Ferret Clansman radios

[ferrettkitt]

Hi All

 

I'm about to fit my Clansman radios into my Ferret I'd like to make sure that they work but I don't want send. Just switching them on doesn’t prove that they are fully functional (I know that sounds daft) but with Clansman radios costing anything up to £500 for just the VRC353 / PRC351/2 hopefully I’ll be forgiven for asking such a daft question.

I already have most of the boxes to fit the system in the vehicle just not the radios.

 

I realise that there are rules governing this (link below to previous message on subject)

 

http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?t=6628&highlight=clansman

 

Andy

[AlienFTM]

Sadly I cannot think of a Ferret configuration that would make a 321 a good idea. "Why a 321?" I hear you ask. Set to AM, down in the low frequencies offered by the military HF waveband, you ought to be able to tune in to one or two MW broadcasts (though of course these days MW is a dirty word).

 

With UNFICYP, not having enough VHF C42s to go round, half the Squadron wired up C13 A sets to provide I/C and B47 B sets to provide comms. As Troop Leader's driver I had C42 / B47, but when I crushed a finger under the Canadian antenna base we used when patrolling BritCon East, I had a week in the turret excused driving while the Troop Lance Corporal recovered from "falling and breaking his nose a la Mick McCarthy."

 

First day out patrolling AusCon, I climbed into 24C (Two Four Charlie), donned Larkspur headset and found my driver had tuned the C13 into The Voice of Peace, Lebabon's answer to Radio Caroline broadcasting to the Eastern Mediterranean. "What's the point of having the C13 on for no reason other than to provide I/C and listening to white noise?"

 

This was a Saturday morning. I couldn't help as the section climbed round the outside of a quarry near the border with Northern Cyprus but think of previous Saturday morning when I had listened to Radio 1 before heading off to Roker Park for the football and who would Sunderland be playing today. I was sat listening to ABBA's latest hit (Dancing Queen?) and for the only time in my career I felt homesick.

 

I'd have been fine listening to the Troop Leader and monitoring the Squadron Command Net.

 

Shortly after we returned from UNFICYP, 15/19H minus (minus A Sqn who had replaced us in UNFICYP and C Sqn, Cyprus Sovereign Base Armoured Car Squadron) travelled to Otterburn Training Area for Ex Trident, where we played Orange Forces for a Special Forces exercise in Kielder Forest (now the bottom of Kielder Reservoir - they were building the dam around us).

 

After a week's exercise, the regiment set off back for Tidworth less B Sqn GW Troop and a few extras, including myself and the Squadron Leader's Land Rover. As soon as the rest had gone, we all piled into the Land Rover and headed home (recruiting area being Northumberland, Durham and the new-fangled Tyne & Wear) dropping people off

as we passed their houses. Last man, the Bedford driver, took the fully kitted Series 3 FFR and parked it in the TA Centre near his home in Hartlepool.

 

It was my Land Rover, so I tuned the C13 (normally Squadron Command Net) in to Radio 1 on 247 metres which was very close to the bottom of the C13's band: 1.5 - 30 MHz and we had music. Needless to say, every time we passed a car containing a blonde, we transmitted and said hello over the top of Radio 1 with just enough power to attract her attention. Some puzzled looks. Naughty boys.

 

I was also possible with VHF. In Oct - Nov 1979, having conducted our own 3 Armd Div FTX at the start of October, we deployed as Orange Forces for 1 Armd Div FTX. Middle Saturday there was no movement of tracks or heavies (de rigeur to preserve the peace and calm of the German weekend). I woke up late and hit the power button on my ghetto blaster and found the local BFBS radio transmitter. Hardly had I settled back when I heard the familiar voice of the Adjutant sounding like he was talking on the Divisional Command Net. It turned out that was exactly what he was doing: we were sleeping in a barn right next to the 27' mast that was carrying our signals. We were nowhere near the BFBS frequency; ISTR we might have been smack on a harmonic thereof. A good reminder always to observe good Voice Procedure because you never knew who was listening.

