I was at Long Binh in 1967-1968 During the TET of 68. I was on guard duty when the Ammo Dump blew up. After that things got real for a while. I was with the 169th Engineers stationed at Long Binh. But that night I wasn't running a dozer but a M-60. My MOS changed pretty quick. Welcome Home Brother. I knew where the commo shack was there because I also liked Radio. I am now a Extra Class and still like the hobby,
In 1973 just out highschool I worked for a surplus company in Sacramento, CA. that dealt mostly in telephone equipment. Vietnam was winding down and huge amounts of surplus was being repatriated to the US. Surplus is bought by the lot, you bid on what is in the taped off area so many times my boss ended up with a lot of equipment he had no use for other than to be stripped of parts and sold for scrap. I had excess to many types of field radio equipment that my boss would have just given to me, whole kits sometimes with large field antennas with deadmen and all! No matter how beat up a crate of surplus equipment was there was always some new or like new stuff thrown in. Occasionally the G.I.s would throw in captured equipment in with the US equipment and sent it home where it ended up in my boss's scrapyard. At that time, I had absolutely no interest in radio, that was a hobby that developed years later. The things I could have had!
Thank you so much for the time and hard work putting this video together. Here in the UK we were able to buy ex WW2 surplus radio gear around the 1960s. I'm 71 now, and way back in 1966 I was like a kid in a sweet shop! There was so much radio gear on sale, with one of the best shops only 20 miles away from my home. I bought a British made 31 set. I'm sure this model was a direct copy of a US transceiver made by Motorola. I have no idea of the model. It was a backpack radio, FM low band VHF in the 50Mhz range. I single-handedly blacked out the BBC 6pm news over the whole of my village! Everybody knew me as the kid who messed with radios, and within a few minutes there was quite a crowd hammering on our door. That was the day I realised BBC 1 was on the self same frequency I'd fired up on. Happy days, they were!
RVN 69-70, 05D20 (DF) at Det 2 (18 people) 330th RRC on Rt 1 outside Cam Rahn Bay. We received a unit citation and several were awarded an ARCOM. We were never told what we did to earn them other than in very general terms. After watching your video, now I have some idea how important our duties were and how they fit into the larger picture. I had no idea ASA/RR provided such a large portion of usable intelligence to the command structure. Thank you for your work and service.
If you have a German documentation, I mean, think about that for a moment. We are still 86 millions here, not counting Austria, Swiss, Liechtenstein and all the other parts of the world, where they still speak a lot of German. Actually here in Europe there are more people speaking German than English or any other language. It is quite funny, that I never found anyone asking any of us, if we could lend a hand in translating it. Because, usually, we do speak a good enough English by school education. And with Google lens it's also possible to translate Chinese handbooks for someone, not speaking the language at all. The German language here has spread into all neighboring countries, because of foreign workers going back or tourists. So you'll find whole villages in Spain and the island of Mallorca speaking a lot of German. Whole communities in Portugal are speaking German and whole villages in Turkey, at least a second language. Well there are disputes ongoing if they are speaking German in Austria, that's for sure. Also the whole tourist part of Poland and Czech are very much German speaking. Translation from German? Just ask. We're still here and pretty much alive. :-) I can easily read Fraktur, what you call Gothic and even something no Millanial or GenZ can: cursive. I will just have problems with German shorthand and the pre-war Sütterlin handwriting. But I get that done, too. I mean, I translated a book in Dutch to German without speaking a word of Dutch originally, but it's near enough. I can speak Plattdeutsch, so that's the grand-father of most Germanic languages, like Old English is almost the same and English has a lot of their words from there. It's actually easy and not that far away, from the family tree of languages, actually I would not recommend to allow marriage between German and English outside of Alabama or certain parts of Florida. just ask DE DL7HH
I served in the ASA 509th RRFS at Phu Bai from Dec 1969 thru Nov 70 as a 05H20. As such, I have many memories of using a R390 both in Vietnam and upon my return to then serve 1 1/2 years at Vent Hill Farms in Virginia doing the same morse code intercept mission. Thanks for the memories !
Excellent presentation. I have been a ham for over 50 years and an ex squadron communication officer in the 60's. I also collect old radios and try to repair most of them. Collection goes back to the Korean war. Thank you sir for the enjoyable learning experience.
