
Coms were a fkn headache! Sooz bout the language but where coms are concerned its needed lol. Long story short i was nominated stand in bleep, so if our bleeps got KOd id be on coms, i had a one day course which i was hung over on so all i heard was bla bla bla and months passed all was fine, we were on an exercise and the guy in white said our coms guy was dead so it was my time to shine, so there i was with this green box with knobs and dials on and the only thing i could remember was hpw to do a radio check, did i remember what the frequency was for next day, um NO, so there was four of us still alive, our boss was ' dead' but luckily for me our lance jack knew all the signals stuff because he was going for his second stripe soon as he got a spot, so we kinda survived, after that I learned to listen amd not 'tune out' pardon the pun when we were getting a briefing! happy days looking back.
Loved the clansman 320, but not carrying one during fire and manoeuvre hitting you on the back of the head as you got down into cover, and tried to buy a second hand 320 transceiver when got my Amateur Radio License. G1UYP
trev, 5 Queens sigs don't think it was a c45 but a C42 VHF and 40 , 41 and the A13 HF (mostly used to listening to Radio Luxembourg at two in the morning)
I think the best radios I worked with were the storno's in NI small and always worked. We got mapco in Cyprus in the 70s. All the 4s ps remember the donkey wallaper
They used say you could shout further than a 349 would transmit , it had 0.25 watts which is about same as child's toy walkie talkie . Some later ones had 2 watts . Think it was supposed to transmit 1 km . Batteries did not last long.
Larkspur then klansman for me. Larkspur was a joy to use, unless you had to carry one 😂. C45 great piece of kit actually. Yes 27 foot mast, then with klamsman the 8 metre mast.
Golf Bravo 1 on route eta 5 mins, GB was unofficially used as God Botherer to let the guys know our Staffy was on the prowl...had his bible everywhere with him...😊
09:55 Every Soldier of a certain generation broke into a sweat as we knew the next word would be BATCO!!!
Batco 😂 ,remember that well
@@johnribble Im still having nightmares 20 years later 😂
Nightmare of BATCO
I never had a problem with it or NBC plotting!
@@TheJon2442It was a very effective system (if the protocols were followed) and last I saw it being taught was about 2010 well after the encrypted Bowman system came in (in case the radio lost its “fill”).
I had very little to do with Signals at that point though, tail end of my career.
All the best,
Ian
Didn’t have any of this “Black Magic” stuff in the Senior Service……..we just waved flags or flashed lights to each other😂😂
We've all heard about you sailor boys flashing each other 😂
And very good flag waving it was, well the Senior Service 👍
Bit difficult to keep secrets when you are using flags!
Started on MAPCO and SLIDEX - nightmare! Our first lesson on BATCO, a pompous scalyback said: I might as well be speaking Arabic to you, you can't crack it, so two of my colleagues started talking to the scaly in Arabic and he lost the plot and stormed out. Priceless! 😂
Brilliant. Were they ‘Green Slime’ by any chance?
Who remembers friggin Batco
My grandfather was a scaly back when Marconi was a lad, and they used a piece of green string and 2 tin cans. He was in from 1932 until 1949
My dad was Royal Signals for over 12 years, a radio operator. 1960-1972 ( SLR days). He'd have loved to have seen this. Many thanks! RIP Dad.
Thank you and you're very welcome. And God bless your Dad 🙏
Your dad would have been on the big boy stuff as a scaley. He would have been on the highest level of communications with Ptarmigan and other burst communications. Serious stuff. Here's to his memory 👍
@gunner678 @LetsTabbd4fd
Many thanks boys, he lived for the Army
I've just had a 1965 Land Rover FFR with the Larkspur radio restored. This was great to hear someone who used one. Thanks.
All the best Andrew 👍
BATCO was brilliant IMHO. I prepared a unit card for Berlin which I shared with the rest of the Berlin Brigade. Mainly it consisted of landmarks in West Berlin.
The rumours that the grid reference for Charlottenburg was that of Mon Cheri’s were greatly exaggerated…
Radio comms - it’s all some kind of sorcery! 😳
I Remember Griddle - vaguely.
I Remember Slidex.
I Remember BATCO; MAPCO
But to drive the Regimental comms Staffs and Div Scaly backs mad - the unofficial - BREVITY CODES! 🤣🤣🤣
But thank heavens for electronic encryption.
Contact! Contact! Wait-Out!
Where;
When;
What;
What;
What.
Great for a T-Shirt?
Yes, what a cracking T Shirt that would be
Bring back some happy memories worked with both clansman was great to work with .
