Viet Cong Radio Comms

In the newest Kickstarter from 3D Breed, one of the packs is a "VC HQ" pack consisting of an NCO pointing, another crouching using binoculars, and a third using a ChiCom radio. It made me wonder how common an occurance this was for the VC to hump a radio around?

Anyone?

its a good question on how many radios the VC did have or had any tbh ..

I suspect it varied on the level of the NLF unit concerned.  Doubtful many existed at local level, maybe a few more in regional and main force units.

Communist forces are well documented as having used captured PRC-25s to listen in, disrupt and attempt to jam Free World nets. They were also, it seems, quite aware of the ability of FW sigint to track them and on the whole seem to have practiced decent operational security.  Hence, at least in part, the reliance on field phones and runners. Of course the reduced need to lug batteries around and maintain radios is probably a bigger factor.

The major identifiable use of radio I can think of in the Australian area of operations was the now well known tracking of the 5th VC Division's main transmitter.  In the lead up to the battle of Long Tan in 1966 it was progressively tracked and mapped, using RDF, from its base location in the May Tao Mountains, on the province border, right up to about a klick or so from where the Long Tan Battle occurred. Alas, nobody at task force level correlated the move with what would transpire at Long Tan. In part, a case of left hand not knowing what the right was doing.

IIRC the radio was eventually found some time later in the Long Hai hills and stretching memory further I seem to recall that it may have had a female sig team accompanying it.

For gaming purposes though, I would tend to make an NLF radio one of two things. Either a mission objective or as a means for the NLF to disrupt fire missions, dust-offs or orders in general being received. Maybe roll a die to determine the number of turns to successfully communicate your orders or fire request?

Wow, that's some great info Corisco. Thanks for that! I agree with making it a mission objective as well.

The VC and NVA used captured sets where they could and the chicom units/soviet units. They knew a lot of messages would be intercepted and so codes etc were used as well as keeping the radios on the move, or using remote transmission points, up in trees and then running a transmission line to it..
I would in most games not expect the local units to have access, and only the likes of Battalion commanders or VC regional commands or political officers who have access.

But as per the example of the Long Tan incident, it could make for some great gaming, hunting down a comms team on the move.

Interestingly enough the Salvadorean FMLN guerillas used captured radios in a similar fashion. Their internal comms were largely managed using Motorola type walkie-talkies. They used captured or donated PRC-25 and PRC-77 sets to jam the army's networks and feed in false messages. Apparently this tactic paid considerable dividends at times.