Another Artillery Problem

The other guy got back from vacation and I just got this message - which
explains some of my questions as to why we didn't always use artillery:

Great to hear from you. We always had a radio frequency and call sign for
artillery support. Sometimes we were out of radio range for them. We usually had
an artillery FO with us but we mortar FOs did the job when we were just
operating as a platoon or squad. All air support was done by the company
commander via battalion. To my knowledge there were no areas in which we could
not use either artillery or air. It was more a matter of radio range. If there
were no artillery firebases in artillery range we could almost always get either
air support, jets/bombers, or our own 1st Cav ARA, the helo gun ships. Again the
single biggest limiter was the radio. If you were on top of a mountain you could
talk to god but down in some of those valleys or 'holl'ars' you couldn't
transmit out to anyone.

Keep me posted on the house project. I'm going to have to have one built also
early next year.

>If you were on top of a mountain you could
>talk to god but down in some of those valleys or 'holl'ars' you couldn't
>transmit out to anyone.

My records show numerous monitored and relayed msgs from all kinds of units in
other Branches and services (ARVN & ROK) back to HQ. There must have been a
procedure in place to locate "lost" units. I don't know the nuts and bolts to
this one, but if you could transmit, the signal would bounce off the
ionosphere? and come back someplace (and may well be a distant location). Any
radio specialists' here?

Greg

tropospheric scatter was used for long line commo. not really something
that you'd take to the woods with you tho like they can do with the
satellite radios today.

a typical 'shot' (avoiding land lines down Hwy 14) from Kontum FOBII to
Pleiku Tropo Hill avoided the use of repeaters between Kontum and Pleiku. I
believe at one time there was a TRC29 between Pleiku and Dragon Mtn with the
repeater from Dragon Mtn to Pleiku. well before my time in country (1972).
when I came in country (Feb '72) we were packing up all the old TRC29 stuff
in inventory at the 362nd Sig Co in CRB for shipment to the states or over
to the ARVN.

Any of you in-country over the years (especially towards the end) will
prolly be familiar with the big 26V Tropo sites (fixed station) and their
billboard antennae. I think power out for this radio was 100KW while our
tactical 26L Tropo only had 1000W. One of the Collins Radio rigs actually
have a secondary PA to allow 100KW operation but I never saw one in person.
\
After SEA I spent summer of '73 wandering the woods at Ft. Stewart and Ft
Bragg running Line Of Sight microwave limited to 30 miles unless someone
was on a high piece of real estate. I think in the scheme of things at the
time, either Microwave or VHF broadband would be used to provide commo from
HQ to say a BN site. the comm center at the BN site would relay info from
the companies back to the headquarters area. relay sites would be used
where necessary.

SF used airborne radio relays and had at least one 'over the fence' radio
relay. ask that SF,Ranger,Seal dood down at the local tavern if he ever
heard of Leghorn (Vietnam era...thru '72 at least)...if he hasn't well...


"GrgLnsctt" wrote in message
news:20030918145039.10815.00001245@mb-m29.news.cs.com...
> >If you were on top of a mountain you could
> >talk to god but down in some of those valleys or 'holl'ars' you couldn't
> >transmit out to anyone.
>
> My records show numerous monitored and relayed msgs from all kinds of
units in
> other Branches and services (ARVN & ROK) back to HQ. There must have been
a
> procedure in place to locate "lost" units. I don't know the nuts and bolts
to
> this one, but if you could transmit, the signal would bounce off the
> ionosphere? and come back someplace (and may well be a distant location).
Any
> radio specialists' here?
>
> Greg
>

"GrgLnsctt" wrote in message
news:20030918145039.10815.00001245@mb-m29.news.cs.com...
> >If you were on top of a mountain you could
> >talk to god but down in some of those valleys or 'holl'ars' you couldn't
> >transmit out to anyone.
>
> My records show numerous monitored and relayed msgs from all kinds of
units in
> other Branches and services (ARVN & ROK) back to HQ. There must have been
a
> procedure in place to locate "lost" units. I don't know the nuts and bolts
to
> this one, but if you could transmit, the signal would bounce off the
> ionosphere? and come back someplace (and may well be a distant location).
Any
> radio specialists' here?
>
> Greg

I ain't no radio specialist, but I believe that the FM field radios in those
days had mostly line-of-sight effectiveness, and no "bounce effect" at all.

