RN1 & RN2 Information Sought

[Steven Cole]

Posted on Behalf of Steve Millin

I live in Weymouth and am a volunteer at the Nothe Fort, a tourist attraction. The fort is a Palmerston fort (folly) built during the 1860’s as a defence against the threat of a French invasion, which of course was never really in the offing.

Within the fort is a decommissioned 1980’s District Emergency Centre and we are trying, as much as possible to make a feature of it, with myself responsible for the COMCEN. Now, my last five years or so with the DoT were firstly on the ROC radio network and latterly the program to roll out the Autex message switches in County Mains, Standby’s and districts. (A very small fish in a big pond I hasten to add.) So I know something about the land-line side of the Emergency Communications Network (ECN) but not the supposedly “back-up” radio network.

When I was leaving Hannington to go work for F6 in Horseferry House c1986 there was work underway on a Radio Network 1 (RN1), which I seem to remember was at the high end of the UHF spectrum. But was that just for the ROC, or was it for the ECN in general? I suspect now the latter. Further to this there was talk of an RN2 (VHF?) and RN3 (HF). The latter I know was to have been a mobile affair consisting of a number of three-ton trucks. In 1989 I transferred to the MoD. What happened to these systems? Were any of them implemented? What equipment was to have been used, in Emergency Centres especially? Are there any examples of the kit anywhere?

So there you have it. I am in need of information. If there is anybody out there who can help me, please do so!
Thank you.

Steve Millin