All things Joint Sigs Regt/JSR (merged)

[JSR OP]

IMHO, being posted to CFJSR (Kingston) right after your threes will do you no favours.  Get yourself to a brigade where you will use the skills taught at the school.  We don't use radios too often here, and when we do, we have to borrow them from other units.

 

[Nfld Sapper]

I have a question for you who are actual sig ops or officers. I am waiting for the call to basic and I have enlisted as a sig op. I am wondering which base is better for a sig ops career advancement and better in general in your opinion: Kingston, Petawawa or Edmonton? Im leaning towards petawawa but I would like you wise advice. Also what does a new sig fresh out of QL3 do at all three bases?

Don't forget you can also get posted to Gagetown with one of the lodger units.

 

[phionex]

Really? I never knew that I only thought you could be posted to the Head of the 3 Mechanized Brigade Groups Headquarters and Signals Squadrons and JSR in Kingston. Is there nay other units that I could serve with right off the bat?

 

[Rigger052]

  IMHO there isn't a certain spot that is necessarily better for career progression, that depends solely on you. If you work hard, are eager to learn from your peers in your eventual unit and are reliable both in your trade and as a soldier in general, career progression should go your way. Location of your posting is more pertinent to your home life than your professional life.  :2c:
  So far I can honestly say I enjoy Gagetown far more than JSR Kingston. Good Luck

 

[PuckChaser]

You're 19, and presumably in good shape. Get to a Bde (Edmonton, Pet, Gagetown or Valcartier if you speak french) and learn from the troops there. Once you've been in a while, and are tired of field life, go to JSR or teach.

Your career will move fast regardless, we're shorthanded as it is. That being said, don't have an air of entitlement ref promotions. Learn as much as you can, and be an example for your peers; its a far better way to advance through the ranks than being a brown-noser.

 

[gohardkandahar]

Just a quick question what does JSR do?

 

[PuckChaser]

Just a quick question what does JSR do?

Provides rear-link communications and tactical LANs to deployed forces. They also support the DART.

http://www.army.forces.gc.ca/asu_Kingston/military/jsr_e.asp

 

[phionex]

Cann anyone answer the other part of my question what would a sig op right out of trades training be doing at Petawawa, Edmonton, or JSR (im not french so Valcartier is out for me)?

 

[PuckChaser]

Probably posted to HQ and Sigs and work as a det member. For JSR, you'll get thrown into the meat grinder for tours with TLAN dets after you get the training on the kit. You won't need to remember your TacRad stuff from your QL3s. One of the folks from a Bde can be more specific for the Bde stuff.

 

[JSR OP]

IF you end up at JSR, This is what may happen, in no particular order:
-  If you don't have your SQ/ BMQ(L) or whatever its beening called now, you will be sent.  You won't be considered for a deployment without it.
-  You may be loaded on an NCCIS course so you can deploy with an MT
-  You may be loaded on computer courses which lead up to being able to be deployed with a TLAN det.
-  You may be loaded on EDS Trg.  This is realitively new.  Once trained, you may deploy on short duration missions to provide comms for VIPs
-  You will be loaded on IBTS trg, IPC trg to keep you green so that you can deploy
-  You will take part in various exercises.  could be in the back yard, could be on the other side of the country, could be somewhere else in the world
-  You will sweep floors, you will have kit inspections, you will do ruck marches, webbing marches, Tp comd runs, roll calls 5 times a day in some troops
-  you may play hockey to get out of work in the winter
-  You may play golf to get out of work in the summer
-  You may volunteer to work with an Air Cadet Sqn we  have taken under our wing
-  You may be voluntold to do a host of activities like dog and pony shows.

I'm sure I've missed some things....does that answer your question about the JSR?

 

[phionex]

Wow sounds like really important work  : lol in an earlier post someone said that if you are posted to JSR there is a better chance of deployment overseas and more frequently. can anyone confirm or deny this hope?

 

[JSR OP]

The CFJSR is one of the most deployed units in the CF, so yes, it is safe to say that you have good chance to deploy from here.  Not guaranteed, but more likely.