Thanks David 👌
I remember Larkspur series. I was a member of the first REME ECE course at SEE to be trained in repair of these sets in addition to normal ECE duties. The Tels guys were not happy to find some of us had been so trained so we got lots of Mickey Mouse head sets to repair after the officers had dropped an armoured hatch on them. They would appear and drop their mangled headset and try and steal yours!
The point of Clansmen which was being introduced when I left was that it had a plug in computer to fault find but the computer always collapsed when in transit and had to be repaired before the radios could be plugged into it. This kept Tels occupied on a permanent basis.
👍👌
As a radio ham, I use the Clansman 'Skywave' antenna system. A 5.6m 6 section mast (there was an 8m version too), 2 sets of guy ropes and two 30m long wires for the antenna itself. You unroll the right amount of wire depending on the frequency you are working on. I have all the original bags for storage, and even today it still works great with modern HF transceivers.
@neilfoster814 - we were on an exercise using Clansman. I said 'I bet I can contact someone in some erotic place!' 'Bet you can't said a know it all, JNCO.' So I selected a frequency in the 20 metre band, and a few adjustments. A ham calling 'CQ De ...', so I called him, and he returned - gave him my G4... and we had a QSO. I have the QSL card. Oh he was in VE7 land, we we 'somewhere' on Salisbury Plain!' A few dropped jaws including the JNCO 'rentabrain!'
I was 86C ("Holdfast") in old money, lol
(My call sign before the change)
I was really impressed to hear the RRW using Welsh language in order to flummox the IRA on the streets of Belfast during a handover. Gurkhali was used similarly by the Gurkhas elsewhere as that too was quicker than trying to en or decode.
My old Regiment, we used Welsh a lot, even during Exersise, pissed a lot of people off🤣
You've never experienced Comms until you heard the gruffest sounding welshman from the Valleys saying Ello zero this is Echo one Zero over 😂
🏴👍
So true!
A Scottish voice on an exercise 'Ahm bored tae f×××.' 'Unknown station. This is Zero, say again your callsign.' 'Hello Zero, Ahm nae that bored. Out!'
@@Volcano-Man 🤣🤣🤣 That was our brevity code 219. See above👆
What’s that saying about Warfare - ‘Long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror’.
I can only claim to have gotten bored whilst awaiting the order to move forward with a bridge train whilst the infantry and armour got themselves established. Beyond that rarely had the time to get bored!🤣
TUAAM - tuning unit, automatic antenna matching. Ex Royal signals. I could fix them all but my VP and morse wasn't great.
I never understood, why some, often total a holes would get on their high horse about VP. Most users tried their best. I must admit I did take very well to the typed Comms as used during the Olympics. Some were afraid to use. However, if I spotted an error. I would either amend, or ring the operator up and advise to correct in a helpful manner. Even COs when they visited the main Ops room would come up and sit next to me and thank me. Happy days...
@@TheJon2442 army is full of them I think. Lizards.
The Clansman kit we used was the 321/322 family, and we used 2 8m masts. Always got icy cold in the winter when you were extending them so wearing gloves was good. The antenna was raised between the 2 masts, and then when a frequency change was needed, you lowered the antenna and shortened or lengthen the braid according to the new frequency. Radio kit was in an FFR Landrover. Life as a scaleyback, happy days! Set up on exercise, get comms in, and then get a brew on!
320 series was HF not VHF and it was a pain in the arse. Changing an antenna length because the atmosphere has changed. Go away. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Great film keith 👍 just watched the battle of donbas on bbc like bleedin trench warfare in ww1
Scary stuff mate, and so costly in young lives on both sides, I find it vert sad 😔
I left the Royal Signals in 1978. We used C42 VHF, C11 HF and the ex Navy D11's mounted in a box on the back of a 3 tonner. We still used morse code with the C11 and D11 as we were told that was the only comms that would work through radioactivity. C42 were all line of sight comms, D11 had more range and worked over hills, D11 would go round the world with the right antenna.
We used the 27ft mast but they had the knurled ring clamps with a peg spanner for tightening. Sods when they froze up in the winter, usually the peg spanner was replaced by a big hammer - didn't do the ring clamps much good though.
I did use an A41 briefly on a para exercise, carried it 20 miles just to call in a chopper for evac.
There was talk of Clansman when I was in - I think it was being tested by Special Forces.
We were trained on Larkspur too but in Battalion, we got issued Clansman. That was at the end of 77 and we took it on its desert trials to the Sudan in 78. What a game changer. Far from perfect but compared to what went before....
