What is the best training exercise you were ever on relating to sigs?

[Radop]

This was in 1996 in Kingston and area.  We went out to all these different sites in September to do an HF Exercise.  The det I was in went to Point Petry near Belleville.  We set up and had comms established doing serial traffic and running shifts.  We had 8 people at each site and had a blast.  When we were not on shift, we took the old black beauties down to the beach and floated on the water.  Being a Pte at the time, they gave me all the midnight shifts which I didn't mind because that meant I was off for the day to go down to the beach and swim or rack out.  I thought it was a great week and it was were I got to know the 99 well and the 106 (don't miss it).

 

[CH1]

  Shilo in the early 70's.  Svc Btn had parked my CP (50 pattern deuce) nose into the trees.  The heater blew & set the cam net on fire.  Got to boot 5 or 6 generals out of the back, so I could back it into the open.  Sad part of this was about 3 cases of liquor broke, when I backed over the ladder.  The hard part was a 300 page incident report (other things went sour at the same time).  I ended up being a very unpopular det comd. for a while.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

Every exercise that I have ever been on involved sigs....

And surely every "sigs ex" should have involved a customer, or we run the risk of creating self-licking ice cream cones?

 

[Radop]

Every exercise that I have ever been on involved sigs....

And surely every "sigs ex" should have involved a customer, or we run the risk of creating self-licking ice cream cones?

I don't know if I was the cone, creame or ice then but we use to have exercises were we did serialized traffic in the IRPVs in the 90s to keep up our det skills and practice our voice procedure.  Then again, that was when we still talked on the radios not just set them up for others to talk on.  lol.

 

[Smackey]

the best training exercise i was on relating to sigs was in 97 when i was a Rad Op, we were short manned and building up to one of those Ram ex's....
however if your asking about the funnest, our unit deployed a QRT to cypress hills (southern sask) and luckely enough i got to go too. there we stayed in a camp ground with a 4 star hotel down the road. One of my friends had speckled trout... we even got to use their pool =D

 

[Radop]

I am from Saskatoon I know were Cyprus Hills is.  My mom and dad went hunting there near french river.

 

[Smackey]

nice place eh?

 

[Radop]

So was the huge deer my dad got.

 

[Gilligan]

Last year I was on an HF exercise....practicing our long range comms for the big west coast earthquake.  We had to maintain comms for 24 hours straight (which my det was in a mountain valley that fogged in pretty badly at night, so that made it difficult), but to make it interesting we had a long range game of risk.  The game turned into a horrible gong show, but we all had a good time.  My det was at 44 Fld Engineer Sqn in Trail, and they invited us down to play on their SAT range.....too much fun!

 

[Pte.M13]

i remember that ex, was sleeping and i heard all this yelling, so i woke up and went to see what was going on... all i hear is 'God damn vancouver is cheating!'  hehe, we did another one of those this year, battleship game.... with senior girls volleyball provincials right next door... man did that ex get dirty fast...

 

[SigPigs]

The most fun I have had on an "EX" was on EX Narwhal 2002. I was the only sigs guy involved except for the J6. We went to Iqaluit and stayed there for a few days prepping things. Then the Navy took us in an MCDV to Kimmirut and then to Resolution Island off the tip of Baffin Island. It was an old Pine Tree site. There we set a "CP" tent on the top of the island near the airstrip and proceeded to setup the mast for an antenna. Got it up and made contact with the HMCS Goosebay and also back to Yellowknife on HF. Also did the Iridium thing with a laptop and sent emails back and forth, with great effort! Stupid phones. Was a great time, there were polar bears all over the place and they were neat to watch, I almost hit one with my ATV!! Once the EX was over I used the radio to make some Amateur (HAM) contacts from the island. Was a good time.

 

[Radop]

Also did the Iridium thing with a laptop and sent emails back and forth, with great effort! Stupid phones.

Which Iridium, 9500 or 9505?  I love the iridium.  I use it as a comms link when I deploy for orders away from my det.  They can contact me via the inmarsat or I can contact them.  I have never used the secure sleave though.

 

[SigPigs]

From what I can remember now it was the 9500 model of phone.  ??? 
I much prefer to do things on HF! These days I can send a decent picture in about 45 seconds error free. Try to do that on an Iridium!!
It would take much longer normally. But I am biased towards HF... ;D ;D

 

[TCBF]

Ex CERTAIN CHALLENGE 88 in Germany in 1988.  There was over 100,000 people on that exercise, and it covered a lot of south-central Germany.  V Corps versus VII Corps.  I was in Recce Sqn, 8 CH, and we had an OP in a German village. We parked one Lynx in a barn, and the other between an equipment shed and the house.  We put a bunch of lumber, onion sacks, weeds, and the German family's laundry over the exposed Lynx.  One trooper watched the checkered route in front of the house through a crack in the barn door, another watched another checkered route 1 km to the rear fom behind a sand pile.  When a US Div started their attack against 4CMBG, we gave the Brigade 15 minutes warning.  We sent in contacts of 245 plus EnFor vehicles in 15 minutes.  That's a lot of talking. The Americans DF'd the OP.  They sent OH-58D s over the vill looking for us, and night patrols at night - 10 feet from our position - without finding us. 

We also had to use expedient (long wire directional) antennas to get our contact reports to higher in a few other OPs.

A good FALLEX, in a country built for manoeuvre, surrounded by citizens who KNOW what armies are for.

Tom

 

[George Wallace]

Tom

Those were the days.  Too many similar memories to mention, sitting in OPs and reporting Contacts on the 'World', and still not getting caught.  Well, did get caught once in the OP by a Cordon and Search.  Nearly gave a young Bundeswehr soldier a Heart Attack when I popped up three feet in front of him and sprayed him with my SMG.  Had to!  Our manpack was left leaning against a shed in plain view, and the handset cable lead directly to me in the bushes.  I asked him if he was OK.....he was hyperventalating........so I walked around to the open door on the back of the APC that he had arrived in and sprayed all the guys inside before the CC could load and fire his MG.  As I walked back to buddy, still hyperventalating on the ground, I noticed the guy they had dropped off with a MG at the corner of the Cornfield.  I guess I was 'Dead'.  Not having laid any line to the Patrol Base in a Carpenters factory shed, our two Lynx were not found.

We had been calling in Fire Missions on the German Convoys who passed through town all day.  When a CP Complex came into town we watched and called in Arty again.  Unfortunately, it was at quiting time for the Carpenter's workers, so when they all went to the Gausthaus for a couple of biere, they told the Bundeswehr guys that they were not too shit hot as the Canadians have been in town all day.  Talk about stir up a hornets nest.  Cam Nets and Antennas down faster than I have ever seen before in my life.

Anyway, being dead did have its advantages.....could now brew up a nice meal and coffee to NATO Standards.

GW

 

[TCBF]

It was OK playing with the Yanks, but I LOVED getting the drop on the Bundeswehr.  Family tradition.  No room to get smug, though.  Surfing a Lynx down a checkered route after calling fire on Marders and Leos all day, only to come to an intersection and go broadside to a Gepard.  Was he lost? Don't much matter, do it.  Sometimes you get the bear...