by Anthony J. Ricchiazzi
PAO, Tobyhanna
Tobyhanna Army Depot, Pa.—Tobyhanna is refurbishing a Mobile Subscriber
Equipment (MSE) system for the Michigan Army National Guard’s 156th Signal
Battalion. The system saw heavy use in
Germany.
The system is composed of 56 shelters mounted on
vehicles, plus associated trailers, antennas, generators and telephone systems,
says Bob Moore, production controller, Communications Scheduling Division,
Production Management Directorate.
The MSE shelters are basically composed of six
systems: AN/TRC-190A (V)1/3 and 191A radio systems, AN/TSQ-154 Node Management
Facility, AN/TTC-47C Node Switch, AN/TTC-48C and 48(V)2 Small Extension Node
Switches and AN/TSM-183 Spares Shelter, according to Jerry Dougher, chief of
the Tactical Communications Facilities Division, Communications Systems Directorate. “They are used for radio, telephone, data
and fax communications within the MSE network.”
The system provides fixed or mobile battlefield
communications anywhere without extensive wire and cable when establishing
command posts. It can serve at the
brigade, division and theater levels, depending on need.
“Communications from the shelters are all routed
through a node center, composed of two shelters, which is the brains of the
whole system. It distributes the data
and monitors the other shelters,” added Jeff Gulvas, telecommunications
mechanic.
The CECOM Battlefield Combat Readiness Directorate
assigned the $3.6 million mission to Tobyhanna.
Technicians have been carrying out what’s called ‘deep
cleaning’ since June. Personnel
completed 36 shelters and the rest are expected to be finished in January.
Electronics mechanics in the Communications Systems
Directorate’s Digital Group Multiplexers Division disassemble the shelters,
clean all the electronics components down to the circuit cards and breakers,
then reassemble and test each shelter.
Moore said there are 200 major assemblies in the
system.
Personnel replace defective components and, if
necessary, Production Support Services and Systems Integration directorates
refurbish the shelter and its components.
“They are tested one at a time using the node center,”
Gulvas said. “The MSE node is the most
complicated of the shelters and is the first group we finished.”
The last time the depot performed a similar mission
was in 1995, when technicians overhauled about 150 shelters.
“All those guys who did that work are gone, retired or
in other divisions. These guys are all
new to this, and they’re doing a great job,” said Thomas Styer,
telecommunications mechanic. “The
TRC-191 Radio Access Unit is probably the most difficult shelter for us. It has a lot of cabling and wire
assemblies. It requires two carts of
test equipment before being tested using the node center.”
Tobyhanna has fielded the MSE in Michigan and
performed a final test.
Dougher pointed out that the depot is performing
similar maintenance for the vehicles and generators, and overhauling the
antennas.