Clansman was a revolutionary bit of kit after years of larkspur
351 was the standard radio, fit a booster and it was 352.
The mast was 12m.
Ex clansman radio operator now I got the back ache and the arthritis lol
Did we used to love putting up those 8M & 12 M masts lol
Heavy kit when tabbing day after day
Ex royal signals here. Brought back some memories there having worked with both clansman and bowman as a radio systems operator. Keep the vids coming 👍🏻
Spent 2 months in Leconfield learning Morse. Within a month of finishing Ptarmigan came in - no more morse needed!
i went on a radio ops course in the late 60s,i passed,but on exercise the radio was tuned more into radio luxemberg than millitary stuff,your right about that telescopic aerial
Clansman radio was still used as a back up in Afghan 320 531/2 all good stuff
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Ex Royal Signals (22 years) I hardy ever touched a radio my job was telephone exchanges, satellite links, ECM and other duties like SQMS. But it was hard work trying to explain to infantry lads on ops that you could not help them with their radios.
My mum was a supervisor overseeing the making of Clansman at ‘Racal’ in Neasden
I remember us having competitions to try and break Batco. It was generally in hours. The trick was ignoring the Batco per se and listening to the Clear Speech
Think the Soviets were doing the same
@@LetsTab59-bd4fd Undoubtedly. I think in Germany we used to change code every 24 hours. War codes though were every 12 hours
There was both an 8m and 12m mast for clansman, your Sgt would most likely have the PRC 352 which was a PRC 351 with an amp attached to it and this would be bolted to the Dexian grill behind the front seats and as you said links into the Tuning Unit Automatic Antenna Matching. This 352 could also be manpacked, just make sure you don’t touch the pressel switch when it’s on your back.
Cheers Stephen
@@LetsTab59-bd4fd There was also a 5.4 meter mast that was man portable (supposedly) Made out of 6 fibre glass tubes that slotted together. Stuck an 8 inch or so base plate on the bottom, 2 sets of guy lines to keep it upright and you stuck a GSA (ground spike antenna) on top. It was usually paired up with a 352, which was a 351 with a 20W amplifier attached between the radio and battery. I carried that rig quite a few times as mortar platoon signaler, fortunately my PC was a good egg and carried the spare batteries as it weighed quite a bit
In north Norway in winter. Next to the CP was a radio det.... I was told to pass them a message for transmission.... Both were in their doss bags all the time!
I was in Royal Engineers and specialised in Combat Signalling. 70's and 80'. AAAAH memories !! Thanks mate . :D
Aaah, one of our REMFs! I specialised in winding you up! 🤣🤣🤣
Quick (true) anecdote:
Section exercises somewhere in Germany 198-;
Section Commander and 2 ice cream not the best of mates;
Section Commander allocates the A41 man pack to the 2i/c for a 10 miler;
About 5 miles in the i/c tells the 2i/c to send a sitrep;
The 2i/c looks at the i/c and just shrugs;
The i/c realises the 2i/c doesn’t have the A41 and hurriedly scans and asks the rest of the section whose got it;
No one has!
The i/c asks the 2i/c where it is?
The 2i/c responds that it was heavy and he got fed up carrying it and left it at a brief halt several miles back!
Boxing match ensued with section hauling them apart;
The whole section had to yomp back hoping to find it (they did).
2i/c and SC both got busted and 2i/c got 7 days ROPs. 🤣🤣🤣
🤣🤣👍
My late father was a radio operator in the Second World War , he was in the artillery then the BOAR .
I was a gunner signaller in Germany for the platoon commanders Scimitar, absolute nightmare coding and decoding batco messages in a dimly lit turret going over rough terrain bouncing about all over the place. 😢
You must have been a good flaggy to manage all that in the turret well done mucker
@@LetsTab59-bd4fd it took some doing mate with the platoon commander shouting every two minutes, ' what was that message corporal' while I was trying to decode it. 😂
I take my hat off to you for that, not easy. 👍🏻
C42, C13 and B47 trained when I was in RAC. Then trained on Clansman conversion. Spent a happy winter in Canada in BATUS, ripping out all the old Larkspur gear out of the Chieftains and CVRT and refitting Clansman before the training season restarted.
👍🫡
Med Hat and Calgary? Happy days. 🙂
Thanks for all this information and bless you.
Thank you Chris 🙏
A40 etc was a box clot.
We tested the manpack clansman in Brecon 1979 {Para Reg} They were crap in the snow cold storm weather but much lighter than the A40/41/42.