At 49.44 our 8th RRFS (ASA) unit, the largest by far in Vietnam is not even shown on the map either by name or city (Phu Bai). We used the R390. I was there at that time. Proud Vietnam Veteran O5H I Corp/Laos, Phu Bai/Hue/Khe Sanh 67-69 Supporting the Marines and MACV SOG.
Yeah as far as I know the 102E set was made by the PRC back in the start of 50s, it was normally called "大八一" or "Da Ba Yi" type in Chinese , when the transmitter and receiver(type 139) were boxed together. It was first constructed to cope with the Korea war. And when it comes to 1970s the fully transistorized edition called "小八一" or "Xiao Ba Yi" were put into use.
a very, very interesting topic, in fact, one I'd often thought about but was never able to find much info about until now! I've never seen anything posted like this video, the most encompassing, all- inclusive vid one could ever hope for, not to mention the great narration, which was so interesting, v-e-r-y knowledgeable & even pleasant to listen to; & it goes without saying, thank YOU & all others who served our country & 73 de WA4ELW in TN 🇺🇸 dit dit 😃!🇺🇸
Hoa Kỳ một nước lớn.cung lạ la một nước có ban tay mau thích đánh ai thì đánh.gan ghép nước đó về nhân quyền. Tự do.toi la người VN bao nhiêu năm chiến tranh đã qua cho đến bây giờ nói về nhân quyền làm con người được tu do sống. thì trên thế giới này VN la số một OK
Oh man this is the 1st time I've heard someone mention the Unlikely Warriors. My dad flew Army ASA for many years Thank you for everything you did and this video. Much love to all!
Fascinating treatise. I missed serving active duty Draft #256 but worked as a contractor on huey cobra and RF 4 flight simulators as a civilian. I loved hearing your brief history of ASA as I had no idea they existed. My experience was with the company and no such agency. Got my ticket in 83 and now like to play with old Collins S line stuff on HF. Thanks for the very pleasant and interesting video.
I had the opportunity to use the PRC-25 while on patrols with 3rd Recon Battalion. On some patrols we would only use handset clicks to reply to the base check-in request. I now believe that it was for the purpose of avoiding the triagulation of our position by VPA radio operators.
After completing my tour in late 1969 I came back to the states only to again join the ASA as a contractor developing and deploying the latest version (at that time) of a new system codenamed CEFIRM LEADER. As I remember it 50 years later, the system consisted of a combination of 9 (Civilian type) King and Queen Airs; two dedicated to Command and Control, four (HF) Direction finders and four Active (Jamming) aircraft. My job was basically to train the Army Regular and Warrant Officers for the system deployment and usage and on a engineering level, characterize the antenna patterns on all planes for most effective and efficient usage. To that end I can remember countless hours flying “flat” circles around pylons in the deserts of West Texas at about 1000 ft running antenna patterns. Although the equipment on board was effectively cooled, the cabins were basically at outside temperature (or hotter) and we were forced to wear heavy Nomac flying suits and helmets. Needless to say, these “flat” circles, 100+ degree hot temperatures and constant up and down movement made for a very challenging flying environment. More than once, I or one of my people had to clean up the operating position after a flight (if you make a mess, you clean it up!). Finally I got some of the “sea sick” pills the Astronauts used and ate them like candy! Oh well, when you are young, you can handle just about anything!
Cool video! I always like to see the old military boat anchors... I am glad I never acquired any because I lost almost everything in a wildfire three years ago and losing my commercial transceivers was heart breaking enough! Thanks!
@goinghomesomeday1 Yeah, it has been a soul crushing experience... A fair bit of incompetence among local "authorities" was to blame as well. Thanks for the video! It was fascinating. 73s!
I had one of the Redstarradio 102E/139 sets in the early 2000's. , along with one of the slightly later receivers I obtained from a guy who travelled to China regularly and worked on their phone interchanges as a contractor. The Redstar units had all gone straight into storage after manufacture and at least once in their history were unpacked, checked and then repacked. One of the things included with the radios after the repack was an exact copy of a 260 Simpson multimeter, with all markings in Chinese except for "MADE IN PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA" in big block letters on the back. I should have kept mine, I've never seen another one for sale.
Is there is there a survey type video of USA Vietnam era radio equipment used by or made in USA? I came upon and sold some hard used KWM2As that had no history of use attached but they were all in Southeast Asia when I found them.
Listen to the elders and "don't get fooled again " war sucks. Especially if is someone else's. Give me the good old cold War days anytime. Remember. Semper. Never forget the lost and fallen. I salute you all.
