18E course shortened

[albeham]

Originally Posted by Ret10Echo

Be a sponge.

Take it on your own to learn more about comms, all of it.

Ham , FCC tickets, get a degree in EE?

A real echo just keeps learning, listening , always improving their comms!!!

IMC, CW, the code ... The Sun spots are coming!! HF is KING!!!!

AL Be Ham

[Goose71a]

Has the 18E course been shortened again? I just read two SORB pubs that list 18E as being 13 weeks long.

[glebo]

No, it's 14 wks...IMO still not long enough. I'm fighting to get another week added, and there are discussions in the "big house/white elephant" to get some time back.

We shall see

[craigepo]

How much time do you need to learn to say "Can't make commo---solar flares" or "help me tie this canteen to this antenna wire and throw it over a tree" or "hey junior bravo, carry 30 pounds worth of batteries"?

[bubba]

Na, I think the request for more time is centered more toward the "hey, why does my laptop not work after I looked at all that porn?" type questions that we get from the Sr Bravo types. Remember, there are now at least 2x computers per member of the detachment, and at least that many radios....... I say send the studs out to OK again, there is something to be said humpin' 120 lbs of crap up and down those mountains, as long as you aint looking for the ever elusive "ground shitter"......... LOL. Just my .02$ though

Originally Posted by Goose71a

Has the 18E course been shortened again? I just read two SORB pubs that list 18E as being 13 weeks long.

My youngest, (age 8) just passed Morse Code, 7 GPM tonight over the phone with his old man. 20 Group message, no errors, 100%, 5/5.

Msg as follows:

W6D DE J6D 1900MST 021910 20 GRP BT

SOLME DUHND VOLUN AUION QWEUI

CPOIZ DJUWM CLOQH XNUET XPOII

QPMBE ZFRED GOINQ XVTRE ROIPZ

QCGFT ZXHTY CVSDI ZNXVC EUYTV

BT AR

[longrange1947]

Way too much reliance on technology! One EMP and all the fancy radios go bye bye and only old CW tube radios will work.

WetDog - Nice, I remember the old requirements on Oki with 1st SFAsia of everyone on the team passing 5 - 5 after setting up a radio and antennae that they cut to freq, encrypting, sending, receiving reply and de-crypting.

Times do change.

Originally Posted by longrange1947

Way too much reliance on technology! One EMP and all the fancy radios go bye bye and only old CW tube radios will work.

WetDog - Nice, I remember the old requirements on Oki with 1st SFAsia of everyone on the team passing 5 - 5 after setting up a radio and antennae that they cut to freq, encrypting, sending, receiving reply and de-crypting.

Times do change.

My son said, "Dad, I want to be really good at using most things, and be borderline expert with a few of them".

I'm betting his follows your path with long rifiles, but for now he's into making primitive tools and weapons.

[CSB]

In the "olden days" there were AN/GRC-109's and there were coder bursters and there were large and heavy hand crank generators. I am glad all of that is gone for today's SF soldiers.

We also had slide rules, and (I am not making this up) we practiced making demolition timers from a pocket watch.

Yes, if "the big one" hits and the world is dazzled with Electro Magnetic Pulses that fry some A-Team's communications electronics, then ... to be blunt ... making commo with the FOB or the B Team will be the least of our worries.

That EMP will also fry the entire bushel basket of military acronyms: JSTARS, JDAMS, etc. but also cell phones/towers, electric transmission grids, medical equipment, even automotive electronics.

Life in the area will quickly revert to a state of nature, and as Mr. Jeremy Bentham said even before there was an American Republic:

"Life in a state of nature is cold, miserable, nasty, brutish,... and short."

If we were to assume a "backup" communication system of IMC with manual keying and (JOCASTA)/(DIANA) one-time pads should still be taught and practiced, remember that we would still need the "back end" at the Signal Company to receive, and decrypt the traffic.

And as much as I enjoyed the Scrabble/Jumble/Scramlets of breaking commo back at the SFOB (and I did it well enough to pocket yet another AAM for two weeks work, and kept a few A teams with a C1 rating*), it seems just plain silly to expect IMC and manual keying to be a viable communications skill set.

IM(NH)O it ranks alongside teaching "knapping flint into arrowheads" and "mixing your own black powder" as relics of long ago that need not be taught to todays SF soldiers.

* Which also makes unnecessary ... again in my opinion ... for the commo NCO to "pay his dues" at signal company before heading out to the team. Whatever benefit there may have been from receiving/working off of earphones and [whatever those psuedo-8 track tape recorders were called], and then breaking commo onto a one-time pad is long since gone.