It was an 8 metre mast Keith. Easier assembly to set up. As with most signals gear, mountains and wet weather caused issues. The one time I lent the Mast up against a farmers fence and got comes with it bouncing off the mountains, much better than rigged up strait.
Tab on.....
When I was first introduced to the Clansman it was described as "officer proof". We knew exactly what he meant.
Great video mate thanks for bringing those memories back lol keep safe you 2 🎉🎉🎉
Roger that amigo
great video , brought back memories, being a NIG in first RA regiment went on excise in FDC. 3 nights in got buged out so 8 different units all connected together . making this huge place where the top brass would win the battle from . all trying to get the hell out of the position , NIG {ME } commanded the 432 in the pitch black straight over the Tarmigan 20 thousand pound cable that connected it all together , wrapped around 432 tracks lol lol .being the NIG just held hands up said well thats the way you told me to go . being in front of a huge 432 in pitch black at 17 years of age .....
Great story Matthew, thank you for sharing it mate 👍
Very interesting. Looking good for an old soldier.
🫡👍
To me a Clansman is some sort of Scotsman, we had 42's and 45's . I was a scaly between 70 and 76, the fun of a 27 ft mast when it was frozen solid on excercise.
Was a nightmare that mast Mike. All the best mate 👍
Another Good video due to an excellent memory. My tab. Germany exercise crusader in the 80's as enemy forces. We got to work with the 82 US airborne after they dropped direct flight from America. Had 12 Chinooks to raid around the Country attacking. The 1/2 ton FFR x2 were great for movement in the chinook as a company HQ mobile. No need for any coding all contact as enemy, very liberating. The OC let the 2 IC have a raid as development, so stayed at the base. 2 hours later I had to fetch him to the radio as it was a brigadier calling. Apparently the 2IC raided what he thought was the target. Turns out after wrecking the brigade signals and echelon base in a large wood he flew off victorious. Unfortunately they were all set up to receive the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that afternoon. That was cancelled. The 2IC captain arrived back early from the landing as the troops marched back. So no witnesses too his very physical debriefing from very angry Major who had been summoned to Brigade for his debrief. The signals worked fine as every one got the message. Attack the right location.
I remember being on exercise years ago, I was a section commander at the time, and we had tabbed for miles. We were carrying the world on our backs and we were all well and truly on our arses. The message came from zero that we had to move to a new location. I looked at the grid and it was about 15 to 20 clicks from where we were, so I thought "Fuck that". I got on the net and said, "Say again over", they relayed the message again, so I hit them back with, "You're very difficult, say again over", they sent it again, I did this a couple of times and they kept sending the same message, in the end I hit them with, "You're unworkable, out", and we stayed where we were. The headshed knew I'd been bullshitting but couldn't prove it, and my section got a good nights rest. Smiles all round, (except for the headshed who were bouncing). Little victories.
I think you're right about the clansman mast, I'm pretty sure it was 8m, but I might be wrong. If there are any scalies watching they could put us right.
Scalyback here! Nope - can't remember a damn thing about the techie details now. I do remember lugging a manpack around the Yorkshire Moors in the dead of night because I'd got on the wrong side of the Sqdn Sgt Major. All I can remember is that it was bloody heavy and I made a point of never peeing him off again. Much nicer to roll around Germany in my lovely 432! :-)
Not doing so well, my wife is again in hospital due to her heart operation not working as well as expected, and my son and I are doing the out-house tango with gut problems. Such is life.
Hope things improve 🙏 for you all alain
Alain hope you and your family get well soon take care all
Alain, I'm so sorry to hear that. Like many on here, I'm sure we all send our love and best wishes to you and your family.
The frequency changes every 12hrs - If you don't know the new frequency - lost comms is a nightmare. Always make sure you have spare batteries.
In a jungle environment - nightmare.
This needs some prefacing, so bear with me: In my time as a conscript in the Bundeswehr, I was in a company which set up a computerized (even in those days) version of what on old phone networks would have been the operator. We were a node for a number of phone lines over radio. These lines then got mixed by electronic witchcraft and sent out over an antenna. Before the mixing, each lines was run through an encryption device (controlled by...punch cards, which even then were electronic dinosaurs.). At some point, it was found that certain of these devices would not work with other devices on the receiving end. So a Kamerad of mine who had worked electronics testing prior, was tasked to check out each device against every other device with me as his henchman. So we set up a matrix on a DIN A3 sheet into which we could enter good/bad for each pair of devices. Then we thought, maybe a copy or this could come in handy later, so a few photocopies would be nice. So we went over to battalion HQ which had the only photocopier and asked "Sir, please, Sir, may we have another?" and were told to leave it in the in tray and come back in the afternoon. Back in the day, you could "verlängern", sign up after your twelve month for another six month or more. That was the moment where I knew (I did not intend to anyway, but this brought it home) that I would not "verlängern". If a simple photocopy takes all day, what would the Bundeswehr have done if the Russkis had rolled up? Or if they had sent units down to the first Gulf War? Tell the enemy to fill out the proper forms and come back the next day?