Thanks for the very informative video ! I am a Comm’s guy and love these old radios. I don’t own any except the PRC-152 which I love. My Brother served in the Army in Vietnam . Thank you for your service.
Thanks for this! I have a "Village Radio" from the CIA program made by Hallicrafters. It has Vietnamese writing over all controls, and supposedly had a "self destruct" button that blew a fuse rendering the set inoperable.
...& btw, the ASA Anthem was such a fitting tribute, a great ending & I'll always hope "my WPM is off the charts," becuz, except for some rare exceptions, I've been all CW on HF for many, many years, LOL! de WA4ELW 🇺🇸😀
40:19 this type was very common in the Warsaw Pact countries: R-105d (36-46,1 MHz, 1W), R-108d (28-36,5MHz, 1W), R-109d (24-28,5MHz, 1W), R-114d (20-24,5 MHz, 2W) FM, 1,5 microvolt RX, AFC, russian tubes, 2 pcs 2,4V 24Ah accu. With the whip seen on the picture can reach 6 km officially. You can see the same radio in the film Chernobil, when they are talking to the helicopter from the roof. Obviously developed on the base of Feldfu WW2 German radio. I have some of this.
Came here to say that. The radio could also ba a (rare, earlier) non-D variant, which lacked the the circuitry to control the radio remotely with a field telephone.
Very interesting. Was a dog handler MP who happened to sometimes work just outside one of the ground intercept locations for a short while. I often wondered why VC never put rockets into those stations or the forward scatter com antennas near the perimeters which called in gunships on them. (They put rockets into my bunker but nothing important there) I never saw the aircraft RDF units or knew they were there. After collecting a purple heart, I was transferred to HQ signal corp where everyone was OJT (but I mostly knew procedures from ham and MARS radio). We could sometimes hear the enemy without searching for them (close freq and physically near to us) and even be jammed by them (so I made a class on procedures I taught on the air so at least we could QSY for QRM). They (NVA/VC) only seemed attracted to voice networks for jamming ignoring RTTY (no CW nets existed on US side I knew of...operated with one station CW one time and it was excruciatingly slow). We reported jamming but never heard anything back.
I was an FRO in the 4th Recon Btn, Charley Co 4th MarDiv USMCR. We used an ANGR 9 on one drill....thought they might need the Morse feature, but thankfully the brass abandoned the idea--it took 3 guys to haul the damned thing; my Radio was a PRC 10, fairly heavy & strapped to a backboard....I think it was replaced by the PRC 25 in the Nam.
This was a great lecture. The speaker probably already knows that translating Chinese text is a lot easier now than it used to be. He could just give it to his grandkids and they could whip out their smartphones and have it sorted.
I know it was created for the movie, but one of the spookiest things I’ve ever heard was the short-wave radio recording played by Harrison Ford in the General’s Trailer scene in *_Apocalypse Now_*
With all the use of HF and even VHF during vietnam, hobbiest around the world must have had a ball intercepting some of these broadcasts that were sure to be bouncing around the earth.
While you were on the perimeter at LB I was firing artillery from FSB Grunt II, just south of Bien Hoa.....hope I didn't keep you up at night! Welcome home.
Very interesting matter sir! I always wondered about the sort of equipment they used. Btw the French had the ER40 set too, which was a copy of the British WS88. It uses 7-pin picos like the 1T4 (Euro equivalents) and 40s technology throughout and can communicate on 4 fixed channels with the BC-1000. It was issued to paratroopers, the guys that got defeated at the infamous battle of Dien Bien Phu! If you're having trouble understand German texts, I might be able to help. Just give a shoutout and I'll contact you or give my e-mailadres. I'm going to dive through this video again with more time to focus on my hands. Regards, Thomas
Interesting:: At 26:30 into the film, you mention that a radio was. undergoing exploitatiojn. I see what looks like an incandescent bulb in a ceramic socket connected by open conductors. I wonder if this was being used as a MF dummy load? (By the way, I immediately ordered a used hard cover edition of the book "Unlikely Warriors: The Army Security Agency's Secret War in Vietnam 1961-1973". I was at Than Son Nhut in 1969-1970 working in airborne electronic countermeasures.)
I was both a ditty bopper and Duffy in Vietnam. Mostly ARDF. I remember one occasion when special force brought in a transmitter and receiver they had captured based on info we provided. They were both in two 7.62 ammo boxes powered by groups of AA batteries. VC home built. Your description of an ARDF operation was pretty weak.
