Own the cheap, unencrypted walkie talkie that Russian generals love to death

I’m confused - what is this article showing me? That the Russians use stuff that other people use too? That apparently it’s effectiveness might not be that great since many of the people using it have wound up dead? That I can get get it now on Amazon for a low low price? Am I laughing at others misfortune or spending my hard earned dollars on stuff I didn’t need? Tell me - I can’t function without random internet articles to guide my thoughts I’m getting some mixed signals here!

Has anyone been arrested yet?

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Thank you, came here to make a red shirt reference, goes away satisfied that my work has been done for me!
:grin:

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I am still baffled how incredible shit the russian army is.
We (Western)Europeans have been scared of them for decades and now? Turns out they suck! Their soldiers suck. Their tanks suck. Their trucks suck. Their airforce sucks. Their navy sucks. Their weapons and ammunition suck. Their whole equipment sucks. Their tactics and strategies suck. Their general staff sucks.
Its a worse suck fest than in a vacuum cleaner store.

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The captured radios I’ve seen weren’t even R-5 series dual band radios.
Those are Gucci in the world of Baofeng.
They are using 88 series which are 2 watt FRS (family radio service) radios with about a mile range in wooded conditions.
Available in bulk online for around $10.

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Yes. 

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Wild. Usually “New phone who dis?” isn’t a question of national security.

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This widely-reported story is my favorite so far (granted, I’ve mostly seen it in the rags so it could still turn out to be propaganda but it looks plausible).

~$10K for a tank seems like a pretty good deal for the Ukrainians given the used car market these days. Maybe the U.S. can just give Ukraine a bunch of low-interest financing so they can buy all the stuff they want from disillusioned Russian soldiers.

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All may not be as it seems. I think a big part of the issue is that Putin really screwed up the pre-game prep: the soldiers were new, young conscripts who were kept in the dark, his military and intelligence services have all been telling him what he wanted to hear for years, and he assumed he had insiders in Kyiv who would put Zelenskyy under arrest. Also some of the chatter I’ve read from military analysts is that big militaries like the US and Russia are facing a new era, and haven’t really prepared themselves for a force that is similarly equipped and trained. (thread below)

In the same way Iraqis could hamstring the US with simple improvised explosives, the Ukrainians are using commercial drones to monitor Russian movements.

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Given that Russia put bounties on US soldiers under Trump; it seems only fair to bounty their equipment.

In real money guys! Step right up!

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And no NCO corp.

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I believe it. I was just reading that Russian soldiers were fed propaganda that Ukraine was poor, the people virtual slaves… but when they got there, they realized Ukraine was actually a lot more prosperous than the impoverished areas of Russia were the army is disproportionately from - some of these people are apparently seeing paved roads and streetlamps for the first time. On top of which a lot of soldiers are really, really unhappy about being there, knowing they’re in the wrong, and looking for any way out. There’s been a lot of suggestions that if reasonable “outs” were provided for Russian soldiers, there’d be mass defections/desertions. Also suggestions for bounties for Russian equipment, given that Russian soldiers were already selling off military gear before the war (which is part of why they’re doing so badly)…

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I wonder what sort of license a Russian general needs to use a 2-meter amateur radio for military communications. A license to be stupid?

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I sure hope some people over there with some Software Defined Radio skills is recording all the chatter on all the channels that is out in the open. Besides being a treasure trove of information during the war, it could go along way toward trying war crimes after this thing is over. Boggles my mind that a military in this modern day and age is broadcasting it’s radio chatter in the clear, I mean my local police have more security on their radios that the russian army does.

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.
Having tried a “dongle” I would recommend a slightly more expensive sdrPlay . When you add the nec’y cables, filters, upconverters etc the price is similar and the performance much better. ( 14 or 16 bit ADC, vs 8 with a dongle, for a start )

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As in horseshoes and nuclear weapons… one near-suck sucks very much for all of us…

And none of that would have mattered had they arrived through the settling dust of a mushroom cloud. Which means we are/were right to be afraid.

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