Sounds like the EU to me! 🤣🤣🤣 Alles Güte.
Das ist nicht gut!
Battalion Headquarters are the same in every Army!
I think the Bundeswehr would have been fine if Ivan was knocking at the door 👍🏼🫡
Sounds very much like the British Army too 😆 cheers 🇩🇪 👍 🍻
I have a friend who did his national service in the Bundesmarine, he signed on for the longer period so that he could travel overseas. He enjoyed it for that reason. He proudly showed me a photo of a 'Mig' that buzzed his ship. I served in the British Royal Artillery on guns comms and air defence missiles, so I knew my aircraft recognition. He was so disappointed when I told him that the photo was the Saab Draken 😂. He really thought they were in mortal danger. He lives a few kilometers from me in South west France.
@@gunner678 Oops! I guess that doesn’t diminish his experience of fear at the time !
Salut et comment ça va?
De la Moselle, près de Metz👍🏼
Ian
B47 and C42 in our tanks! Along with SLIDEX and MAPCO prior to BATCO also known as Ratcode!
Keith.... We ensured only vital information was sent barcode.... So only a few words needed to be converted....
However, As a young Cpl, when using radios. We knew everyone on the net by their voice.... Often we would transmit utter crap to each other. Just to annoy 0 who was a complete ass.... He would be furious etc....
As a Regimental Signals platoon radio op, we used the C42 in or LR's rather than the C45 which was more for the armoured vehicles, we also used the A13 (another of the Larkspur Family). The difference being the C42/45 were omni directional ground signal radio's with a range of about 10 miles at best, The A13 utilised sky wave so you could in effect bounce your signal of the ionosphere to get a greater range. While in Germany a couple of us played around with different sky wave aerials to see how far we could transmit using morse. With a man made aerial made from a piece of plank and 2 F sections from a veh antenna nailed to it at either end and the coax split to the 2 sections we managed to send a morse signal to Belize. We also found that CB radio's had a greater range and were some what smaller in size lol. So we would install a CB in our command vehicles to chat normally and throw the scalley backs who would monitor our radio's for breaches and unsecure transmitions. We used them mainly to organise meet ups for Bratty and chips while on exercise lol. This was a great way to get our platoon commanders together for informal chats and briefing's lol. Although if you asked anyone if they had one they used in their vehicle they would deny it and say "We would never be that sneaky" lol. Also as one of the first 16 men to form the NIPG we were introduced to the Clansman PRC 320, which was a step up in coms from the A41 back packed around the province. At the time it was still in trials so had not yet got to the Regiments on the ground. And to all you Navy men out there, Regimental signals also used semaphore and was part of your training to become a member of Regimental Signals Platoon.
Despite being a Gun No. in early 1977 I did my Basic Signals course. I remember with the "C45s"? You had to get a good swing on the needle in a dial (dunno the name), 1 bloke was so heavy handed that he found this nigh on impossible, drove the DSs nuts. Antenna Theory was my Achilles heel, a constant truant until getting expelled aged 14 my maths wasn't quite up to scratch but managed to pass the course ok. Following a career on the Guns the only benefit I got out of the signals course was twice being 1 of the 3 signallers working as a Relay station on Site Guard duty. Just had to man the radios in a RCT barracks (8RCT?) Probably the best job on Site Guard which was 1of the least enjoyable tasks in my time in the Army. I'd done the towers and running around like a blue a**ed fly twice previously and became more spookier (if that's the right word) after a Gunner in another Bty in 40 Regt RA shot himself and died in one of the Towers. R.I.P. that Gunner (wont mention name)... Like you I also remember when the Clansman system entered service, made things easier, got rid of the swinging needle for one thing eh? Another great video and subject mate. Respect 👍
Thanks Harry appreciated mate 👍
@@LetsTab59-bd4fd Tbh mate, my Linda reckons I'm more like the old me b4 my brain condition went up a gear. My long term memory hasn't been affected so is almost as good as b4. I quit all social media 5yrs ago but she's noticed that commenting and replying on your and similar channels on here perks me up a bit. So on our behalf thanks for that mate. Sorry if I waffle on a bit, probably get a bit carried away as remember more. So sorry about that although people can just skip to next comment if their not interested eh? Lol
@harrymonti6586 well first of all Harry please never apologise for commenting you're definitely not waffling on mate. My channel is not brilliant but what I have noticed is that there is alot of veterans on here that seem to relate to my waffle lol. I'm sorry to hear that you've had some issues mate, but I can tell you're not a quiter, that's probably the squaddie in you. Please keep your comments coming I really enjoy all the comments and stories I get on here and read them all.