My dad was in the Navy and he said there were nuclear bombs on an aircraft sitting on the deck of his aircraft carrier off the coast of Vietnam. This was in the early 1960's. He had clearance and saw the bombs. It was guarded by an armed Marine.
I stumbled upon this video looking for some very specific info on the NVA. I don’t know anything about radios but I’ve always been interested in the basic operation of radios, which is still a mystery to me lol Anyways I couldn’t help but think what the difference is with all these radios. Like what’s the technology that separates them and the features that some have and others don’t. Could you make a video on that? But in an extreme laymen’s way
I knew a member of the US 199th Light Infantry brigade whos platoon killed a PLA ( CHINESE) Officer and several either VC or NVA including a radio communication unit. All were told they would be court martialed and 🎉 to secrecy to never disclose the presence if the PLA Officer.
So how did they send vietnamese by morse? They just dropped all the diacritical marks and hoped for the best on the other end or they had extra symbols for the marks?
Loved the personal references to your time in Vietnam!
I was at Long Binh in 1967-1968 During the TET of 68. I was on guard duty when the Ammo Dump blew up. After that things got real for a while. I was with the 169th Engineers stationed at Long Binh. But that night I wasn't running a dozer but a M-60. My MOS changed pretty quick. Welcome Home Brother. I knew where the commo shack was there because I also liked Radio. I am now a Extra Class and still like the hobby,
In 1973 just out highschool I worked for a surplus company in Sacramento, CA. that dealt mostly in telephone equipment. Vietnam was winding down and huge amounts of surplus was being repatriated to the US. Surplus is bought by the lot, you bid on what is in the taped off area so many times my boss ended up with a lot of equipment he had no use for other than to be stripped of parts and sold for scrap. I had excess to many types of field radio equipment that my boss would have just given to me, whole kits sometimes with large field antennas with deadmen and all! No matter how beat up a crate of surplus equipment was there was always some new or like new stuff thrown in. Occasionally the G.I.s would throw in captured equipment in with the US equipment and sent it home where it ended up in my boss's scrapyard. At that time, I had absolutely no interest in radio, that was a hobby that developed years later. The things I could have had!
Сколько возможностей ты упустил!...
P
Missed oportunity 😢
Thank you so much for the time and hard work putting this video together. Here in the UK we were able to buy ex WW2 surplus radio gear around the 1960s. I'm 71 now, and way back in 1966 I was like a kid in a sweet shop! There was so much radio gear on sale, with one of the best shops only 20 miles away from my home. I bought a British made 31 set. I'm sure this model was a direct copy of a US transceiver made by Motorola. I have no idea of the model. It was a backpack radio, FM low band VHF in the 50Mhz range. I single-handedly blacked out the BBC 6pm news over the whole of my village! Everybody knew me as the kid who messed with radios, and within a few minutes there was quite a crowd hammering on our door. That was the day I realised BBC 1 was on the self same frequency I'd fired up on. Happy days, they were!
Fantastic talk. Thoroughly enjoyed it as a receiving ham here in UK. Thak you for posting.
RVN 69-70, 05D20 (DF) at Det 2 (18 people) 330th RRC on Rt 1 outside Cam Rahn Bay. We received a unit citation and several were awarded an ARCOM. We were never told what we did to earn them other than in very general terms. After watching your video, now I have some idea how important our duties were and how they fit into the larger picture. I had no idea ASA/RR provided such a large portion of usable intelligence to the command structure. Thank you for your work and service.
If you have a German documentation, I mean, think about that for a moment. We are still 86 millions here, not counting Austria, Swiss, Liechtenstein and all the other parts of the world, where they still speak a lot of German. Actually here in Europe there are more people speaking German than English or any other language. It is quite funny, that I never found anyone asking any of us, if we could lend a hand in translating it. Because, usually, we do speak a good enough English by school education. And with Google lens it's also possible to translate Chinese handbooks for someone, not speaking the language at all. The German language here has spread into all neighboring countries, because of foreign workers going back or tourists. So you'll find whole villages in Spain and the island of Mallorca speaking a lot of German. Whole communities in Portugal are speaking German and whole villages in Turkey, at least a second language. Well there are disputes ongoing if they are speaking German in Austria, that's for sure. Also the whole tourist part of Poland and Czech are very much German speaking.
