Arma Reforger – Types of Radios and Frequencies

Arma Reforger – Types of Radios and Frequencies 1 - steamlists.com
Arma Reforger – Types of Radios and Frequencies 1 - steamlists.com

Learn the basics of communication with team-based radios.
 
 

Beginnings

This guide should be able to tell you everything about radios in ArmA:R that has been discovered by the player-base.
 
 
When you join a game and have a radio equipped you can press “G” to check out the options of communication and turn off or on as you wish. But to communicate you has to hold Cap Locks. If you double tap Cap Locks it will lock it so you don’t have to hold it. Would not recommend “hot micing” for public games.
 
 
If you have multiple radios you can keep pressing G to swap. Every time you press Cap Locks you’re talking on the last radio you selected when you pressed G.
 
 
When you talk on the radio you also talk in proximity! That means the enemy can also hear you!
 
 
But where do you start?
 
You just joined a game and the squad you joined doesn’t have a “squad chat”. This might be confusing at first. They might be all the way across the map so when you do speak you can’t be heard (there’s a range for the radios), they might be lone wolfs and not even care for you, or just learning like you as well. But text chat works all the way across any map!
 
If you’re playing the conflict game-mode and notice the frequencies between objectives, those are not frequencies intended for you to switch to. Those are “extenders” and manned by notional players to extend your communication throughout the network while staying on your frequency. They are also the objectives to capture. These radios will be inside of field tents or buildings and are impossible to pick up as they are objects and don’t appear in any type of inventory.
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Beginnings - B2306C3 Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Beginnings - 41F5711
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Beginnings - 41977DF
 
 
You can carry as many radios as your inventory weight can hold and each one can have their own frequency. In this photo I have over 40 radios, most of them are off screen.
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Beginnings - 6149638
 
 
You don’t have to have a radio selected to receive but you do need to have a radio selected to transmit, and it will only be on that selected radio frequency. Given this, you cannot transmit on multiple frequencies at once, but you can listen to all frequencies if you have enough radios (would not recommend as that’s a lot of radios you’ll have to carry). Stick with 1-2 radios.
 
 
You must also have some type of inventory capacity that can hold the radio. You cannot hold it in your hands while being nak*d. Here I have the AN/PRC-68 in my trousers and I’m trying to move it to my nak*d body but 1.3 kg is too much so the game rejects it.
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Beginnings - 7EDBAFB
 
 
Sometimes squads use their default frequency (which is lame and easily compromised! More on this later). Some players might have objective based communication where they change it each or every other objective to keep comms secured. Do not feel intimidated by how complex it seems, it’s fairly quite simple.
 
 
 

Types of Radios and their Frequencies – Part 1 (Advanced Beginning)

Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Types of Radios and their Frequencies - Part 1 (Advanced Beginning) - 3D0AC82
 
 
Frequencies are simplified in ArmA:R to simplify game-play. In reality these radios have significantly more channels than the game. I will show you the real life comparison and then I will simplify it. You do not have to read the real life comparison to understand, if you would like, you can skip to the next section.
 
 
These radios in-game are two-way radios that operate in full-duplex mode. Which means when you talk you don’t have to fear not being able to also listen to the radio. Two-way radio systems usually use a single radio channel and operate in a half-duplex mode: only one user on the channel can transmit at a time, so users in a user group must take turns talking. But since these are full-duplex mode using dual channels, both parties can talk simultaneously.
 
 
What is a Hz? Most likely your monitor is running at 60 Hz, 120 Hz, 144 Hz, etc. It’s for number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time and is defined as one cycle per second. 60 Hz monitor refreshes everything on screen 60 times a second. Now instead of refresh rate for a screen, think of the full cycle of an up and down motion on a wave. Multiply it by 1000 and we get 60 kHz, which would mean 60,000 times a second. Multiple it by 1000 and we get 60 MHz (megahertz) which would mean 60,000,000 times a second.
 
Let’s count how many 0’s there are. There are seven 0’s after the 6 so it will be 10⁷ which shows us the frequency we’re operating on are Radio Waves!
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Types of Radios and their Frequencies - Part 1 (Advanced Beginning) - 9BE7DE5
 
 
The US Army has two radios in game that can operate on 60 MHz while the Soviet Army cannot get that high.
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Types of Radios and their Frequencies - Part 1 (Advanced Beginning) - DC91116
 
 
As you can see in the next section, everyone will mainly be using Very High Frequency (VHF) which is between 30 MHz – 300 MHz
 
 
The Soviet has a few bands that barely go into High Frequency (HF) which is between 3 MHz – 30 MHz
 
 
Reality: XX.XXx MHz, Game: XX.xOO MHz
 
In modern real life you would use 5 kHz steps/band (0.005 MHz),
 
In cold war real life you would use 50 kHz steps/band (0.05 MHz) to change channels (depending on the radio). This can be over 1000 channels back in this time.
 
