E Company News

Crossed Flags Course (Weekend One) 6th-8th January 2012

On Friday the 6th we arrived at St Georges Detachment for the start of our Cadet Signaller Course.

Along with seven other cadets (including four from F Squadron) we were given our course briefing by SSI Rowley before recapping the voice procedures from the CRU course. At a very respectable 9pm we were dismissed for the evening and treated to a viewing of the “Inbetweeners” before retiring to our pits – a great start to our course!

6:30am Saturday morning
Sgt Moxham was outraged when he woke up to find he had spent the night having his hair “backcombed” by the heater!! After an early breakfast of toast and a cereal bar we were introduced to our three TA instructors and their kit and commenced our training day. We began with a new topic of electronic warfare which was very interesting and this was followed with the nonstop learning until 10 o’clock when we indulged in our second breakfast! We also managed to get through about 20 cans of coke, 20 cups of tea and about 30 mars bars during the day........

We continued our training; some hands on and some by PowerPoint. Our personal highlight of the day was tinkering around in the FFR land rovers that our TA instructors had brought with them - we get to set up the big radios in the back and practice a bit of voice procedure at the same time. The most interesting part of the entire weekend was BATCO (Battle Code). If you understand it life is easy BUT, if you don’t, it messes with your mind in so many ways. It is the encryption code the army uses to keep radio messages safe over the radio net.

Training stopped at about 9pm - we were all very confused but in high spirits and ready for another DVD - The Hangover Part 1.

6:45am Sunday
Whoops over slept a little!! We were hurriedly woken by SSI Rowley - all still confused and with aching heads from the information overload of the previous day.
However, we were all washed, dressed, filled up on toast and in the class room by 7:30am, where we began our “death by PowerPoint” all the way up to 10 o’clock when we went for brunch. Still, we knew this was an essential part of the course and that it would lead to more practical training, so we didn’t really mind! We returned to the detachment hut and moved on to the practical part of the morning. We had already been trained on the UK/PRC 349 on the previous CRU course but there is one other radio we need to know about for our Crossed Flags course. The UK/PRC 320 is a “lightweight” HF radio and with the right antenna fitted can reach ranges of 300Km. Broken into groups, we had to assemble and operate these radios; setting them to right frequency and tuning them in can be a tricky task but we all got the hang of it.

Finally, all that was left to do was clean up and say goodbye to our TA lecturers and colleagues.

We are all looking forward to the testing weekend in February where we will have to recap everything all over again in preparation for our tests. Fingers crossed, we will all be successful.......

Cdt Staff Sgt Thorndyke & Cdt Sgt Moxham