Translation from German? Just ask. We're still here and pretty much alive. :-)
I can easily read Fraktur, what you call Gothic and even something no Millanial or GenZ can: cursive. I will just have problems with German shorthand and the pre-war Sütterlin handwriting. But I get that done, too. I mean, I translated a book in Dutch to German without speaking a word of Dutch originally, but it's near enough. I can speak Plattdeutsch, so that's the grand-father of most Germanic languages, like Old English is almost the same and English has a lot of their words from there. It's actually easy and not that far away, from the family tree of languages, actually I would not recommend to allow marriage between German and English outside of Alabama or certain parts of Florida.
just ask DE DL7HH
I served in the ASA 509th RRFS at Phu Bai from Dec 1969 thru Nov 70 as a 05H20. As such, I have many memories of using a R390 both in Vietnam and upon my return to then serve 1 1/2 years at Vent Hill Farms in Virginia doing the same morse code intercept mission. Thanks for the memories !
Excellent presentation. I have been a ham for over 50 years and an ex squadron communication officer in the 60's. I also collect old radios and try to repair most of them. Collection goes back to the Korean war. Thank you sir for the enjoyable learning experience.
At 49.44 our 8th RRFS (ASA) unit, the largest by far in Vietnam is not even shown on the map either by name or city (Phu Bai). We used the R390. I was there at that time. Proud Vietnam Veteran O5H I Corp/Laos, Phu Bai/Hue/Khe Sanh 67-69 Supporting the Marines and MACV SOG.
Yeah as far as I know the 102E set was made by the PRC back in the start of 50s, it was normally called "大八一" or "Da Ba Yi" type in Chinese , when the transmitter and receiver(type 139) were boxed together. It was first constructed to cope with the Korea war. And when it comes to 1970s the fully transistorized edition called "小八一" or "Xiao Ba Yi" were put into use.
a very, very interesting topic, in fact, one I'd often thought about but was never able to find much info about until now! I've never seen anything posted like this video, the most encompassing, all- inclusive vid one could ever hope for, not to mention the great narration, which was so interesting, v-e-r-y knowledgeable & even pleasant to listen to; & it goes without saying, thank YOU & all others who served our country & 73 de WA4ELW in TN 🇺🇸 dit dit 😃!🇺🇸
Hoa Kỳ một nước lớn.cung lạ la một nước có ban tay mau thích đánh ai thì đánh.gan ghép nước đó về nhân quyền. Tự do.toi la người VN bao nhiêu năm chiến tranh đã qua cho đến bây giờ nói về nhân quyền làm con người được tu do sống. thì trên thế giới này VN la số một OK
Absolutely fascinating and well delivered.
Super presentation - thank you!
6:16, RU-21 Airborne Radio Direction Finding (ARDF) Aircraft. If at Danang then in 1972, then with the 138th. An Army Security Agency unit.
Thanks for your service Sir. Nice informative video. KE4TDG. 73
Oh man this is the 1st time I've heard someone mention the Unlikely Warriors. My dad flew Army ASA for many years Thank you for everything you did and this video. Much love to all!
Fascinating treatise. I missed serving active duty Draft #256 but worked as a contractor on huey cobra and RF 4 flight simulators as a civilian. I loved hearing your brief history of ASA as I had no idea they existed. My experience was with the company and no such agency. Got my ticket in 83 and now like to play with old Collins S line stuff on HF. Thanks for the very pleasant and interesting video.
I have a Vietnam War bring back 702D radio, for sure it's been thru alot
I had the opportunity to use the PRC-25 while on patrols with 3rd Recon Battalion. On some patrols we would only use handset clicks to reply to the base check-in request. I now believe that it was for the purpose of avoiding the triagulation of our position by VPA radio operators.
That's very interesting.
👍🇺🇸 wealth of knowledge and memories, Thank you…USA Vet 71’ - 73’. 👍🇺🇸
After completing my tour in late 1969 I came back to the states only to again join the ASA as a contractor developing and deploying the latest version (at that time) of a new system codenamed CEFIRM LEADER. As I remember it 50 years later, the system consisted of a combination of 9 (Civilian type) King and Queen Airs; two dedicated to Command and Control, four (HF) Direction finders and four Active (Jamming) aircraft. My job was basically to train the Army Regular and Warrant Officers for the system deployment and usage and on a engineering level, characterize the antenna patterns on all planes for most effective and efficient usage.
