Army Radio Ptarmigan in BAOR A brief on SCRA 1989

[@peterbennett2301]

I worked on the development of this at Plessey Taplow Court in the 1970's

[@davidbarnard1126]

Aaargh the memories.... 1982 in the middle of Salisbury Plain, me and Ballantyne (RIP Bud) kicking shit out of the boxes to get them working correctly.

[@sticks5614]

Seeing this was a real blast from the past! I remember when we were issued this in '88 or '89 and they put it in my landy, quite handy thou when we snapped a landy gear-stick in second on ex whilst on the move and just phoned ahead to RHQ whilst driving down the road and told 'em we were making a detour via them for the REME workshop to fix it. Nowadays you wouldn't think twice about it but back then that was unique without having to code it through Clansman back at the command post.

[@kjamison5951]

This takes me back to 1991, on exercise, in Belgium. Living in a field, nicknamed the ‘Mushroom Squad’ with KITD and FOBS on the little cardboard tags we hid behind our cap badges.

[@terryatkinson7255]

Still in use when I left in 06

[@MrRussLock]

worked on this from 85-88 at 1 Div, Radio relay, out of the way and loved it

[@ArmourEmpire]

Same here. Was in scra central at 1adsr in 80s

[@Stanly-Stud]

Not real soldiering is it.

[@bigjohn697791]

I joined in 1999 we were still using SCRA Up on till 2004 ish then we where on Bowman to No Man lol...

[@daveholt777]

I was a radio relay operator during this time

[@nigeltomlinson306]

Work with this for 10'yrs. Great system. Bomb proof

[@glennmacdonald5475]

Unbelievable it ever worked - Not without pulling one’s hair from the head!

[@GrayHuman]

That took me back to working SW051 on exercises in Germany. So many hours sat in that horrible box.

[@wolf2483]

Atleast we had aircon in our switch :))

[@supernanotech1]

This is so rad I would love to upgrade and mess with this stuff. I bet if you used it today no one would even know it was working like short wave stuff

[@IRISHSALTMINER61]

Nice to know radio ops are just bypassed in the event of direct contact with the enemy....

[@unixnerd23]

Be sure to carry small change........

[@andyspokes1652]

SCRA was just an early mobile phone, hardly ever worked always had flashing green light loads in tech workshop waiting for repair.

[@robincook9592]

love the use of the land line when the system dosent work, no much use in a tactical enviroment. just tell the enemy i lost coms with my comander were is the nearest land line.

[@gregorybrennan8539]

Wait to use the phone because there was a Russian soldier ahead of you calling his CTA or whatever.

[@adelarsen9776]

"We're being shelled" - learn to be patient.......

[@sbreheny]

Was there an alternative system or was this the only radio comms in most vehicles? This seems incredibly limiting in a dynamic combat system. It would seem to me that in such case it would be much better to have a "net" type operation where there is a channel where everyone can hear everyone else and you have a net control station which grants permission to each user to speak when they request, based on priority.

[@andyspokes1652]

Armoured command vehicle carried the SCRA Terminal plus a secure Clansman VHF 353 radio and an insecure Clansman HF 321 radio, some of our panzers also carried HF manpacks as a back up.

[@andyspokes1652]

@stanly stud actually smart boy with ptarmigan installed it was classed as a 436, having having commanded driven and maintained one of these for 5 years during the mid eighties I do know a little bit about the subject and people in the know and who were there call them Panzer's.

[@glennmacdonald5475]

This was my bread and butter… No use today though!

[@tattyheid7279]

This looks so dated, I remember working with its predecessor (Bruin). Groundbreaking system, I think we've gone backwards since it went out of service. Good to see an old pal in the video (alright Tes?).

[@miles2378]

the modern Software defined radio gives you the entire machine in the palm of your hand.

[@TwoFourCharlie007]

TN40 RAF wildenrath 21 sigs happy days

[@emwavemhz]

I would say a good system. However, I would back it up with HF as HF never has a busy signal.

[@terrymac9570]

30 years out of date?

[@OldNavajoTricks]

Nowadays they just whatsapp it lol.