 

[phionex]

Do JSR members do any work at RMC? and I know I am going to get jumped on this but does JSR help and run comms and electronics at the GOC in Ottawa?

 

[George Wallace]

Do JSR members do any work at RMC? and I know I am going to get jumped on this but does JSR help and run comms and electronics at the GOC in Ottawa?

No and no.

 

[phionex]

whats the difference between QL3, QL4 and QL5 and what is basically taught on all them. I know QL3 is the basics but what is taught on QL4 & 5? for Sigs of course

 

[PuckChaser]

QL3 is your Apprentice training where you learn everything from basic radio theory to some troubleshooting and most of the equipment you'll use. QL4 is on the job training, and is an informal qualification. QL5 will teach you how to be a detachment commander of a det of 3 people (including yourself), building on the trade knowledge you gained as a QL3 Apprentice.

 

[ixium]

Getting posted to JSR right after your 3's is very hard to do now, unless you have a real reason why you have to stay in Kingston(kids and wife usually) you will probably not get it.

Edmonton has the faster promotion rate to cpl from what all my CoC has said and talking to people from my 3's that are in Pet

Gagetown isn't an option anymore, they're trying to get people to goto bde, happened to the last few courses that went through Kingston(I finished Nov28th)

QL3 is a waste of time, filled with useless cock. It's almost 6 months of uselessness. I finished with a 94% and remember almost nothing, which is a good thing since I got posted to a troop that I will never use ANY of it(yay charlie troop).

Yeah I'm kinda bitter. Took almost the whole course before we found out somewhat of what we -actually- do a unit, and it wasn't even from our instructor, it was from the 5's instructor that was helping while ours was on his sargents course.

 

[PuckChaser]

QL3 is a waste of time, filled with useless ****. It's almost 6 months of uselessness. I finished with a 94% and remember almost nothing, which is a good thing since I got posted to a troop that I will never use ANY of it(yay charlie troop).

Well then, we could just post you right to NDHQ and you could be the Chief Comm Op for the CF if you seem to know everything. Your QL3 package would be 2 years long if you sat down and were taught every single little piece of information that every unit and every troop does in the Army. QL3 is a baseline, you may not have been posted to a TacRad unit right off the bat, but you'll fall back on those skills. You may think you remember nothing, but I got a Pte posted in from Pet who worked in an IT capacity and it took him only a few months to get back into the swing of TacRad. Now he teaches out of trade people and does a good job at it.

Yeah I'm kinda bitter. Took almost the whole course before we found out somewhat of what we -actually- do a unit, and it wasn't even from our instructor, it was from the 5's instructor that was helping while ours was on his sargents course.

Being bitter is probably a common trait from being posted to CFSCE on course for 6 months. My QL6A involved people being given 100% on a final assessment for getting lost on their signal recce, and others losing marks for random things just so they wouldn't get 100%. Most of the pers showed up hungover each day, after playing dodgeball 3 times a week, and then sat through lectures from guest speakers who barely knew the topics. This is a course that trains the future section commanders, and we didn't cover anything we already had done simply from having time in the trade. We wrote a detailed course critique, but everything is getting re-written with MES so I'll assume its going to fall on deaf ears.

 

[ixium]

Hey I'm not bashing what is actually put on the 3's course. I'm bashing the actual course. 6 months is NOT needed, there was tonnes of downtime, and tons of times going over the same thing a million times. We spent a week on the 117(which isnt on TP) simply because we had so much time extra time. Also love the intro to computer week. I mean if you don't know what a mouse is, or not know how to open outlook then you have serious problems.

The 6 month course could easily be fit into 4 or even 3 months. What's worse is how the Sigop guys are treated by even their own staff. Even during the lineman portion of the course we got told by the lineman instructor that 'Sigops eat their own'. I can't even count the amount of full deu parades we did. Most of the time it wasn't even for 2 sqn.

The only good factor of the course were the other coursemates.

 

[ixium]

But ya, this is all a moot point since that new MES thing is coming in 'soon'