On the weekend commencing 24th October 25, cadets from the Army Section attended a two star signals camp that was held in Saint Martin’s Plain (SMP) camp in Folkestone.

On Friday at 1300 hours, we assembled outside the CCF hut eager to pass two star signals and get to use the Mercury 710 Radio System. When we arrived at SMP we were shown to our billets, where we cleaned and unpacked before having our camp briefing and heading to dinner. SMP Camp is great because it has a NAAFI where cadets can relax and socialise with other cadets from across the country who we are sharing the same camp with.

After Saturday breakfast, which was a full English, we had our first room inspection to make sure the billets were tidy and our uniform was of a high standard before going swiftly into lessons. We listened enthusiastically as we had Semaphore (a system of holding two flags in certain positions to represent a alphanumeric code) explained to us. We also learnt about safely putting a Mercury 710 radio together, including how far we needed to keep it from ourselves to maintain a safe distance and the distance it can transmit a signal over.

On Saturday evening we were attached to the recruit fieldcraft exercise as section signallers. The recruits were undertaking a Close Target Recce (CTR) on an enemy location and they had to feed us information, that using a Mercury 710, we reported back to 0 (HQ). This was to help with our voice procedure to make sure we could be understood. We found this very useful when it came to doing our test.

On Sunday morning we had breakfast, followed by some time to go over material we had learnt and make sure we were prepared for our test. Lieutenant Blows conducted our test on the two star signals syllabus.

When we arrive back at school, we had a combined final parade with the recruits, which was lead by Captain Quick. We were proudly informed we had passed the assessment, so were presented with our blue radio badges, meaning we are now qualified cadet radio users!

Many thanks to officers and instructors putting on this opportunity to pass our qualification to be able to use the Mercury 710 radios while in the field. The Officers and instructors gave up their free time so we can benefit and grow as individuals, for which we are extremely grateful!

Written By: Lance Corporal Henry Barnes