On the other hand, our battalion AM, teletype-capable, jeep-mounted 95
could, if conditions were right, get you the baseball games in Cleveland.

But it couldn't interface with a PRC-25.

ted
>

In article <20030918145039.10815.00001245@mb-m29.news.cs.com>, GrgLnsctt says...
>
>>If you were on top of a mountain you could
>>talk to god but down in some of those valleys or 'holl'ars' you couldn't
>>transmit out to anyone.
>
>My records show numerous monitored and relayed msgs from all kinds of units in
>other Branches and services (ARVN & ROK) back to HQ.

Of course the records would show the messages being transmitted... Duh...

IMO it would be difficult to record messages never received by anyone...

>Of course the records would show the messages being transmitted... Duh...

dino,

The point I'm trying to make is this; the messages are being monitored and
relayed by other units not normally on our net/freq.

Greg

There is a nice Photo taken by Harding of Leg Horn
on the www://170thahc.org site. That's a rare photo. He is
making a landing on that Postage size stamp pad.
I often wonder if anyone walked out the wrong side
of Huey ? It was one hell of a view anyway. I wonder
if was part of the center of a ancient Volcano ?
I know its a Krag, but.....Its one odd looking place
in this World. Its a Natural Wonder anyway.

"Walter Eagle" wrote in message news:Pmoab.314$IZ3.613631190@newssvr12.news.prodig y.com...
> tropospheric scatter was used for long line commo. not really something
> that you'd take to the woods with you tho like they can do with the
> satellite radios today.
>
> a typical 'shot' (avoiding land lines down Hwy 14) from Kontum FOBII to
> Pleiku Tropo Hill avoided the use of repeaters between Kontum and Pleiku. I
> believe at one time there was a TRC29 between Pleiku and Dragon Mtn with the
> repeater from Dragon Mtn to Pleiku. well before my time in country (1972).
> when I came in country (Feb '72) we were packing up all the old TRC29 stuff
> in inventory at the 362nd Sig Co in CRB for shipment to the states or over
> to the ARVN.
>
> Any of you in-country over the years (especially towards the end) will
> prolly be familiar with the big 26V Tropo sites (fixed station) and their
> billboard antennae. I think power out for this radio was 100KW while our
> tactical 26L Tropo only had 1000W. One of the Collins Radio rigs actually
> have a secondary PA to allow 100KW operation but I never saw one in person.
> \
> After SEA I spent summer of '73 wandering the woods at Ft. Stewart and Ft
> Bragg running Line Of Sight microwave limited to 30 miles unless someone
> was on a high piece of real estate. I think in the scheme of things at the
> time, either Microwave or VHF broadband would be used to provide commo from
> HQ to say a BN site. the comm center at the BN site would relay info from
> the companies back to the headquarters area. relay sites would be used
> where necessary.
>
> SF used airborne radio relays and had at least one 'over the fence' radio
> relay. ask that SF,Ranger,Seal dood down at the local tavern if he ever
> heard of Leghorn (Vietnam era...thru '72 at least)...if he hasn't well...
>
>
> "GrgLnsctt" wrote in message
> news:20030918145039.10815.00001245@mb-m29.news.cs.com...
> > >If you were on top of a mountain you could
> > >talk to god but down in some of those valleys or 'holl'ars' you couldn't
> > >transmit out to anyone.
> >
> > My records show numerous monitored and relayed msgs from all kinds of
> units in
> > other Branches and services (ARVN & ROK) back to HQ. There must have been
> a
> > procedure in place to locate "lost" units. I don't know the nuts and bolts
> to
> > this one, but if you could transmit, the signal would bounce off the
> > ionosphere? and come back someplace (and may well be a distant location).
> Any
> > radio specialists' here?
> >
> > Greg
> >
>
>