New Harris HF Radios

[flaw101]

"SOCOM forces obtained communications that met or exceeded capabilities offered by legacy tactical satellite systems during the demonstration,"

Harris Corporation Showcases Emerging Capabilities in High-Frequency Tactical Communications - WSJ.com

 

[PACNWDude]

If I could have made off with it.

If I thought I could have made off with them, I would have "re-allocated" a Harris PRC-117F or G and a PRC-150 HF when I left the service.
Very nice set of radios that can give you the ability to talk "DC to daylight".
My guess is this will trickle down to the consumer market over time. The commercial, toned down version of the PRC-152 can be had easily in the Unity handheld. (I know they have a green rugged version of the 152 too, but it is a lot harder to come by.)
I just hope Harris and Thales give Motorola a run for their market share. Keeps the innovation going, and drives the price point down a bit.

 

[prcguy]

The current US PRC-117F, G and PRC-150 will never legitimately make it to the surplus market due to the embedded Type 1 crypto. The previous series PRC-117, 117A, 117D(E), PRC-138, Falcon II handhelds, etc are currently available surplus and do not contain the no-no crypto.

Problem is these fairly modern radios are in big demand and go for equally big prices.
prcguy

If I thought I could have made off with them, I would have "re-allocated" a Harris PRC-117F or G and a PRC-150 HF when I left the service.
Very nice set of radios that can give you the ability to talk "DC to daylight".
My guess is this will trickle down to the consumer market over time. The commercial, toned down version of the PRC-152 can be had easily in the Unity handheld. (I know they have a green rugged version of the 152 too, but it is a lot harder to come by.)
I just hope Harris and Thales give Motorola a run for their market share. Keeps the innovation going, and drives the price point down a bit.

 

[ff-medic]

"SOCOM forces obtained communications that met or exceeded capabilities offered by legacy tactical satellite systems during the demonstration,"

Harris Corporation Showcases Emerging Capabilities in High-Frequency Tactical Communications - WSJ.com

From someone whom used to work Military Communications on active duty and in the reserves, this beats satellite communications how?

Encrypted satellite radio communications and burst transmitters.......broadcasting point to point, a message sent in a second or less from one satellite to another, is less likely to be intercepted than using HF tactical communications. SOCOM uses radios, using only the absolute power needed to get the signal from one point to its destination. Using relay messages to get the radio message from point A to point B - So they don't ...as the saying goes...broadcast to the world. Satellite communications ( and in some cases burst transmitters ) is very - very common in SOCOM and Intelligence units.....at least from where I come from. The best way to get a radio message from point A to point B ; using the method that commits to the least likely chance of interception..... is used ; HENCE satellite radios.

There are manpack radios in the military ( no secret ) that can broadcast on multiple bands.

I cannot speak for a lot of SOCOM units, but I can speak for U.S. Army Special Forces and a few U.S. Air Force Special Ops units - In that they trust ONLY themselves. Smart thinking and rational...especially when Special Operations wrote the book on not only operations security, but communications security.

Smart rational in trusting only yourself and your IMMEDFIATE co-workers. When your life, the success of the mission, and your extraction back to friendly terriroty is paramount and at risks.......TRUST is everything

HF tactical comms on the battlefield? HF tactical comms on the battle field for primary radio comms, involving Special Operations? :roll:


FF- Medic !!

 

[PACNWDude]

I just retired from an AFSOC unit and we did have a limited number of Harris PRC-150 HF radios for certain missions. Usually they were for use for BLOS for forward air control in an area where we controlled the hilltops and satcom was overused or bandwidth was in short supply.

On my last overseas trip, I was with a Navy element and we had to go DAMA on a PSC-5 instead of dedicated channel. Then when that didn't work we switched to HF.

The military still uses HF as a backup to satcom quite often.

During the 2010 Olympic Games, military JISCC packages were used for interoperability with Federal and State agencies. This package included an older Motorola HF and a data modem and ALE module. This was to back up the satcom terminals if they failed. One sites AVL antenna broke and the site came up on HF until it was repaired.

 

[mancow]

How does DAMA exactly work? Is it like trunking and it grants a free channel?

 

[PACNWDude]

DAMA satcom and HF usage by SF/SOF.

DAMA is Demand Assigned Multiple Access, it is like trunking for satcom networks.

SOCOM units and teams tend to use dedicated channels instead (they get their own channel for that mission) and less critical users usually use DAMA to lessen the strain on the satellite network.

If bandwidth is really scarce, they fall back to HF radios, as a backup to the satcom systems.

I have seen a lot of rumors on this site about never using a Thales PRC-148 in Satcom mode. Well that even happens at times.

But the overall backup to most satcom systems in the military, is some form of HF network.

Go to commercial ships at sea, and their backup to the Fleet77/Broadband Inmarsat and Iridium units, is still HF.

 

[mancow]

DAMA is Demand Assigned Multiple Access, it is like trunking for satcom networks.

SOCOM units and teams tend to use dedicated channels instead (they get their own channel for that mission) and less critical users usually use DAMA to lessen the strain on the satellite network.

If bandwidth is really scarce, they fall back to HF radios, as a backup to the satcom systems.

I have seen a lot of rumors on this site about never using a Thales PRC-148 in Satcom mode. Well that even happens at times.

But the overall backup to most satcom systems in the military, is some form of HF network.

Go to commercial ships at sea, and their backup to the Fleet77/Broadband Inmarsat and Iridium units, is still HF.

Interesting stuff. Thanks.