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Anyone???

Originally Posted by polar

Anyone???

Well, you're in the f***ing TA Royal Signals! Why don't you share your experiences with him?! Who else is going to sell the STAB Sigs to him, The_Duke? Bravo_Bravo?

For the sake of Fuck, I directed the kid to this forum so he could benefit from your wisdom Polar.

forget the ranges son, think about all the quality time you will be spending cleaning the garages and rolling up cam nets that havent been used since the 1990's. Moreover you will spend most drill nights and weekends first parading equipment which the regular army replaced years ago.

im finished now...anyone else.

Well: when you first join the chances are you'll have an introduction to some of the kit, the TAC and have a sit in on some of the training. Once you get you kit you'll go onto mostly Soldier skills training to build you up to your RT weekends and then your Charlie. However you'll often get some introductions to the siggie kit too to keep you keen as well as helping out with the dets.

I’d say in the recruit phase of training you'll do 70% Soldier skills 20% signals skills and 10% of other skills such as shown works tickets, LFGs and tasks like cleaning land rovers.

After your Basic Training to amount of comms related work you do will increase ready for your Trade Course and of course will probably focus on that trade if you’re sure on what you want to do. After trade you'll do a pretty much even mix of Soldier/Comms skills, possibly sometimes focusing more on comms.

As for survival: not really touched on that unless it's living in your foxhole but that’s it, you might get actual survival on SAS Sigs but I'm not in a position to say as I'm not in the Corps anymore and when I was 2NC.

I hope this enlightens you and if you have anything you wish to ask feel free to drop me a PM and if I can't help I'll point you towards someone who can. :D

PRC

Originally Posted by RP578

Originally Posted by polar

Anyone???

Well, you're in the f***ing TA Royal Signals! Why don't you share your experiences with him?! Who else is going to sell the STAB Sigs to him, The_Duke? Bravo_Bravo?

For the sake of Fuck, I directed the kid to this forum so he could benefit from your wisdom Polar.

Originally Posted by the_creature

forget the ranges son, think about all the quality time you will be spending cleaning the garages and rolling up cam nets that havent been used since the 1990's. Moreover you will spend most drill nights and weekends first parading equipment which the regular army replaced years ago.

im finished now...anyone else.

Erm, we have more modern airmobile kit than 4 Para? Well in theory we have, but the garages are empty.

Depends on what trade your going to do for the Signals ?

As an operator most of your time will unfortunately be setting up and tearing down every few hrs for most of the weekend ,not actually using the kit for any length of time ,and on the slim chance you are in a position for more than 12hrs you wont have any traffic to pass anyway.

Electrician driver ,good job if you like doing very little making tea and drinking it ,stagging on putting up masts etc

Technician , Even less than a ED but more tea drinking more pay and you will probably need a Civi Qualification in electronics ONC or HNC to do this job with ease.


As for infantry training you will do some fairly irrelevant running around in the woods shooting at things ,but nothing to clever !

I think ive covered all the stereo types !

It's not a stereotypic issue - and by the way Polar, you should be hanging your head in shame somewhere! having the hump is one thing, but forcing it on us is another.

Royal Signals. Well, everyone is a soldier these days and the tales of sitting in a 4 Ton Box Body with mains power, air conditioning, a radiator to warm up your combat jacket while you boil the kettle for a cup of tea, whilst all true are increasingly a thing of the past. OP Entirety increasingly dictates that everything is pointed at Ops - Royal Signals as well.

So, the long and short of it? Soldier first Signaller second. No, you won't be undertaking endless section attacks nor sitting in a wet trench ( ) however, you will need to have reasonable soldier skills and these will be retrained and tested throughout the year - sweat, grin and brag.

Oh, and you'll be relied upon for your technical skills....double whammy.

I will try a useful reply for the man.

Your first chunk of training will be TSC (Trained Soldier Course) as the name suggests this has no Signals content and is common to everyone joining the TA. Generally a selection day / short weekend, followed by 6 weekends of training, followed by a 2 week residenial course. This gets you to a standard where you should be able to complete the MATTS tests which show that you could operate/survive in a military/battlefield environment but you will by no means be a steely eyed dealer of death. Subjects will be weapon handling (rifle only), map reading, fitness, CBRN, Battle Casualty drills, drill, basic fieldcraft (living in the field and tactics).

From this point the Infantry go on and do more infantry training. As a signaller or supporting trade in a R Signals unit you will do a Basic Signalling Skills BSS course, usually 1 or 2 weekends. Then usually a 8 day (week off work) to do the lowest level of whatever trade you are going to be (Operator, Electrician, Technician), if you are going to be non R Signals badged but in a R Signals unit the initial trade training varies (RAMC, REME, AGC, RLC etc).

After you have done all this training you will join the normal training cycle of your sqn and regt. How much infantry stuff you do varies a lot depending on whether it is a 2 Sig Bde exercise year (in which you will concentrate on comms) or if it is the year in between, in which more infantry and adventure training tends to be done. Units tend to have at least 2 "infantry skills" weekends per year, plus MATTS weekends which are non-comms based. The rest of the time will be spent on classroom or field based comms exercises, some of these will have a tactical element to keep it interesting, but if you join a UK ops unit the reality is that you would be very unlikely to deploy with your weapon on UK Ops.

Hope this is more useful than some replies, hope you join a unit that suits you R Signals or not.