CrabbyMilton
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Years ago, I saw a list of frequencies that were deemed to be in use for FRS type radios for use by military people. Does anyone know about these?
Military "FRS"
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Thought I would find it in the RR Wiki, but nothing came up in the search. Here's a link to a list on another site:
http://www.freqofnature.com/index.php?m=Common&p=Intra-Squad Radio
iMONITOR
Silent Key
I had read something about this several years ago, but it was for training purposes only. They were using standard off the shelf FRS radios, on the normal FRS frequencies. FRS is FRS.
My buddies son who has been in and out of Iraq several times said it's common for the guys to have FRS/GMRS radios over there. Their particular favorite is the Garmin GMRS radio with GPS mapping, and locater features.
My buddies son who has been in and out of Iraq several times said it's common for the guys to have FRS/GMRS radios over there. Their particular favorite is the Garmin GMRS radio with GPS mapping, and locater features.
rfradioconsult
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Icom has provided a military version of an FRS radio IC-4008M to the military called the Intra Squad Radio (ISR) that provides 14 channels in the 390 MHz band.
CrabbyMilton
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Thank You very kindly. I just couldn't think of the name of that segment or the freq. range. There's next to no military activity where I live(Milwaukee, WI.) but I will try it if I'm near a military base.
No, but 380 to 400 MHz is now primarily DoD land-mobile use rather than aviation. There is trunking as well as conventional use in that band. The 406-420 MHz band is still federal and military land mobile with both trunking and conventional stuff.
- Chris
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iMONITOR
Silent Key
nexus
Member
During Katrina and the 2 or 3 months that the National Guard were down here all of them that I saw all had off the shelf FRS radios clipped to their harnesses. I know that people have also been mailing them to soldiers over in Iraq and Afghanistan since the beginning of the war it seems.
SIG-INT its NFM... the DoD 380mhz P25 System.... http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=5341
SIG-INT its NFM... the DoD 380mhz P25 System.... http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=5341
The ISR radios are pretty much basic FRS radios on different freqs. From a CARMA post a while back I found this list of freqs:
01) 396.875 MHz
02) 397.125 MHz
03) 397.175 MHz
04) 397.375 MHz
05) 397.425 MHz
06) 397.475 MHz
07) 397.550 MHz
08) 397.950 MHz
09) 398.050 MHz
10) 399.425 MHz
11) 399.475 MHz
12) 399.725 MHz
13) 399.925 MHz
14) 399.975 MHz
N
N_Jay
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And lower power.
I am not sure about that, the way I heard it was that the ISR were the same half-watt and narrow bandwidth that the FRS radios were.
I don't know for sure, but it sounded pretty plausible to me. Is it possible you are thinking GMRS (5 watts on some shared freqs with FRS)?
N
N_Jay
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A was under the impression they were intentionally very low power for very short distances.
Hence, why some liked FRS radios better.
However, I can not find definitive information either way.
The CAP also uses the Icom IC-4008M in the 390MHz band.
prcguy
prcguy
Wilrobnson
Rock or Something
I've heard the ISR units being used at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center near Bridgeport, CA, and Chris P and I logged one of the channels being used at McChord AFB during the August airshow.
rescuecomm
Member
The radios N_Jay is refering to are the Icom F3S units originally provided as a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) short range squad radio. Some chairwarmer in the procurement process decided that since secure encryption was not available, that the transmitters would be limited to 100 milliwatts (1/10 of the FRS), thus limiting the range that eavedroppers could listen in. The radio were so short ranged they were practically useless. Thus the commerically available FRS and GMRS radios continued to be used in the MiddleEast theater. The newer Icom F43GS soldier intercom package included a 4 watt 380-430 mhz radio with a rolling code encryption unit and a headset as a replacement for the 100 milliwatt F3S VHF. It would have to be more effective but some people questioned the use of rechargeable batteries. Depending on the operational area, there may not be anywhere to charge it up. The F43GS's alkaline case only takes 6 AAA's and the transmit power and time is reduced. The DOD (Army) ordered about 33,000 of them in 2004 but I don't know how the soldiers liked them or if they are still in use. The news pictures I have seen from Iraq/Afghanistan seemed to show Motorola COTS speaker mics on the web gear so infrastructure build up might be allowing repeater sites and trunking systems to improve military communications at least in the urban areas. I presume that the newer millitary hand held radios coming on line are being issued to the field units.
Bob
Bob
N
N_Jay
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When a friend in the Navy told me that some military personnel were using FRS radios I thought he was only referring to the Master of Arms training he took at Lackland AFB this last spring or was confusing FRS with the ISR. When he explained to me that FRS use included ground troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, I was very surprised. He said he had never heard of the ISR. The posts on this thread are very interesting!
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