Chin up mucker all the very best to you and Linda!
Masts came in both 8m and 12m, TUAAM is Tuning Unit Automatic Antenna Matching. BATCO was a pain in the arse, the little Kipling keyboard/printer you could plug into the sets was a godsend. I actually enjoyed being a signaller, especially as we were armoured infantry so didn’t have to hump sets and spare batteries around on our backs. (Plus driving out to a rebro site and sitting there for a week on Pond Jump West in Canada, was much easier than tabbing around a training area).
In the Network at Brigade through to Div level the signals ops would communicate between themselves using the vehicle modification plate that every signals vehicle had and told the reme what state of modification the vehicle was in. We also used to refer to ranks by using the lightbulb wattage CO being Kilowatt, The top telecoms officer was Megawatt, Senior op 100watt, senior technician 300 watt and of course Sgt Major was ……..you guessed it 1 Watt!!!
Who remembers, on basics,carrying a 351 with a nasty 58 webbing large pack stacked on top of it, absolute chaos when getting in to a firing position.
🫡👍
Hello1 this is 1,1...Grid 12345678...HE2 square...Fire mission Battery over...
Hello1,1,this is is 1... are you sure over...
Hello 1, this is 1,1...sorry sent my coordinates...wait out...
The Royal Artillery...more special needs than special forces...😂😂😂..
Thanks George 😆 🤣
Great video who remembers fast chimp in ni
I do
I was daft enough to volunteer for the signals course to gain my crossed flags as part of my section commander training. Batco was the system then with the clansman various models. The 8 +12m mast installation was a real P I T A to complete, as per normal regulations, done in the p****ing rain. Well someone has to be able to call in for spare box of 'izal' sheets when it hits the fan. 🤣 Another fine memory wander Keith. Stay safe both.
Brilliant and thank you from us both
Saracen ambulance driver out of McRory Park W Belfast 81 & 83 .p Part of first parade o waggon was send radio check on Brigade & Battalion net before checking the Entinox gas we carried otherwise sound like Niel the Hippy😂 Didn't always get it right 😂😂
I set up a dipole using braided wire AE 3/4 length for the 320 using sticks around 2m long. I got comms perfectly..... no need for that 8m mast. (man-packing 320, infantry, no mast )
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Please do a chat about the lengths we soldiers would go to to set up a prank. Loads of stuff you just cannot make up. Lots of fun , No malice.
In the 70s we had the A41 for back carrying and in the land rover we had the C42 with antenna box on the wing.
Fell out of a moving 4tonner at SENTA with a larkspur on my back, clansman was a revelation.
Painful 😒
Tuam was tuning unit antenna module. Had two 353’s in each tank. Learned to read batco in my sleep. Loved my time as an operator
Tuning unit automatic antenna matching. (Actually).
@@ryan976david you a scaly back then
Hi folks pronto from brava c/s s I did the last Larkspur course at Warminster. After the course I returned to the Battalion and Clansman had already been issued. The whip you are talking about was a 36 to 60 the frequ rang of the larkspur VHF sets. We had some great sets any one use an A16? the little square HF set. To this day I still talk in slidex and can do morse at 16 WPM.
The short time compromise of "the code" perhaps explained by more obvious means,
Keith what regiment did you serve in? Thank you another great upload 😊regards to you and tracer ❤😊❤😊
PWRR but initially 94 Locating Regiment RA
Batco was easy enough to understand, but in practice, it took too long, and god forbid you got a message back to verify! I seem to remember we used Storno radios in NI ( 1982 ) 1st Bn Queens.
Stornos in N.I. weren't too bad I thought we also had a radio called Pegasus I think
@@LetsTab59-bd4fd it rings a bell. it was 40-odd years ago for me lol.
Carried the A41 around NI, pain in the ar#e with the 4 foot whip ariel, big wax wrapped batteries, weighed a ton. Land rover C42s, a lot better,.😊
When I remember the a41, my first thought was maximum deflection
Couger was iffy secure but iffy "im standing on top of the rover over"😂😂😂
🤣👍
In the Chieftain tank we used C42s and (???) B57s (or something like that - used for short range communication at the squadron level). This was back in the 70s
@roganmuldoon3357: It was C42 and B47 in Europe. In the desert we used C13 radios (long range HF).
