INTER-SQUAD RADIO (ISR) KITS FOR GROUND TEAMS:

The first of several Ground Team Radio Deployment Kits are ready to distribute throughout the wing to units with qualified Ground Teams based upon information from the unit's inventory on CEMS and personnel readiness on their Ohio Wing Form 17s submitted to the wing Emergency Services department. The "kits" may be of one of two varieties, either with or without a VHF handheld radio, but all will have five Icom 4008M handheld ISR radios.

WHAT IS PART OF THE "KIT"?

The "kits" will be furnished as radios only (the VHF handheld will have a charger and power supply). Wing Communications does not have a budget sufficient to supply cases for the "kits," but an excellent choice for a kit box is available from Sears called an underseat truck box for $4.99 (regular price). The underseat truck box is the only one on the shelf at $4.99 regular price, and an image of the kit with box is available by clicking this link (coming soon). Some form of "kit" box will be required to make the "kit" deployable for missions and exercises.

WHAT IS NOT PART OF THE "KIT"?

National Headquarters supplied the ISR radios as a radio and vinyl case - no batteries or chargers. The ISRs operate on three AA batteries, either alkaline or rechargeable. The unit will be responsible for purchasing and maintaining batteries, but when responding to funded missions and exercises, it is suggested that the first stop enroute to the search area (at least on exercises) will be to Wal-Mart or some other nominal price retailer for alkaline batteries, and save the receipt for your CAPF108. Communications costs are reimbursable on funded missions and exercises, and NHQ both (1) expects these ISRs to be used, and (2) purposely omitted batteries - so please advise me of any CAPF108 not reimbursed for battery costs. I suggest it will be UNlikely units will receive reimbursement for rechargeable batteries, as those should last beyond the timeframe of the immediate activity (mission or exercise). The reason the batteries and chargers were not purchased, was that the Ni-Cad battery pack and charger for the ISRs cost as much as the radios themselves - it was either buy half as many with battery packs or the full amount and let the unit furnish batteries. If any unit scheduled to receive the kits finds that unworkable, I can't fix it - but, there are other units who can likely somehow find the resources.

WHO WILL BE ISSUED THE "KITS"?

The Ground Team Radio Deployment Kits will be distributed throughout the wing to units with qualified Ground Teams based upon information from the unit's inventory on CEMS and personnel readiness on their Ohio Wing Form 17s submitted to the wing Emergency Services department. Several Ohio units have failed to submit OWF17s, leaving no basis to justify issuance of the radio equipment - or at least the lowest priority. If your unit has not submitted an accurate OWF17 to the Wing ES department, it would be in the unit's interest to do so as soon as possible.

RESTRICTIONS ON ISSUANCE

The "kits" will be furnished to units - not signed out to individuals. The radios must be available to responding ground teams, no matter who responds to the mission - and radios issued to individuals are only available if that member is available for the mission. Units will have to develop a plan to respond to missions by stopping at the meeting site to pick up the "kit" when responding. "Kits" may not be stored in the unit vehicle for security reasons, but more importantly for temperature reasons - batteries do not handle freezing weather nor high summer temperatures well. Any reported losses due to theft must be accompanied by a copy of a filed police report to avoid unit liability for reimbursement. The unit Commander is responsible for the kit, once issued.

MAINTAINING THE "KITS"

When preparing and maintaining the kits, remember to store the batteries for the ISRs in the kit box - not in the radios. A leaking battery will likely destroy the radio. If rechargeable batteries are used, or the kit has a VHF handheld, remember to develop a plan to see the batteries are charged and ready to use for mission/exercise response. The battery for the VHF handheld may be stored attached to the radio, if recharged

RESTRICTIONS ON USE

The ISRs may be used with functional callsigns (Ground Team Leader, Ground Team 2, Ground Team 5, etc), for any official unit ACTIVITY. Activity can include a mission, an exercise, a training net, a disaster net, a unit fundraising activity, working a local airshow, a National Cadet Special Activity - even a unit training bivouac. The ISRs may not be used with functional callsigns for administrative uses - e.g., the routine function of holding a regular unit meeting, or use as a fancy intercom. Limited administrative use is legal with tactical (Columbus) callsigns if the radio operators are callsign-qualified, but VHF is a better medium to use for administrative radio traffic.

The ISRs are on government frequencies. The radios look and operate like Family Service Radios and have about the same distance range, but are on their own 14 channels (frequencies). As such, all CAP Radio procedures must be followed, including tactical or functional callsigns (Ground Team Leader, Ground Team 2, Ground Team 5, etc), prowords use, avoiding personal chatter, and possession of an ROA card by the user. ROA instructors are hereby notified that future ROA classes should reference and teach ISR use as well as VHF and HF use.

Again, ISRs are on government frequencies. These radios were developed for use by the U. S. Marine Corps for their squad use to alleviate having to rely always on hand signals. You may experience other people on the frequencies - perhaps a military training unit, a DEA response team, or some other federal user. If someone is on the channel, find another one - don't interfere with another legitimate user of the channel, ever! Multiple ground teams operating in close proximity can be assigned to different channels to avoid confusion as well.

The ISRs will only talk to each other - they will not talk to the CAP VHF radios. A suggested plan for Ground Team use is to leave one ISR with the vehicle if the vehicle has a VHF radio, assign one to the Ground Team Leader/OIC, and the other three assign to Ground Team Members on the search team. If engaging more than three GTMs in the field, assign an ISR to pairs of GTMs (safety dictates no one operates alone, anyway) - that will cover one person in the vehicle to provide the VHF relay (when possible), one GTL, and up to six GTMs - usually more than we have on any one team. If more than 8 persons are assigned to the team, consider a second person left with the vehicle and/or assigning deployed GTMs in groups of 3 people staying together - that could cover up to twelve persons in a ground team response.

In addition to having 14 channels available, the channel selected can have a PL (CTCSS) tone set. If not needed, it would be far smarter not to set one - getting the setting wrong on your radio will mean (1) you can't hear anyone and (2) no one can hear you. Not a good thing ... If you are searching in a downtown environment, near a paging system, or near computers you may optionally set a tone on the channel - get a briefing from your unit Comm Officer or Comm Unit Leader on how to select the tones.

Unit Commanders and Communications Officers are requested to retain and store the packaging (boxes, padding and manuals) included with the radios in the event repair becomes necessary. The VHF handheld radios have separate CEMS entries for the radio and the charger/power supply, and serial numbers are recorded in CEMS for all three items (radio, charger, power supply).

SUGGESTION TO UNIT COMMUNICATIONS OFFICERS

When first receiving a "kit," the unit Communications Officer should hold a couple of training sessions, using functional (Net Control, Training 1 ... Training 4) callsigns to familiarize ES-qualified and ES-trainee users on the radios' operations. A mission is a real poor time to learn which button does what ... Remember ISR radio use requires an ROA - great time to hold a class!

QUESTIONS?

Questions on kit boxes, use of the equipment, storage suggestions, and most other inquiries may be directed to me. Please don't inquire when or which units are receiving what ... some of that is still pending, and I won't guess ahead - but every reasonable effort is being made to distribute the equipment, often possible at most wing training and weekend activities when I can get there and when I have internet access to assign them in CEMS. In order to sign out the equipment, I need to have online internet access to the NHQ CEMS database, and presently Wing Headquarters is still without that resource.

JAMES A. PIERCE, Lt. Col., CAP
Director of Communications

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