To that end I can remember countless hours flying “flat” circles around pylons in the deserts of West Texas at about 1000 ft running antenna patterns. Although the equipment on board was effectively cooled, the cabins were basically at outside temperature (or hotter) and we were forced to wear heavy Nomac flying suits and helmets. Needless to say, these “flat” circles, 100+ degree hot temperatures and constant up and down movement made for a very challenging flying environment. More than once, I or one of my people had to clean up the operating position after a flight (if you make a mess, you clean it up!). Finally I got some of the “sea sick” pills the Astronauts used and ate them like candy! Oh well, when you are young, you can handle just about anything!
Cool video! I always like to see the old military boat anchors... I am glad I never acquired any because I lost almost everything in a wildfire three years ago and losing my commercial transceivers was heart breaking enough! Thanks!
@goinghomesomeday1 Yeah, it has been a soul crushing experience... A fair bit of incompetence among local "authorities" was to blame as well. Thanks for the video! It was fascinating. 73s!
Great oral history. Thank you.
Excellent presentation.
I was a 31V with a PRC-77 cutting into my shoulders
I had one of the Redstarradio 102E/139 sets in the early 2000's. , along with one of the slightly later receivers I obtained from a guy who travelled to China regularly and worked on their phone interchanges as a contractor. The Redstar units had all gone straight into storage after manufacture and at least once in their history were unpacked, checked and then repacked. One of the things included with the radios after the repack was an exact copy of a 260 Simpson multimeter, with all markings in Chinese except for "MADE IN PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA" in big block letters on the back. I should have kept mine, I've never seen another one for sale.
Is there is there a survey type video of USA Vietnam era radio equipment used by or made in USA? I came upon and sold some hard used KWM2As that had no history of use attached but they were all in Southeast Asia when I found them.
Listen to the elders and "don't get fooled again " war sucks. Especially if is someone else's. Give me the good old cold War days anytime. Remember. Semper. Never forget the lost and fallen. I salute you all.
Thanks for the very informative video ! I am a Comm’s guy and love these old radios. I don’t own any except the PRC-152 which I love. My Brother served in the Army in Vietnam . Thank you for your service.
I was in the ASA 1968-1971 😊 spent 9 months in Berlin then 2 years at Udorn Thailand at the 7thRRFS😊 I was an O5h20 ditty bopper 😊😊😊😊😊
Very interesting I love radio history and collect radios
Thanks for this! I have a "Village Radio" from the CIA program made by Hallicrafters. It has Vietnamese writing over all controls, and supposedly had a "self destruct" button that blew a fuse rendering the set inoperable.
Watching from Da Nang Vietnam
Are you a pow
@@dianemiller5938 no just traveling and into history
We had the R-392 in our TRQ-23 DF and intercept sets. (332nd ASA, Korea 1979-1982).
...& btw, the ASA Anthem was such a fitting tribute, a great ending & I'll always hope "my WPM is off the charts," becuz, except for some rare exceptions, I've been all CW on HF for many, many years, LOL! de WA4ELW 🇺🇸😀
40:19 this type was very common in the Warsaw Pact countries: R-105d (36-46,1 MHz, 1W), R-108d (28-36,5MHz, 1W), R-109d (24-28,5MHz, 1W), R-114d (20-24,5 MHz, 2W) FM, 1,5 microvolt RX, AFC, russian tubes, 2 pcs 2,4V 24Ah accu. With the whip seen on the picture can reach 6 km officially. You can see the same radio in the film Chernobil, when they are talking to the helicopter from the roof. Obviously developed on the base of Feldfu WW2 German radio. I have some of this.
Came here to say that. The radio could also ba a (rare, earlier) non-D variant, which lacked the the circuitry to control the radio remotely with a field telephone.
Very interesting. Was a dog handler MP who happened to sometimes work just outside one of the ground intercept locations for a short while. I often wondered why VC never put rockets into those stations or the forward scatter com antennas near the perimeters which called in gunships on them. (They put rockets into my bunker but nothing important there) I never saw the aircraft RDF units or knew they were there. After collecting a purple heart, I was transferred to HQ signal corp where everyone was OJT (but I mostly knew procedures from ham and MARS radio). We could sometimes hear the enemy without searching for them (close freq and physically near to us) and even be jammed by them (so I made a class on procedures I taught on the air so at least we could QSY for QRM). They (NVA/VC) only seemed attracted to voice networks for jamming ignoring RTTY (no CW nets existed on US side I knew of...operated with one station CW one time and it was excruciatingly slow). We reported jamming but never heard anything back.