Since ArmA:R has simplified this by removing a few decimal placements. What I put in as an “O” is now obsolete and the 50 kHz steps basically changed to 500 kHz steps (0.5 MHz). Easy! Minimum Channel Spacing is now 0.5 MHz. Way less channels to manage.
 
 
But because the half steps moved upwards you can no longer use 60.3 MHz or 60.7 MHz because the last “x” (which is in lower case and in bold) after the decimal has to now be a 0 or a 5. So now we are only stuck to use an adjacent numbers of 60.0 MHz, 60.5 MHz, or 70.0 MHz. More on this after some visuals on what the radios look like.
 
 
 

Types of Radios and their Frequencies – Part 2 (Simple Ending)

There are three factions you can play in ArmA:R. The US Army only uses their radios while the Soviet Army and the FIA (Freedom and Independence Army) share the same radios.
 
 
Here are what the radios you can use in game look like:
 

AN/PRC-68 RadioA short-range, handheld radio, used by the US military for small squad communications.
 
 
 
 
 
Inventory Icon:
 
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Types of Radios and their Frequencies - Part 2 (Simple Ending) - E133772
 
 
 
 
 
Size Comparison:
 
 
 
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Types of Radios and their Frequencies - Part 2 (Simple Ending) - 255B6B1
 
 
 
 
 
You can not visually see it on the body like you can binoculars or flashlights, only when it’s on the ground.

AN/PRC-68 Radio

 

AN/PRC-77 RadioA mid-range, manpack radio, used by the US military for tactical communications at squad-level and above.
 
 
 
 
 
Inventory Icon:
 
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Types of Radios and their Frequencies - Part 2 (Simple Ending) - 257DE0E
 
 
 
 
 
Size Comparison:
 
 
 
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Types of Radios and their Frequencies - Part 2 (Simple Ending) - 2A0219B
 
 
 
 
 
On the body:
 
 
 
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Types of Radios and their Frequencies - Part 2 (Simple Ending) - 7E1BF6C
 
 
 
 
 
Weird fact, you can put the AN/PRC-77 in an Alice pack and still use full capabilities:
 
 
 
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Types of Radios and their Frequencies - Part 2 (Simple Ending) - FF34423

AN/PRC-77 Radio

 

R-148 RadioShort-range, handheld radio, used by the Soviet military (and FIA) for tactical communications at squad-level.
 
 
 
 
 
Inventory Icon:
 
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Types of Radios and their Frequencies - Part 2 (Simple Ending) - 64E70C2
 
 
 
 
 
Size Comparison:
 
 
 
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Types of Radios and their Frequencies - Part 2 (Simple Ending) - B58F42F
 
 
 
 
 
You can not visually see it on the body like you can binoculars or flashlights, only when it’s on the ground.

R-148 Radio

 

R-107MMid-range, manpack radio transceiver, used by the Soviet military (and FIA) for tactical communications at company-level and below.
 
 
 
 
 
Inventory Icon:
 
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Types of Radios and their Frequencies - Part 2 (Simple Ending) - 74904CF
 
 
 
 
 
Size Comparison:
 
 
 
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Types of Radios and their Frequencies - Part 2 (Simple Ending) - 245045B
 
 
 
 
 
On the body:
 
 
 
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Types of Radios and their Frequencies - Part 2 (Simple Ending) - 27881CC
 
 
 
 
 
Attempting to put the R-107M in the Kolobok pack like the AN/PRC-77 and the Alice pack does not work as the radio is too heavy. Notice the 125% overflow for the capacity to carry.
 
 
 
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Types of Radios and their Frequencies - Part 2 (Simple Ending) - C8430D3

R-107M

 
AN/PRC stands for “Army Navy / Portable Radio Communications”.
 
A nickname for this is “prick [radio number]”.
 
E.g. “Everyone grab a prick 77”
 
 
Now we know the four base usable radios in ArmA:R.
 
