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HT-2 and Delco 5300

The HT-2 was

developed by the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology
for use in Vietnam. U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berets) worked with the CIA on the border between Laos and Vietnam. They were the advisors to Montagnard (a derisive French term for the mountain hill tribes of Indochina) tribesmen who helped the U.S. fight the communist insurgents (Viet Cong) and the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) in South Vietnam.

There are a large number of mountain tribes throughout Indochina and Burma. Each tribe is slightly different from the others in language, dress and customs. In Vietnam one mountain tribe was the Rhade, while in Laos there were the Ta'oi, Hmong, and Laven, to name just a few. No one has been able to trace the linguistic origins of their tribal languages, while many academics believe the tribes migrated into Burma and Indochina from China.

FM series radios would have been the village radios if they use the FM band. The HT-2s were VHF band, usable in mountainous terrain by line of sight but not over long distances. The VHF band was better for air to ground communication.

In addition to use in Vietnam, the HT-2 was used by the Lao mountain tribesmen and lowland Lao who formed the irregular fighting units in Laos who fought against Lao communist insurgents and NVA invaders in Laos.

The HT-2 radio is a VHF radio with two channels (two different crystals) in approximately the 118.0 to 129.9 frequency range. The frequencies could be changed by a radio technician. The radios were used to communicate on the ground over short distances between two radios mostly in line of sight of each other. It was also used to communicate between the ground and aircraft flying overhead.

The Delco 5300 is in fact very portable, even though it uses a long wire antenna. The antenna was wrapped around a spool and kept in a canvas carrying case.

The radio was light and compact and the antenna was compact and could be strung up and taken down quickly. It might not be easy to do in an open environment but in wooded and jungle environments it would be possible to string up the antenna in such a way as to be hidden while using the radio and antenna.

The problem was that batteries might last about two weeks depending on use; so if the users could not carry enough for the amount of time they were needed, the users would have to be resupplied by parachute drop.

Obviously, the HT-2 comes into play as an air to ground radio if resupply of batteries for it (D cells) and the Delco 5300 (specially made battery) are needed and sent by parachute drop.