I was an FRO in the 4th Recon Btn, Charley Co 4th MarDiv USMCR. We used an ANGR 9 on one drill....thought they might need the Morse feature, but thankfully the brass abandoned the idea--it took 3 guys to haul the damned thing; my Radio was a PRC 10, fairly heavy & strapped to a backboard....I think it was replaced by the PRC 25 in the Nam.
This was a great lecture. The speaker probably already knows that translating Chinese text is a lot easier now than it used to be. He could just give it to his grandkids and they could whip out their smartphones and have it sorted.
this is so cool, I'm glad I found your channel
I know it was created for the movie, but one of the spookiest things I’ve ever heard was the short-wave radio recording played by Harrison Ford in the General’s Trailer scene in *_Apocalypse Now_*
Wow! Great video! Thank you.
With all the use of HF and even VHF during vietnam, hobbiest around the world must have had a ball intercepting some of these broadcasts that were sure to be bouncing around the earth.
While you were on the perimeter at LB I was firing artillery from FSB Grunt II, just south of Bien Hoa.....hope I didn't keep you up at night! Welcome home.
Very interesting matter sir! I always wondered about the sort of equipment they used. Btw the French had the ER40 set too, which was a copy of the British WS88. It uses 7-pin picos like the 1T4 (Euro equivalents) and 40s technology throughout and can communicate on 4 fixed channels with the BC-1000. It was issued to paratroopers, the guys that got defeated at the infamous battle of Dien Bien Phu! If you're having trouble understand German texts, I might be able to help. Just give a shoutout and I'll contact you or give my e-mailadres.
I'm going to dive through this video again with more time to focus on my hands.
Regards,
Thomas
Interesting:: At 26:30 into the film, you mention that a radio was. undergoing exploitatiojn. I see what looks like an incandescent bulb in a ceramic socket connected by open conductors. I wonder if this was being used as a MF dummy load? (By the way, I immediately ordered a used hard cover edition of the book "Unlikely Warriors: The Army Security Agency's Secret War in Vietnam 1961-1973". I was at Than Son Nhut in 1969-1970 working in airborne electronic countermeasures.)
gotta wonder what kind of RF exposure those soldiers backpacking the PRC-25/77s endured...
Fascinating.
I was both a ditty bopper and Duffy in Vietnam. Mostly ARDF. I remember one occasion when special force brought in a transmitter and receiver they had captured based on info we provided. They were both in two 7.62 ammo boxes powered by groups of AA batteries. VC home built. Your description of an ARDF operation was pretty weak.
My dad was in the Navy and he said there were nuclear bombs on an aircraft sitting on the deck of his aircraft carrier off the coast of Vietnam. This was in the early 1960's. He had clearance and saw the bombs. It was guarded by an armed Marine.
Total crap
I stumbled upon this video looking for some very specific info on the NVA. I don’t know anything about radios but I’ve always been interested in the basic operation of radios, which is still a mystery to me lol
Anyways I couldn’t help but think what the difference is with all these radios.
Like what’s the technology that separates them and the features that some have and others don’t.
Could you make a video on that? But in an extreme laymen’s way
NICE VIDEO
I knew a member of the US 199th Light Infantry brigade whos platoon killed a PLA ( CHINESE) Officer and several either VC or NVA including a radio communication unit. All were told they would be court martialed and 🎉 to secrecy to never disclose the presence if the PLA Officer.
Do you have any WW2 Japanese army radios ?
this was a great kc2kdq
Are there any good civilian radios that are designed as military man pack style radios?
Love your CW Muzak to my old shell like ears. ☮️ 🤙 fm the land of the Vk6 & 🦘
Respect
So how did they send vietnamese by morse? They just dropped all the diacritical marks and hoped for the best on the other end or they had extra symbols for the marks?
The "Lightning fast chicken pluckers"
O5H-20 ASA. 1971-3. Chu lai. Phu bai. UDORN
This is cool as shit, not gonna lie
Was it his alter
Оказывается северные Корейцы и Вьетконг пользовались только Китайскими радиостанциями ? Интересно.
73 !
Very good story. WD5GYG
30 year old C rats. Yummy.
OMG You are in Charlotte? Wanna be my Elmer? Im near there and just started getting into ham radio.
Buon giorno ho nella mia collezione una UR 392 del 1952 1° modello😊 perfetta e funzionante da' museo riceve molto bene ricevitore fantastico!!!