Can't hook a laptop up to your TCCCS manpack
you can with the proper cable.
Why FRS radios are a bad thing in operation because of the following
1) the 521 is designed only to communicate within 100 meters with the stubby whip, and if your 522 craps out, you can use the 3 foot whip to get 3 km in an emergency
this is important so that:
a) the enemy has to be within 100 meters to Direction Find you, With an FRS they could be 3-5 km away. (DF Equipment accurate up to 10 figures costs about the same as a couple tickets from Saudia Arabia to New York)
If you use a FRS radio the en force potential could get the locations accurate within a meter or two of every trench, latrine, tent, etc just by sitting 3 km away quietly for a few days.
b) the FRS radio cannot be encrypted, so not only will you bleed information, such as names, voices, call signs, structure of your area, who is in charge of who, you can also be seriously messed around with.
Ie “Cpl Bloggins, Report to the oGroup” would be taped and dissected into syllables, as with every single transmission you make, then after about a week of recording, they now start messing with you, every 5 minutes your voice comes across the air, and orders your troops about. You attempt to stop them by saying “All C/S this is ____ I’m being imitated disregard” they stop… you think smugly to yourself, what do the Jimmies know HAH!” then you come under fire, you use your FRS to issue an order and damned if your voice doesn’t come over the air and tell them to disregard as someone is imitating you.
c) If you take the time to use and learn the 521 it is a very reliable piece of kit as is the 522 the “it’s unreliable stance” is from people unmotivated to learn and appreciate a fine piece of kit. The argument is similar to “we should go back to the Lee Enfield, we will never use the Auto Function, and the Repetition is too complicated and the rifle requires so much more maint and care to use. It’s a waste of my time” sigs are just as bad for this attitude, but we’re starting to come around.
d) using the 521 for anything other than section comms is not what it was designed for, the reason the 521 exists is so that you can talk to everyone in your section with a whisper, and no one except your section can hear it Period.
e) the separate RX/TX settings are important as they allow you to utilize RRB more fully… you want to keep your section informed as well as communicate with HQ, without giving away your position or hauling a 522 around the trenches
one example:
1) set up a 522 RRB relay (cable, press RRB so r on each radio, set one to pltn freq, one to alt freq)
2) set your sections radios to Rx/tx on pltn freq.
3) the pltn is too far away to hear them, that’s fine, set the 2nd channel on each radio to R/X pltn freq, and T/X on alt freq
4) when you switch to ch2 freq, it goes to the RRB set, in one 522 and out the other at highpower, your section and platoon will all hear from the High Power TX, any comms from your section or platoon will go back through to you.
5) the pltn reply will come in and all will hear it from the pltn direct.
6) This stops the Enemy from DF your exact trench, etc locations and allows you to keep your section in the loop with the pltn. If you throw your RRB 522s behind a hill, the enemy might not even hear your outgoing tx.
Ask your attached sigs guys to set this up for you if you don’t have the time to learn to do this yourself, takes about 5 min.
The 522 is easy to use.
To set it up like a 77Set or FRS
1) set channel to CH 1
2) set mode to PT
3) turn it on
4) punch in freq
done.
To Add Extra channels.
1) after setting channel 1 as above, rotate volume to HSET
2) switch to each channel
3) press up key, then enter channel, repeat for each channel.
Your sigs guys should load crypto for you, and hopping or anything else you need, and the only thing you need to know is press H/h until it says h if you are hopping with the control station, and press FXC otherwise. Follow CEOIs
To set up RRB
1) join 2 522s with RRB cable
2) set each to different freq
3) press RRB on each until r is on both
Done
The 522 while heavier than the 77 set, a full complement of batteries with the 522 is lighter than the same with the 77 set.
99% of comms problems stem from bad batteries, don’t give up on the radio, tag the bad batteries and get them replaced.
Test your radios before you go to the field, you wouldn’t take an untested weapon to the field, don’t do the same with your radios, tag and send to be replaced if N/S.
) even when you know the army guy lingo, let alone someone who just happens to be listening in (eavesdropping, as it were). 
