SIG 310 · Signals and Communications · Level 300 (Non-Commissioned Officer)
A Royal Army College course in planning, running, and supervising a section's communications.
Course length: 10 hours, studied online and asynchronously at the student's own pace, together with any in-person practical instruction and assessment the course requires.
Foreword
An operator keeps a radio working. A signals non-commissioned officer keeps a section's communications working: planning the links before the task, choosing the means that will actually get through, training the operators, enforcing discipline and security on the net, and putting it right when nothing is heard. It is a step up from operating to leading, and it is where communication stops being a personal skill and becomes a system the NCO is responsible for.
This course builds the junior signals NCO. It teaches communications planning and the PACE plan; enough practical radio physics, line of sight, antenna height, HF skip, simple field antennas, to diagnose why a signal is not getting through and fix it; the management of a net and a detachment, including the Army's Meshtastic mesh and Team Awareness Kit; how to train and assess operators; how to build a signals instruction that allocates frequencies and callsigns, supervise communications security across a detachment, integrate the Army's digital systems into a section plan, and sustain communications over time through power, maintenance, and logistics; and how to weave communications into a task so the commander is never without a voice. It assumes the operator-level courses SIG 201 and SIG 220.
A section's communications are exactly as good as the NCO who runs them. Good kit and trained operators still fail without someone who plans the links, enforces the standard, and keeps a cool head when the net goes quiet.
Who this course is for
This course is for Corporals and Sergeants who hold, or are preparing for, responsibility for a section or detachment's communications, and for those advancing in the Signals and Communications speciality. It assumes SIG 201 · Radio Communications and Message Handling and SIG 220 · Communications Security and Digital Discipline.
What this course covers
| Lesson | Title |
|---|---|
| 01 | The Signals NCO's Role |
| 02 | Communications Planning and the PACE Plan |
| 03 | Antennas, Propagation, and Getting Through |
| 04 | Running the Net and the Detachment |
| 05 | Training and Assessing Operators |
| 06 | Frequency Management and the Signals Instruction |
| 07 | Supervising Communications Security in the Detachment |
| 08 | Integrating Digital Systems: TAK and the Mesh |
| 09 | Sustaining Communications: Power, Maintenance, and Logistics |
| 10 | Communications in Support of a Task |
How this course fits the catalogue
SIG 310 sits above SIG 201 and SIG 220 in the Signals speciality and draws on PME 210 · Basic Staff Duties and Written Orders (the signals paragraph of orders), the Training and Instruction speciality (teaching operators), LDR 301 · Junior Leadership (leading a small team), and FLD 230 · Patrolling and Tactical Movement (the net on operations). It is followed by SIG 410 (Communications Planning for Small Forces).
Licensing requirement
Radio transmission is governed by law. You must hold the licence the band and the jurisdiction require before you transmit; receiving and listening need no licence anywhere. The Royal Army College expects every member who pursues the Signals and Communications speciality to obtain the appropriate amateur radio licence, or the equivalent for their own jurisdiction, and to keep it current. A signals NCO sets the example, holds a licence, and tracks which of the section's operators are licensed so that only licensed members transmit on the amateur bands while the rest train lawfully on licence-free or low-power sets.
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