[Antennas] Antennas in Iraq

2003年3月26日 02:42:56 -0500

For those of you watching the war news on the cable channels, see how many
antenna types you can identify... they're everywhere.
> HF verticals on trucks, APCs/Bradleys, and Tanks
 (in WWII, only the commander's tank or track had multiple antennas.
 Today it's really an information war with a lot of the comm being sent
as data)
> dipoles on buildings all over the place
> a lot of low mounted dipoles and horizontal loops on 'local' buildings.
 Seems strange to see an adobe style hut with multiple antennas
> The dipoles seems to be about 30-40' per leg -- making it in the a
5-6mHz -- a
 rather common for military HF. Most of the Middle East's old comm gear
was
 supplied by the Russians in the 70s. And 4-7mHz were common for Russian
 Army tactical comm.
> yagis / beams -- lots of them
> short whips - probably short range uhf on vehicles for company level comm
?
HF has been the mainstay of military command communications ever since WWII.
It's only in the last few years that satellite comm - mostly command post
to command post and ships - has been plainly evident. I believe I saw some
sat setups in the assembly areas in Kuwait and quite a few in the newsclips
from Qatar near the HQ. However, the battlefield comm seems to be lacking
the satcom setups as they are probably too time consuming to get up before
you're ready to move. In an armored group, you DO want to stay on the move
as much as possible. "A rolling tank gathers no HEAT".
Quite a few of the Marines have the helmet mounted radios w/boom mike & ear
piece. I overheard one marine Sgt yell "get on your ISR" during the running
gun battle in Om Qasar just as the firing started. While being interviewed
by the 'imbedded reporter', he was also talking on his helmet mounted radio
while taking rounds from the building under attack.. talk about live
action.
I'm focused on the communications gear and my brother and two son-in-was,
who were all ground-pounders, only see the 'neat automatic weapons'...
whatever floats your boat.
------------
For those of you who have the yen to fire some really big guns, go to the
Chinese Army firing range on the way to the Great Wall northwest of Beijing.
For rather reasonable amounts you can fire semi and full auto rifles,
machine guns, recoilless rifles, a bazooka like weapon, and even some RPGs.
I spent an afternoon there in 1993 and only blew through 150ドル US firing at
plywood tank, truck, and building targets (sorry, no 'man shiloetts').. If
I had to buy that ammo alone in the states, It probably would have cost me
about 2,500ドル.
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