Tomcat radio setup

[jmarso]

Okay, how should the radios be set up in the 'Cat? Building a mission using presets in both radios and am running into a few small issues.

 

My question for those knowledgeable on this subject is this: which radio was considered 'primary' and which 'secondary'? I know the RIO has the 182 in back with a wider freq range, while the 159 is up front and UHF only.

 

Which one was used as the slush radio for talking to the wingman, etc, and which one was used for serious communicating? It seems like the 182 would be considered primary, right?

 

After a year of playing DCS I'm finally moving away from 'easy comms,' even with Jester back there supposedly handling all that stuff for me.:D

[draconus]

Both are needed and used extensively. I wouldn't consider any of them primary. RIO's one is much more useful because of freq range (VHF/UHF) and modes (AM/FM, DF).

Playing with freq is fun at first but usually all you need is a few channels to remember for a mission. Default freq for a wingman (127MHz?) is not available for AN/ARC-159 so it's usually CH1 in the RIO's. Then listen to AWACS on Pilot's UHF and you're done for most of the flight. Throw in some tanker calls and finally ATC.

Edited September 24, 2020 by draconus

[Uxi]

I usually have separate freqs with assigned channels for the CAP and separate strike mission(s), then one for ATC, one for AWACS, tanker but usually aim for duplication / redundancy. I'm a ground pounder, and did CAS/FAC/FO training so know at least one per flight assignment there. Marines with organic CAS elements could have two or three pairs of fixed wing on one freq hopping channel per Regimental combat team and rotary wing on another. OIF-1 had two RCT.

 

We should have at least one more for tower if/when supercarrier gets to that point.