I also remember Keystone and Cougar radios, and those little PYE handhelds for station guard force etc. Nowadays its Bowman
Cougar was a nightmare ,fekin fill 😢
I worked as a Radio Tech back in the day, even into the 90s there was still a fair bit of Pye equipment about that was still using Valves. The Pye handhelds were a nightmare to work on.
@@johnribble Yea, used to dump the fill if you looked at it in the wrong way!
Clansman was in use by about 1978 although I was working with armoured trials vehicles, so the system itself might have also been trialling along with the vehicles. I can remember Slidex and the daily code change and 'Griddle' rings a bell but I think that was a slang term. I left before BATCO came into being and at Longcross we didn't have a need for it anyway!
Firstly I never watch ads but have done for this...not sure if you're monitised or not but hopefully watching the ads gets you a couple of pennies
Secondly the radio story...my dad was ATC at RAF Wittering late 70s to mid 80s and i remember him laughing about a young lad doing YTS with the RAF and he spent a couple of days with my dad up in the tower, one morning my dad decided to go out in the field with a backpack radio to simulate field control, they went across the airfield and my dad (the bugger) said to the YTS lad "the signal is really poor here so we need to get a better signal" , he then unscrewed the antenna and handed it to the lad and told him to run parallel with the runway holding the antenna high up over his head....30 years later it wouldn't be funny due to Bluetooth etc...back then No1 sqn pilots had a chuckle between Pimm's and brylcream cocktails
Cracking story thank you for sharing that 👍. The tricks we use to all play on the new guys 😆 I suppose today it would be viewed as bullying. How sad and no fun
Thank you also for sitting through those flipping adverts, I have been monetized now, I got £175 ....I'm not going to let it change me lol 😆
I _think_ they still teach (and use) BATCO in the Army Cadet Forces. I used to listen to their weekend contests a couple of times a year, also also to their evening skeds. Not listened for a few years though, do they still do that?
Soinds like those planes above you can hear you lol 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Fall of 1975 I did the 6 week, level 2 signalman’s course, told there were only 2 levels at that time and the Royal Signal’s were all Level 1 Signallers, at Elizabeth barracks in Pirbright, which was kind of backwards, as when we were in Belize the summer of 1975 I was the platoon signaller or what we called man packer lol. The good thing about the course was it set me up for when we moved to Munster in January 1976 and I was responsible for the platoon radios in the 432’s. Happy days humping the A41 got me put on my JNCO course summer of 1976, because the platoon commander thought I was a Kenner 😂. Other than the A41, I believe we used B12?, and C42 in the 432. When I was releasing in 1982 we did the big summer ex Lion heart? And that was the first time I had seen Clansmen radios with the infantry units that were attached to the HQ group as security. 💂♂️🪖⛑️🏴🇨🇦
Nice shot of the Union jack, are you putting the st george up tomorrow
Absolutely 💯 🏴
One I remember was when someone said actual that meant this is the boss himself speaking
Back to Tabbing GHQ 🔥
Kettle on
@@LetsTab59-bd4fd ahhh a nice Brew to raise morale nice strong tea
I actually looked up thinking that jet was passing over my head😂
A birthday flyby
Keith, theres no shame, in your string and two cans issue, mate..Lol.!!
🤣🤣👍👍💯
I did my B2 signals course in Leconfield, trying to put a mast up in the middle of an airfield in a force 10 gale, no fun.
We had Larkspur fitted in a FFR Land Rover LWB that had seen better days. I think the batteries came out of the Ark! Always needed charging (electrically). This was while REME LAD to Lt Gun Field Regt RA 1976-1980. On Admin net for cockups, sitreps and orders. Gridle for map ref. I think our call sign was 99.
Those daily orders serials were a nightmare. Pages and pages of info to write down and decode, if you got it all, cold sweats sometimes. Especially for move reps.
One good thing we had was the radio mast socket and bottom section welded to the rear nearside bumperette. So the mast could be raised/lowered from the back of the wagon. Ours had the knurled lock rings so was a bit easier. Radio tuning was a nightmare as well.
