Integrating Tactical Communications Into Your Kit, by NC Scout

(NC Scout / americapartisan.org) One of the awesome things about the Scout Course is seeing the different ideas on gear that people bring to the table. Some good, some great, some not so good. But in total its a great thing, because what you run in the field is a constantly evolving process. What I ran in 2007 was certainly not my first choice in 2010, and throughout the transition into the civilian world its underwent a multitude of evolution since. The first fundamental truth is this –

You do not have a standing army behind you, at least in the near term.

We’re learning once more from battlefields on the ragged fringes of the empire what works and what doesn’t, and in particular many lessons are being re-hammered (quite literally, with JDAMs) regarding communications security. Turns out cell phone based ATACS will get you killed while posting cool guy pics to Insty and Commie Red Reddit. Who knew? (scratches chin)

Conversely the Russians are learning that using human wave assaults perfected at Vicksburg does not translate well to heavily encumbered mechanized Infantry hamstrung by keeping up with the Joneses from America’s last twenty or so years. Warfare has evolved since the Fulda Gap strategy. A staggering number of their casualties are resulting from the same lessons we’d learn in the pivot from Iraq to Afghanistan around 2008 or so. Too much gear is the enemy of the ground pounder. Even more so to the guerrilla, rural or urban. Mobility is your friend.

That said this author is not of the belief that Ukraine, nor Syria before it, is a direct correlation to what we will enjoy here in the States. The empire is fighting a proxy war in its waning days, and one that it is losing by any sober estimate, and the pendulum will swing to a proxy war here at home and possibly soon. Lots of military age males being brought in on a daily basis and training that army is not exactly a difficult task given that the motivation is clearly there. It’ll look more like Rhodesia in many cases.

So my own thoughts on gear have evolved quite a bit over the years. With the first aforementioned reality, a second one can be realized as carrying only as much gear needed for the required mission, and nothing more. A guerrilla’s requirement is far more lean than a conventional force, and melting back in with a local populace is of critical importance. Delusions of getting into rolling gun battles with cardboard at 25m may sound fun, but an adversary has an equal vote in combat as well. Who shoots first, undetected, normally wins. But again, light and tight is the watchword, with supporting gear such as a blade, a competent IFAK, and a VHF/UHF radio for tactical level communications. The Baofeng, both analog and DMR, have played an undeniable role on the battlefield since 2014 and will continue to do so.

The question then becomes how to competently integrate this into your own kit. I address this specifically in class just prior to the field scenario on Day 2 of the RTO Course. But you have to have a way to competently integrate your radio into your personal gear. It must:

1. Function
2. Be accessible to all components, including the antenna, both day and night
3. Have the ability to be used with minimal light / sound emission during movement or inside of a final firing position (FFP).

The first requirement should be self explanatory, but, this is not always the case. As stated in the abstract, I’ve seen a lot of interesting ways students have carried their radios, to varying degrees of functionality. The basic idea, as it always is, is to keep everything simple. You want to keep the radio itself put away, securely, with the keypad locked. Second, have a mic that’s just loud enough for you to hear it, but not audible within 10ft at night (people’s sense of hearing has a higher attenuation at night to make up for a lack of the ability to see). This creates functionality. As an aside, you might want to put some RTV sealant around the mic connection.

The second requirement is having all components of the radio accessible to you while wearing your gear. This must include the antenna. Back during Iraq the popular thing was to make antennas that wove inside your gear made out of RG-174 coax cables. We did this to keep from getting smacked in the face when climbing in and out of vehicles. The problems were huge, however. The radios tolerated the antenna mismatches out of sheer robustness, but the cross polarization led to massive amounts of loss, cutting our range down to maybe a few hundred meters, if that. This was quickly ditched in Afghanistan. Further, the long tape whip antennas that were issued with the PRC-152s are not designed to be used folded up. Antenna lessons have to be learned the hard way. I personally run a flexible gooseneck antenna from HYS, it is rugged and effective.

I tell you all that to also point out that the antenna is usually the weak point in the radio. It needs to be on your front, connected directly to the radio. Relocation kits are a no-go, and will fail in the field, in addition to disrupting the relationship between the antenna and the ground built into the body of the radio. This part is critical. The connections break, and they usually do so at the worst possible time. The easiest way to alleviate this is to have a BNC adapter on your tactical level radio. Baofengs, both the standard UV-5R and the DMR models, have SMA connectors that are incredibly fragile. I have personally seen several radios break at the antenna in class, and using a BNC adapter creates a larger surface area to protect the connector into the radio body. Further, its easy on, easy off to connect to larger, purpose built antennas for longer distance burst transmissions.

All of this is covered and a heck of a lot more in the RTO Courses, which are the best leg up you’re going to get absent learning the hard way. Its not the shooting that matters, its everything you did in preparation before you got there. Equip yourself the correct way. -NCS