Ham radio - PLAR for sig ops possible ?

[Sigprospect]

Hi all,

I have been expressing interest in HAM RADIO over the past years and got my license, but I am not very active.

With the changing recent landscape, I am more interested in joining the CAF as an sig operator. However, I wonder if amateur radio experience and courses/certificates would allow me to PLAR some of the training topics on DP1 or BMQ for new recruits.

Anyone able to assist on this ?

Thanks

 

[PuckChaser]

No. It would basically only write off a week of training for Signal theory, maybe, so its not even worth submitting. HAM will do nothing for BMQ.

 

[Sigprospect]

Thanks appreciate the info, I was afraid this could be the case.

Will there be any education available for civilians to allow PLAR as SigOps ? Just wondering what could be a strong new recruit application and possibly expedite graduation or career progression/development.

 

[PuckChaser]

Thanks appreciate the info, I was afraid this could be the case.

Will there be any education available for civilians to allow PLAR as SigOps ? Just wondering what could be a strong new recruit application and possibly expedite graduation or career progression/development.

No, a lot of the equipment we use is military off the shelf and has no civilian equivalent. At best you'd be PLAR for parts of a course which is generally meaningless as they'll make you complete them with the remainder of your course anyways.

Don't rush your training. Its a fraction of what you will do when you hit "the real world" (line units) anyways. If you are already comfortable with the topic then help your coursemates and you'll be able to focus on material thats more difficult.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

But he would probably be the only SigOp that can still do Morse code.

 

[Sigprospect]

Thanks for the reply, this is a very mature way into looking at the topic.

I am currently working on some education around satellite comms, I do hold a degree in CC and some cyber sec certs.

I have been strongly advise to show up with a competitive resume and don’t throw away any prior education as it would work in my benefit. This is coming as a general advice, but I guess I never looked into things like you pinpoint.

I really appreciate your opinion.