As I said FFR past its best. When in location, cammed up, engine running to charge those batteries we were dead easy to spot as exhaust fumes used to drift across the fields like a blue fog. You couldn't see anyone coming, but they could see you.🎉
Well Barry, I was in a 5.5" battery in 1979 (which moved to L118/L19 a couple of years later) we used Larkspur at the time and as a noob CP Assistant, one of my tasks was to fight my way through the camm net to the TUAMs at the front of the CP (Land Rover series III) and tune the antenna . This particular cam net hated any living thing and would devour you if it could, not too bad on a sunny day but in the small hours in a raging gale up on Redesdale Ranges that was a right bitch. Often ended up like a hobbit in Shelobs web.
Getting new guns and Clansman was like moving out of the 50's into the modern day. I still have an aversion to that bronze dark green that a lot of the old kit was painted in, shame really it's a nice colour but it's got too many associations with grim shit kit.
(and don't get me started on the ZBD radar...)
Me was a sparky in my RGJ platoon i used the larkspur system cant remember the designation but it was blinking heavy and those great big ear pieces lol, clansman was awesome wow what a differance like night and day cant belive i can still recite the phonetic alphabet of by heart, good times, some things were drummed in like hello bravo this is alpha citrep over, bravo wait one cor like yesterday dont time fly. thanks tab
Thank you glad you enjoyed it
I remember back in training (80's) being told to send SITREP and having to say something like.....i'm in Dover and rolled the landrover over on the flyover....over. Or something like that 🙄😂
I remember that too
@@LetsTab59-bd4fd If I recall correctly it was 'I am in Dover, the Rover has gone over, send another rover over, over.'
On exercises in Libya I was for a short time the only Ordnance bod among the battle group (or as they called it then, the "Battalion Group" the Warrant officer who left me behind was "Rickshaw" so I asked him, "Am I rickshaw now that you're off Sir" - "I don't know about that, but you can be called Richard if you like" - He was a great bloke and went on to lead a campaign against council tax and ended up being a martyr and going to prison!.
Remember the A,sets and c, sets really well was on command post and Op, hated the carry frame the A sets used there was always a sharp edge that jabed you in the back,if we were manpacking we would strip the A set down to battery and radio unit and fit it into your 38 patten large pack we manage to scrounge and put our personal kit around the radio.great times keep tabing👍
Cheers Gerry mate 👍
Coms were a fkn headache! Sooz bout the language but where coms are concerned its needed lol.
Long story short i was nominated stand in bleep, so if our bleeps got KOd id be on coms, i had a one day course which i was hung over on so all i heard was bla bla bla and months passed all was fine, we were on an exercise and the guy in white said our coms guy was dead so it was my time to shine, so there i was with this green box with knobs and dials on and the only thing i could remember was hpw to do a radio check, did i remember what the frequency was for next day, um NO, so there was four of us still alive, our boss was ' dead' but luckily for me our lance jack knew all the signals stuff because he was going for his second stripe soon as he got a spot, so we kinda survived, after that I learned to listen amd not 'tune out' pardon the pun when we were getting a briefing! happy days looking back.
Loved the clansman 320, but not carrying one during fire and manoeuvre hitting you on the back of the head as you got down into cover, and tried to buy a second hand 320 transceiver when got my Amateur Radio License. G1UYP
trev, 5 Queens sigs don't think it was a c45 but a C42 VHF and 40 , 41 and the A13 HF (mostly used to listening to Radio Luxembourg at two in the morning)
Worked with Clansman/Bowman and Cougar
A was a techie in signals and clansman was the one we fixed or sorry just replaced 😂
😆👍
I think the best radios I worked with were the storno's in NI small and always worked. We got mapco in Cyprus in the 70s. All the 4s ps remember the donkey wallaper
They used say you could shout further than a 349 would transmit , it had 0.25 watts which is about same as child's toy walkie talkie . Some later ones had 2 watts . Think it was supposed to transmit 1 km . Batteries did not last long.
When I first joined 63 Sqn we were using Morse code I hated trying to learn it. When the PCR319 came along it was so much BETTER.
Larkspur then klansman for me. Larkspur was a joy to use, unless you had to carry one 😂. C45 great piece of kit actually. Yes 27 foot mast, then with klamsman the 8 metre mast.
Keith, it was TUNING UNIT AUTOMATIC ANTENNA MATCHING
Cheers Allen, I knew someone would remember
@@LetsTab59-bd4fd part of doing Sgs Sgt many moons ago lol
Tuning them Murphy radios by counting the whistles in the 1980s when I was inthe RMR city of London. Next day we got Bowman, now click click🙄🙄😁
Golf Bravo 1 on route eta 5 mins, GB was unofficially used as God Botherer to let the guys know our Staffy was on the prowl...had his bible everywhere with him...😊