Mr. David Moose from the Harris Radio Company instructs Pvt. William Babineau, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 42nd Combat Aviation Brigade, on the AN/PRC-150 Harris radio system inside a New York Army National Guard Humvee on the newest high-tech communications radio available to the New York Army National Guard.
This communication innovation augments and adds a mobile capability to the long-standing VCR-100 ground-based system and the ARC-220 aircraft-based system. The Harris radio provides an Automatic Link Establishment to other networked Harris radios in a matter of seconds by finding an “open” frequency and “linking” the radios together.
The Harris system is an external dipole antenna system hooked to a battery powered man pack capable of transmitting up to 1200 miles. When installed in a military vehicle with the power amplifier connected, it can transmit in excess of 3000 miles.
The major advantage of having this combination of HF radio systems allows unit commanders to have long range command and control of battle operations working from either their ground vehicle, an aircraft or a base station.