[Bazz]

Alien,

ISTR that on the afore mentioned exercise, that the only NATO special force group that was not caught was the British SAS and that when the C130's that were being used for the jump passed over the DZ the men from the Inland Revenue made themselves known and actually inspected the troops dropping in.

 

Bazz

[ArtistsRifles]

Alien,

ISTR that on the afore mentioned exercise, that the only NATO special force group that was not caught was the British SAS and that when the C130's that were being used for the jump passed over the DZ the men from the Inland Revenue made themselves known and actually inspected the troops dropping in.

 

Bazz

 

Was that Ex in the very late Seventies??? If so - it's a small world!!!

[Bazz]

yes, we moved to Germany in 78-79 as far as I remember, were you involved in it.

 

Bazz

[AlienFTM]

Alien,

ISTR that on the afore mentioned exercise, that the only NATO special force group that was not caught was the British SAS and that when the C130's that were being used for the jump passed over the DZ the men from the Inland Revenue made themselves known and actually inspected the troops dropping in.

 

Bazz

 

I suspect the revenue men are an urban myth mate. I was driving Jimmers, we were VERY close to the drops (we were Recce after all. Besides the drops were from unfeasibly low and if we hadn't got in close we simply would not have seen the drops) and we saw none of that nonsense. But why spoil a good story lol?

 

ISTR the SAS on the exercise were TA. But hey, they were supposed to be as good as regulars. There again, we sent Surveillance Troop to the Boselager NATO Recce Competition every year and only ever made mid-table despite being the only regulars in NATO after the US debacle in Vietnam. Then a couple of years later I discovered that in the rest of the world "Recce" ("Recon" if yer american) is a euphemism for "Special Forces". What scared me more was that Surveillance Troop actually outperformed half of NATO's Special Forces.

[AlienFTM]

Was that Ex in the very late Seventies??? If so - it's a small world!!!

Then I find your post - I was going to refer to you in my reply to Baz.

 

Yes mate, it was July 1977, the week after the British Grand Prix at Silverstone (we drove our wheels the length of the country on the Friday and queued forever while the crowds poured in for First Qualifying).

 

Ex Trident.

 

Did you get caught? I remember driving into Otterburn Camp where they (you) were being held, jumped out, saw a mukker and yelled, "How, Rickets! Yer aaaaaaaaaaalreet marra?" I got shushed by somebody because they supposedly did not even know which country they had dropped on and we weren't meant to give them any clues. I wonder how many NATO Special Forces soldiers were able to translate that sentence.

 

Couple of years later in BAOR we got tasked to act as Goons at the RAF E&E School at Oberammergau. There we got a proper brief which included, "The only time you are allowed to speak to the prisoner is if he makes a break for it. The razor wire is brand new and will damage a very expensive pilot / special forces soldier. You are to shout, 'Watch out for the wire.'"

[AlienFTM]

yes, we moved to Germany in 78-79 as far as I remember, were you involved in it.

 

Bazz

 

Move to Paderborn was October 1977, activating with 3 Armd Div on 1 Jan 78.

[ArtistsRifles]

Then I find your post - I was going to refer to you in my reply to Baz.

 

Yes mate, it was July 1977, the week after the British Grand Prix at Silverstone (we drove our wheels the length of the country on the Friday and queued forever while the crowds poured in for First Qualifying).

 

Ex Trident.

 

Did you get caught? I remember driving into Otterburn Camp where they (you) were being held, jumped out, saw a mukker and yelled, "How, Rickets! Yer aaaaaaaaaaalreet marra?" I got shushed by somebody because they supposedly did not even know which country they had dropped on and we weren't meant to give them any clues. I wonder how many NATO Special Forces soldiers were able to translate that sentence.

 

Couple of years later in BAOR we got tasked to act as Goons at the RAF E&E School at Oberammergau. There we got a proper brief which included, "The only time you are allowed to speak to the prisoner is if he makes a break for it. The razor wire is brand new and will damage a very expensive pilot / special forces soldier. You are to shout, 'Watch out for the wire.'"

 

No - was one of the ones that got away....

It was an interesting time that... E&E was never my favourite occupation but there was something to be said for shadowing the pursuers, turning the hunters into the hunted as it were!!