Quote Originally Posted by RobertTheTexan View Post
Continuing from my previous post, Welcome to..."The Rest of the Story."

Thanks again for reading - Robert
I'll start with the Thales Blade Antenna, 1 meter.

Antenna 1m Blade, 30-90 MHz I found mine on eBay, and it's really hit or miss if you find one. If you do, just be sure that it's in good shape and not damaged. Blade antennas will get weakened at the point they are folded up, if they have seen too much use. No one likes a limp blade antenna, and viagra won't fix that.

The antenna unfolded stretched across my TT shemagh. Yes, technically it's longer than 1 meter, but I'm not sure they count the base, but the actual antenna portion since that has a direct impact on the frequencies the antenna is capable to rx/tx on. (I think, feel free to correct me on this.)


Part number of Thales blade antenna



Another shot


There are some Thales antennas on eBay, the link will take you to the search, because I don't know the buyers well enough to post a direct link, and you get a piece of crap I'd not feel good about that. Also when you are looking, also look for Harris blade antennas. They are the same quality as Thales at a minimum..
Click here to search for Thales and Harris 1 meter blade antennas

Adapter J-Pole The J-Pole adapter is needed so I can use the J-Pole antenna. The J-Pole antenna mentioned in the OP gives you the capability to increase your TX/RX range, by throwing the antenna in the branches of a tree or some other pole - elevating in, giving in creased LoS (Line of Sight). It is a 2 meter antenna.

TNC Male Plug to SMA Male Plug M/M Straight Adapter RF Cable Connector
NOTE: When looking for an adapter you may run across some that are titled "RP - Reverse Polarity". Stay away from those.



Liberator II headset Another eBay item. You'll understand why I went to eBay once you price these or Peltor's brand new. I know Peltors are popular especially in the SOF community, but the Liberator II is also an excellent headset. They are manufactured by Tactical Command Industries, and they sell into both the military and LEO space. Not surprisingly, SafariLand bought out TCI, but when you need to speak to a TCI rep you can get their direct line. I had to send my headset off to TCI for a cable repair and had them run some diagnostics since I didn't have a 35V handy. The Liberator II has noise cancellation or what they call "Digital Sound Processing" which should suppress the bang-bang while not suppressing other sounds you may need to keep your happy heart ticking. Here's a blurb from Tactical Life on a press release on the Liberator II's which were released in 2014 (Digital Threat Compression Technology to safely reduce hazardous noise while enhancing low-level sounds with Digital Situational Awareness Enhancement, which simultaneously provides the user with 360 degrees of ambient sound reproduction and unbelievable situational awareness.) They also indicated that the headset is waterproof and you get about 600 hours of life on 2 AA batteries. It still worked when I got it and the batteries looked to be rather used. Sounds fun right?
I don't have a tactical helmet, but they should work with Ops-Core, Team Wendy, and the issue ACH or MICH helmets. etc.

LIberator II headset, behind the head suspension



Here's a view of the power button (that activates the noise cxl) and volume buttons. The mesh goes over your head, and the wired band securing the cables goes behind your head - hence "behind the head" suspension. The over the head is like a standard headset suspension like your Bose or whatever that is padded and goes over your head.



TCI MAST (Modular Antenna System, Tactical) Antenna Relocation Kit, Version 2 So this piece of my setup was not necessary, in that I already had an antenna relocation cable, that allowed me to move the antenna to the back of my X-harness on my chest rig. However, since I have more than one chest rig, I decided to get the MAST for my primary rig, and use the relocation cable (Link in the OP) for my truck or SPR kit.
This is a solid piece of gear and I am glad I went this route. It not only provides a pouch for the base of your antenna, but provides some security loops to prevent damage to the antenna base. I can build a cable easier than a blade antenna.


The MAST kit, with a velcro strap to secure the blade antenna when it's folded up.



A closer up view of the MAST. It's very well constructed and pretty easy to reach over your shoulder to release the velcro for the blade to extend. Using my left hand to fold and right hand to secure the velcro, I was able to secure the antenna. That's why it's positioned where it is, and also to get max LoS when extended, and less obstruction from my body.



Securing the blade (the easy way)



Here you can see the 'security loop' as it secures around the base of the antenna. One to keep the antenna from sliding up or down, but also to prevent any damage to the base of the antenna.



The MAST Relocation Kit also came with a 90 degree QD connector. This gives you the ability to disconnect one antenna and connect another. For example, I can quickly disconnect the 1 meter blade antenna and connect my 2m cable when I need the extended rx/tx capability to send a message. Disconnect the 2m, reconnect my 1m blade antenna, and move out. This 90 degree QD fitting is part of the "Version 2" of the MAST kit.

A good shot of the 90 degree QD fitting. I placed the antenna cable out front for the sake of the pic, as you will see I normally keep it behind my PTT



A clean picture of the antenna cable as it connects to the MAST 90 degree QD adapter



How it's normally ran on my chest rig



This concludes the comms updates to my chest rig. I will do a reply to this post and continue on with my chest rig setup for those of you interested...

Thank you for reading, I hope this is proving helpful to you.