 
By pressing G and using the scroll wheel you scan through all channels in 0.5 “steps” every scroll bump. We are left with a limited amount of channels ranging from their minimum to highest frequency.
 
 
We can use the Soviet’s R-148 as an example as it has the least amount of channels:
 

Channels: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Frequency: 38 38.5 39 39.5 40 40.5 41 41.5 42 42.5 43 43.5 44 44.5 45 45.5 46
Channels: 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33
Frequency: 46.5 47 47.5 48 48.5 49 49.5 50 50.5 51 51.5 52 52.5 53 53.5 54

This tells us we have 33 max channels to choose from.
 
 
With this is mind, again, when you press G and scroll through the frequencies in the 0.5 MHz bandwidth you are left with these amount of channels in bold:
 
 
US Army
 

AN/PRC-68 Lowest Freq.: 32 Highest Freq.: 68 73 Max Channels Range: 1.3 km Weight: 1.3 kg
AN/PRC-77 Lowest Freq.: 30 Highest Freq.: 76 93 Max Channels Range: 2 km Weight: 9 kg

 
Soviet Army / FIA
 

R-148 Lowest Freq.: 38 Highest Freq.: 54 33 Max Channels Range: 1.3 km Weight: 3 kg
R-107M Lowest Freq.: 20 Highest Freq.: 52 65 Max Channels Range: 2 km Weight: 18.5 kg

 
 
 

Those Radio’s Ranges and Map Basics

To visualize the range of the radios to the map you’ll have to understand the bar scale on the map. Here I’ve taken a screenshot when I zoomed out The bar scale reads 1000 meters (or 1 km). So each white/black bar is 200 meters.
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Those Radio's Ranges and Map Basics - 2D8357E
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Those Radio's Ranges and Map Basics - 3E9C95B
 
 
Shown above is the 1.3 km range of the portable handheld radio that all the factions use.
 
Notice how I zoomed in a little bit and there are significantly more grid squares. The bar scale on the bottom left now shows 100 meters (0.1 km).
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Those Radio's Ranges and Map Basics - 285E97E
 
 
Shown above is the red circle with the 2 km range of the manpack field radio that all the factions use. The smaller blue circle is also shown inside that shows the 1.3 km portable handheld radios’ range.
 
 
Be aware that the further you get from your intended receiver the more static and noise there will be when transmitting. More on this a few sections below.
 
 
 

Encryption and Same Frequency as the Enemy??

Fortunately the encryption seems to be in the simplest form as can be.
 
 
When you use frequency 38.5 and so does the enemy why can you not hear them on their radio when they transmit? It’s because in real life you would use a cryptographic key to load into the radios before-hand. You can also think of it the same way a VPN Tunnel works.
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Encryption and Same Frequency as the Enemy?? - 244B874
 
 
Only your team has the key already programmed into the radios when you spawn, no work needed. Once your radio picks up the same radio transmission from your team it will do the hard work and decrypt everything without you noticing. But because the enemy uses a different key when they spawn your radio has no idea how to decrypt their transmissions.
 
 
This is the idea that is mimicked from real life. There are no actual “keys” in game that you can manipulate. Instead this is all implied. But works the same nonetheless.
 
 
Wait, what about the FIA since they use the same radios as the Soviet Army? Would you be able to pick up a R-148 or R-107M from a dead FIA combatant and compromise the Soviet team?
 
No, because it’s back to the keys. The FIA AIs or players spawn with team-based keys even though they share the same radio type.
 
 
The in-game manual states “However, encryption cannot protect against captured radios and codebooks!”
 
 
“Codebooks” is another game element left to be discovered!
 
 
 

Using the Enemy Radio

You killed an enemy, looted his body, and stole his radio.
 
The last channel they were on should be what you have when you equip their radio.
 
You can scroll through all the frequencies and listen into any channels the enemy might be broadcasting on.
 
The channel that you have when you picked up the radio might be their squad’s channel or mission/objective channel. You can use this for your own strategic will. Should you listen and convey the information to your team? Maybe you like the idea of talking the enemy and bait them into an ambush or to them giving out their location.
 
 
To counter this you can use brevity codes, learn who your teammates are, or press “P” and look at the player list to see if the person talking is on your side.
 
 
Manual scans: Once you obtain the enemy comms, you can manually scroll slowly through all of their channels back and forth raking the frequencies until you hear chatter. The wait time to pick up communication if they’re broadcasting is relatively quick; about as fast as you hear the radio click sound when switching channels.
 
