Royal Engineers Association - Radio Branch

This page is the social media page of the Royal Engineers Association Radio Branch. During their service, soldiers of the Corps of Royal Engineers (RE) (aka Sappers) can take up various trades and posts as well as combat engineering. To fulfil its mission the corps has raised many part time and professional radio operators who serve in all ranks and at various skill levels. The development of battlefield communications over the course of the twentieth century has seen sappers using various forms of communication as they have developed through WW1, WW2 and the Cold War, Falklands Conflict Gulf Wars and Afganistan and others. In each phase of the development of conflict and period, technology has advanced; Semaphore, Line signalling and field telephony gave way to radio operating in WW1 - shortly following the corps involvement with Marconi during the development of radio. This led directly to the formation of the royal corps of signals, but RE, Artillery, Cavalry and Infantry units still retained their own radio operators (who understand the way their own units operate and command and controls themselves). In the early days static and horse drawn sets that transmitted morse code by generating a high voltage spark gap, were transformed into the vehicle mounted valved equipment common in WW2. Later, transistorised sets became common, and finally solid state equipment evolved. Modern solid state sets use integrated circuits and are considerably lighter and easier to operate, use less power and have further range etc. Military signalling has gone digital at the end of the 20th Century. The job of; answering the radio, decoding messages, making calls and plotting information on maps and charts has given way to Information and Communications Technology. Sapper signallers now serve to deliver and analyse battlefield data, routed automatically via secure digital mobile data networks. The secure mobile battlefield computer system has arrived. During this transformation the corps has developed its own specialised computer programs as well as supporting others arms and corps to develop theirs. In the wider community such skills have great value, especially in the emergency services and IT Industry. Throughout their service, sappers are encouraged to take up sports and hobbies in order to maintain welfare. Many sappers have performed at the olympics and taken part in track and field sports at a national level. At the time this is being written the radio branch has over 30 licences radio amateurs in its ranks. These are sapper radio operators who also share their knowledge and skills via self training and training others, using amateur radio. Not surprisingly amateur radio moves in step with technology and often leads to technological development. This page is therefore for all ranks of sappers across many generations with differing experiences - unique to the corps of royal engineers.