Hi,

after having the Kinetic M109 A2 I paged throught my archive and found only one pic of a gun that had an antenna mount on it. Many vehicles I have photographed hadn`t one. How did the M109 batteries get their orders/fire coordinates? (Handsigns,
Flags,Message Pidgeons ?)
Any ideas?

Hans-Hermann

most guns used a landline based intercom system. usually with a loadspeaker in the gun, in canada it was called FABCIS. the reel on the back door holds the WD1 TT wire that would be run to the CP. in Canada all our guns also had radios for comms on the move.

AN/VIC 1 Intercom system, I used to install and repair them. No radio until the A6

I found the site of the manufacturer, which has pics and dimensions of the set:
http://www.napcointl.com/en/home/product_divisions/prod_desc/an_vic.html

Prior to the M109A6 Paladin, all the guns had to be lined up in the same general area so they were all within the same firing point and the battery had one location to calculate firing data from. In this configuration, there was a land line (wire) run from the Fire Direction Center (FDC) to each gun location where a TA-312 Field Telephone was located. There was designated crewman who was on the TA-312 and relayed firing commands to the guncrew.

The AN/VIC 1 Intercom system was used within the gun to comunicate between crew members. It did not have a radio function. A land line could be hooked to it to act as a speaker in the gun as well.

Hi Guys,

thanks fo all the useful informations. Let`s hope we see some of these stuff in the rumored resin interior for the Kinetic kit.

Hans-Hermann