 
An additional countermeasure is to make sure you’re not on any of your default starter channels. These are the first to be compromised and can also be checked by pressing “P” and viewing your teammates frequencies per squad that they spawn with.
 
 
With the encryption mentioned earlier I must say that you cannot take the “key” and let your teammates in enemy communications with your factions radio. They must kill the enemy and take their radio if they want to listen/talk to the other side as well.
 
 
When you capture an objective by using the sites “Radio” it does nothing more than capture that objective.
 
 
Since the US Army has the AN/PRC-68 with 73 channels and the AN/PRC-77 with 93 channels, it’s a lot more favorable compared to their Soviet counterpart’s like the R-148 with 33 channels and the R-107M with 65 channels due to the fact that you can twart the enemy’s attempts to manually scan your frequencies unintentionally just by having a larger range for them to comb through.
 
 
 

Jamming

It is unknown if Bohemia Interactive will add jamming into the game of if the engine already supports it BUT.. you still might be able to do a poor man’s jam.
 
Radio jamming is the deliberate jamming, blocking or interference with wireless communications. In some cases jammers work by the transmission of radio signals that disrupt communications by decreasing the signal-to-noise ratio. Let’s say you pick up the enemy radio and want to “jam” them. If you’re in range you can scream continuously into their radio until they are forced to change frequencies. Then you can manually scan until you find their channel again maybe even play a soundboard. I bet they’ll love it.
 
 
 

Static?

Since we’ve talked about HF and VHF I figured it would be good to explain the difference on how the radios transmit information through the “air”. If the developers based radios from real life there are a few means to troubleshooting poor sound quality. If they made it simplistic and only by distance, than the best bet is to just walk towards the source.
 
 
BUT IF THEY DID.. Line Of Sight (LOS) can play a big portion into your quality.
 
 
And from reading the in-game manual it states for signal range “Operators should be aware of signal strengths and the position of stations within a network, as transmissions may be too far away to be received, leaving groups incommunicado.” I would recommend someone in the squad having a 2 km range radio to communicate back to the rear vital information.
 
 
High Frequency 3 MHz – 30 MHz
 
The dominant means of long-distance communication in this band is skywave (“skip”) propagation, in which radio waves directed at an angle into the sky refract back to Earth from layers of ionized atoms in the ionosphere.
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Static? - 151B12E
 
 
Very High Frequency 30 MHz – 300 MHz
 
Radio waves in the VHF band propagate mainly by line-of-sight and ground-bounce paths; unlike in the HF band there is only some reflection at lower frequencies from the ionosphere (skywave propagation). They do not follow the contour of the Earth as ground waves and so are blocked by hills and mountains. They can penetrate building walls and be received indoors, although in urban areas reflections from buildings cause multipath propagation, which can interfere with television reception. Atmospheric radio noise and interference (RFI) from electrical equipment is less of a problem in this and higher frequency bands than at lower frequencies.
 
 
Arma Reforger - Types of Radios and Frequencies - Static? - 9FE1A00
 
 
Try to gain altitude if you’re in a valley. If you’re on the wrong side of the hill you might have to get to the other side depending where the transmitter/receiver is.
 
 
 

Radio Etiquette

Never interrupt an ongoing conversation.
 
 
Conduct radio checks to ensure others can understand your messages.
 
Radio Checks:
 
Say: “[Their call sign], this is [your call sign], radio check, over.”
 
Wait for: “[Your call sign], this is [their call sign], roger, over.”
 
“5 by 5” is an older term used to assess radio signals, as in 5 out of 5 units for both signal strength and readability. Other terms similar to 5×5 are “LOUD AND CLEAR” or “Lima Charlie”.
 
 
Never say “Repeat.” Instead use “Say again.” Repeat is to repeat that last order, which is generally an order for mortars, artillery, or to fire on the enemy again.
 
 
Military Radio Protocol Best Practices:
 
Identify with whom you want to communicate by using their call sign.
 
Be direct and short when communicating.
 
Speak slowly and clearly. The further the distance the more helpful this will be.
 
Spell out letters and numbers, using the NATO Phonetic Alphabet.
 
Use correct lingo and prowords to reduce confusion and shorten transmitted messages.
 
 
Simple Prowords:
 
ACKNOWLEDGE/HOW COPY: A directive requiring the recipient to confirm they received a message.
 
BREAK: Used to break a message for a pause before relaying the next part of the message.
 
