Stream the Antenna: A look into the Xiegu 6100 as a Field Radio for Regional Communications, by GuerrillaLogistician
Editors note: this is an incredibly in-depth look at the Xiegu 6100. I highly recommend following GuerrillaLogistician (@glogistician on X.com) for more banger content like this. The Xiegu 6100 is available on the Brushbeater Store.
Reference – 6C Radio Room
@glogistician on X.com
+127 days since spectrum warfare went kinetic somewhere in the Utah mountains. Corbett Pulled out the SOTABEAMS Travel mast he was given and a linked dipole antenna. He had no idea about all this technology and was given an introductory course by his friend before things started falling apart. Honestly, he wouldn’t be out here, but the wireless Telegraph operator was actually working on repairing several radios for the contras in the area. As this was a transmit-only operation today, all the wireless Telegraph operator had to do was program the 6100 and give Corbett a basic tutorial on how to transmit. They reviewed everything and used a dummy load to go through every single step, and with this little radio, his already encrypted message was ready to go. The contras in the area had been playing a cat-and-mouse game for a while now, just like U-boats of World War II. His primary Wireless Telegraph operator had been passing vital messages, transmitting Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS) over the mountain range to other groups, and terrorizing the direction-finding units in the area. With the signal going nearly vertical and coming back down, it was tough to get a bearing as the signal seemed to come from everywhere at the same time. He knew that he would be taking some risk on this operation regardless because other wireless Telegraph operators, or WTs for short, had been snatched up. WT operators had specific ways to prove they were authentically free and clear of manipulation by the enemy, so when they were captured and forced to transmit, the Contras knew right away. In addition, the burning of previously used OTPs meant messages couldn’t be decoded.
The best part about the new digital radio systems was that it was very hard for the enemy to define who was transmitting beyond the region they were in most of the time. The downside was even with NVIS sky wave transmission, a local direction-finding team could possibly find them if they got supremely lucky. Corbett, in charge of a good chunk of the local contras, had started sending out screening forces for the WT operator to protect them and the assets. The only difference today was he was the one operating the radio much like the WT operators for the SOE. He didn’t even need to know what the one-time pad was for the message, as he just had to hit the transmit button. He only had a vague idea of what the message might be about. This segregation between the operator and the transmitter produced an extra layer of security that the SOE didn’t have at the time. The Germans could track you in many ways including how you keyed up your radio and could individually tell which operator was transmitted by the sound of the Morse code. They called it a person’s fist, but nowadays, with the radios being totally digital, there was absolutely no way to differentiate between two people with identical digital radios. What made things even harder for the people trying to DF the contras was that some ham radio operators still had followed the new laws prohibiting transmitting with wireless radios. This meant transmissions happen randomly, and the WT operator and Corbett assumed they were also encrypted messages from preppers and the like. Some of them got caught and publicly paraded around by the ruling party. It was sad, but rarely were they actually part of the Contra Units. Any WT that actually was connected to the Contras would end up vanishing, although they would transmit false reports from time to time. Corbett wondered if they were tortured to death or just in a hole somewhere.
To prevent ending up like those poor preppers and Ham Radio operators who refused to follow the laws, special instructions were established to protect the WT operator or anyone he sent out to transmit his messages. Each time they went out, they would transmit at a different location to cause more issues with the DF teams in the area; changing times and locations made it almost impossible to be located. With that said, there are only so many places that you could actually transmit and then transit home while preventing most of the ground wave signal. Corbett had no idea the difference between ground waves and sky waves or even NVIS. He just knew to trust his wireless Telegraph operator, who had preselected several spots that would make it far more difficult to detect them. They also transmitted NVIS sometime between an hour after sunrise and no later than an hour before. They were making sure never to have any pattern on location, time, or even digital mode; they were making DF teams pull their hair out, and Corbett loved his WT who was so invested in screwing with the enemy. Today, though, they didn’t need a laptop, which was a bit easier on Corbett.
After setting up the radio connecting the linked dipole to the expandable travel mast and stretching out the antenna properly to mitigate ground waves just like he was taught, he turned on the radio and waited the allotted time. As his communication window came up, he went into the digital setup and sent the pre-programmed message. The little machine had an H-250 dog bone attached to it, and Corbett listened as the encrypted message leaped out of the machine onto the wires above him. Mario watched the area with binoculars as Corbett focused on the task. Scanning the scrub for people and also far enough away that his AR-152 couldn’t be heard if there were any transmissions, Mario kept a vigil, knowing Corbett would be preoccupied, especially now. Mario was focused on the team’s security forces while they completed their task as efficiently and quickly as possible. As the machine ended its transmission, Corbett watched the screen that was pre-set up to decode the digital mode it had been set in. Within moments he got a transmission of 2 letters. These letters corresponded to numbers he had transmitted along with the message which were part of a SARNEG. Checking to verify the SARNEG was correct, he knew the message was received, and he didn’t need to retransmit the message or worry about a compromised receive from the other end. Shutting down the radio, he started to pack the 6100 away carefully before collapsing the mast he was using for one end of his link dipole. He waved at Mario, and both of them quickly wrapped up both ends of the linked dipole, which they shoved into Corbett’s bag.
As they completed this task, they started moving down the trail away from the transmission location. Even if some DF team had gotten lucky, they planned to be out of the area well before any response could come. Armed with their AR-15s and small packs, they moved back towards a location previously designated for their small two-man team. Once there, they would join with two other people, making a four-man team, and they would stash some of the supplies they used as camouflage for the operation. Corbett was reasonably satisfied that he hadn’t heard any shots yet, but they were never out of the woods until they got back into town and blended in with the population. One of his good friends made the point that while he got some great training from Brushbeater, the one thing he felt was lacking was the critical nature of the exfiltration. After so much kinetic conflict, Corbett agreed with his friend and wished that NC Scout had pus