CLEAR: Used to clear a message in order to relay another one of higher importance.
 
CORRECT: Confirms the message broadcasted is correct.
 
DISREGARD THIS TRANSMISSION-OUT: This means “Forget this message, it was sent in error.”
 
I SAY AGAIN: Used to repeat a sent message because it was either misunderstood or extremely important.
 
OUT: Used to end a transmission.
 
OVER: Used to end a message while asking for a reply..
 
ROGER/COPY: Used to confirm receipt of a message.
 
SAY AGAIN: Used to ask a sender to repeat their last transmission.
 
SILENCE: Used to signal an immediate stop of all communication until the silence is lifted.
 
SILENCE LIFTED: Used to lift a temporary silence of communication.
 
THIS IS: Used to transmit a message from one call sign to another. But, some messages omit this proword. Example: “Delta 1, Delta 2, over” vs. “Delta 1 THIS IS Delta 2, over.”
 
WILCO: Used to indicate receipt of — and compliance with — the sent instructions.
 
WRONG: Used to say your last transmission was incorrect. The correct version is ___.
 
 
More Prowords, obtained from https://militaryalphabet.net/military-radio-communication-tips-and-tactics/#h-radio-checks – [militaryalphabet.net] :
 
ALL AFTER: This references a portion of the message as being “all that follows.”
 
ALL BEFORE: This references a portion of the message as being “all that proceeds.”
 
AUTHENTICATE: Used by a sender to ask the called station to authenticate the message that follows.
 
AUTHENTICATION IS: The transmission authentication of this message is ____.
 
CORRECTION: Corrects a misheard message.
 
DO NOT ANSWER: Used to indicate that the called station shouldn’t reply. The sender also should end with the proword “OUT.”
 
EXEMPT: Those addressed after this proword are exempt from the message sent and should disregard its contents.
 
FIGURES: Used to signal that numbers will follow.
 
FROM: Used to indicate who the message is from (its originator).
 
GROUPS: Used to signal a message that contains numbers of groups.
 
I AUTHENTICATE: Used to authenticating a message with what follows.
 
IMMEDIATE: Used in the most dire of situations that require immediate implementation and top priority.
 
INFO: The sender requests information from the addressees immediately following this proword.
 
I READ BACK: Used to repeat the instructions back to a sender to confirm the recipients understood them correctly.
 
I SPELL: Used to spell out the words that follow phonetically, using the NATO Phonetic Alphabet.
 
I VERIFY: Used to verify a request and repeated to verify a sent message.
 
MESSAGE: Used to indicate that a message must be recorded.
 
MORE TO FOLLOW: Used to convey that more will follow from the message initiator.
 
PRIORITY: Used for important messages that take precedence over regular conversation.
 
READ BACK: Used to ask a message recipient to repeat back the message exactly as received.
 
RELAY (TO): Transmit this message to [CALL SIGN(S)].
 
ROUTINE: Used to convey that the message being transmitted is routine and normal, having less importance.
 
SPEAK SLOWER: Used to request that the person speaking speak more slowly.
 
TIME: Used to convey the time frame for complying with the message.
 
TO: Used to address those who must comply with the message.
 
UNKNOWN STATION: Station identity is unknown that is attempting to be communicated with.
 
VERIFY: Used to verify a message.
 
WAIT: Used to indicate that a sender or recipient must pause for a few seconds.
 
WORD AFTER: The word of the message to which I have reference is that which follows … ___.
 
WORD BEFORE: The word of the message to which I have reference is that which proceeds … ___.
 
WORD TWICE: Used to say the words twice to make a message more easily understood.
 
 
 

The End

Depending on the game mode, you might be dropped in a Milsim server. If so, type in chat to be teleported to a squad if you cannot find them. Generally only squad leaders or radio operators will use the radios for milsims. If you’re playing conflict, jump in a vehicle or spawn where your other friendlies are and ask if it’s okay to join them and what frequency you should put your radio to.
 
 
Remember, at the end of the day this is still a fun game and there’s no need to be toxic to others if they’re not up to par with the radio as you’d like them to be.
 
 
I hope you enjoyed this guide. If you see something is wrong feel free to message me or post a comment. I love you all.
 
 

Written by EastHalo0

 
 
I hope you enjoy the Guide we share about Arma Reforger – Types of Radios and Frequencies; if you think we forget to add or we should add more information, please let us know via commenting below! See you soon!
 
 


Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*