Army Communication & Information Systems Specialists (Sig Op, Lineman and LCIS Amalgamation)

[Chad.wiseman]

I completed DP1 in ACISS in the summer of 2018.  All of my weekends were free except one.  However the didn't allow us to travel home each weekend.  Depending upon the behavior of the class, and at the course staff discretions, weekend leave passes (i.e. leave away from base) was either granted or denied.  However I do a lot of remote work civi side so that allowed me to catch up.  Hope this helps.

 

[c_canuk]

I did some research but never found this out for information, I am PRes and am about to do my DP1 for this summer, does anything run into the weekends training wise (e.g. field portion) or for the most part is my weekend free? My civilian job needs my attention on weekends. Any help would be appreciated!!

Submit a memo with the details of how much time on the weekends you need to accommodate your work requirements. Your home unit can staff this up to the school and ensure it's known to your course staff, that way it can be planned around. Don't surprise the staff with it when you arrive.

 

[385]

Hey everybody, first post on this site; it has been a treasure trove of information for months now and I am very appreciative of the quality content.

I'm currently waiting to get into basic as a signal technician (completed medical and interview on June 27th, did some fingerprinting on August 20th) but I haven't been able to find much info here or elsewhere on the trade:

- I see on older posts that IST/CST is referred to regularly, are these rough equivalents for signals technician/operator respectively?

- How are the two similar and different? The materials the recruiter gave me make Sig Tech sound more workshop-based and Sig Op more field.

- Is one more competitive/in demand than the other? A recent post in the selection thread (https://army.ca/forums/threads/130459/post-1578380.html#msg1578380) said ACISS NCMs had about 85% vacancy in July, would be interesting to know that breaks down into the three groups.

Thanks in advance for any replies; my CFRC seems optimistic I will start basic in October so wish me luck all : )

 

[PuckChaser]

IST/CST are rolled together into the new (old) Sigs Tech trade. You're right, its going to be predominately more workshop based but will have field positions so if you go that route do not be surprised if you're posted to a field unit and have to do Army things. A lot of folks get misinformed off the get go and assume they're applying for an air conditioned desk job.

They are similar in the fact that Sig Ops, Sig Techs and Line need to work together to get the mission done. Sig Ops will be at the coal-face delivering sigs support to end users (combat arms). Techs will do a lot more background work that enables major networks and equipment to function/keep functioning.

Both trades are highly in demand, and there's a huge shortage in the CAF. That does not sometimes translate into a lot of BMQ spots, as the bottleneck is our training system which is inefficient and cannot mass produce competent Signallers in the quantities the Army needs them. Line is typically full, but there is always spots for new members to join.

 

[marekbjj]

Core:  You do radios, this is the 'stereotypical' radio operator.  Nowadays they also do tons of stuff like run CP's, signallers for different units, strategic comms, tactical comms, all kinds of stuff.  They are the versatile jack of all trades.  These are the people who usually get upset if you swear, or say "ack" or "repeat" on the net.

IST:  Uber-Nerd, servers and networks.  They get spec pay.  Sorta.  Kinda.  Long story.  They usually do red (Unencrypted) networks and manage servers, services, and other weird nerd stuff.  Some get into programming and development/project jobs, but its rare.

CST:  Uber-Nerd, they fix stuff, do vehicle installs, wiring, and that kind of thing.  In some places like JSR you'll do lots of black networks, satellites and stuff, in other places you're an electronics fixer-upper.  They are a wider net of stuff, but still very technical.  They also get spec pay.  Sorta.  Kinda.  Long Story.

LST:  These are lineman, they drink from boots.  They have secondary duties such as line work, towers, climbing, wiring.  They are a very physical trade and when not drinking are some of the hardest working people I know.  They are awesome.

Thank you for this information! Very insightful.

I am waiting for my medical exam and have been searching for as much information regarding this profession as I can.

 

[211RadOp]

Thank you for this information! Very insightful.

I am waiting for my medical exam and have been searching for as much information regarding this profession as I can.

Marekbjj, note that this will be changing in the extremely near future.

 

[marekbjj]

211RapOp, I was speaking to someone on Facebook the other day, who's in the trade, he let me know it's changing in October.

Not sure if this is 100% accurate, but he said ACISS is going to be broken down into 5 groups.

- Signal Operator: making sure people can hear each other on the radio and working on the radio
- Communications Tech: Fixes the radios and equipment
- Information Tech: Fixes computers and networks
- Line Systems Tech: Installs telephone and internet systems (work underground and on towers/poles)
- Cyber Operator: New trade that has little to no information, but based on what he said sounds like it has to do with hacking.



I'm still waiting for my medical to get booked, haven't had a chance to speak to a recruiter to confirm this information though!

 

[Eye In The Sky]

What are the thoughts on the new way forward for Army Signals MOSIDs for the forum members?  Improvement over the ACISS project?  Better division of duties and training?

 

[211RadOp]

211RapOp, I was speaking to someone on Facebook the other day, who's in the trade, he let me know it's changing in October.

Not sure if this is 100% accurate, but he said ACISS is going to be broken down into 5 groups.

- Signal Operator: making sure people can hear each other on the radio and working on the radio
- Communications Tech: Fixes the radios and equipment
- Information Tech: Fixes computers and networks
- Line Systems Tech: Installs telephone and internet systems (work underground and on towers/poles)
- Cyber Operator: New trade that has little to no information, but based on what he said sounds like it has to do with hacking.



I'm still waiting for my medical to get booked, haven't had a chance to speak to a recruiter to confirm this information though!

It will be three trades coming out of the old ACISS trade.  They will be Signal Operator, Line Technician and Signal Technician (Cyber Operator is a new trade that was not part of ACISS although most (all?) came from ACISS).  What is above is the old ACISS trade (less Cyber Op) with it's sub-occupations.  Essentially the only real change will be that the Communication System Techs and the Information System Techs will merge into one occupation (Sig Tech), and the training that ACISS received and what the new trades will receive.  If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

What are the thoughts on the new way forward for Army Signals MOSIDs for the forum members?  Improvement over the ACISS project?  Better division of duties and training?

EITS, I think that it is good for the Branch and the Corps.  The training for the Sig Ops and Line Techs will not change substantially, but the Sig Techs will have some (a lot?) of conversion training to go through, depending on what sub-occupation they were as ACISS.

 

[marekbjj]

It will be three trades coming out of the old ACISS trade.  They will be Signal Operator, Line Technician and Signal Technician (Cyber Operator is a new trade that was not part of ACISS although most (all?) came from ACISS).  What is above is the old ACISS trade (less Cyber Op) with it's sub-occupations.  Essentially the only real change will be that the Communication System Techs and the Information System Techs will merge into one occupation (Sig Tech), and the training that ACISS received and what the new trades will receive.  If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

That makes things a lot more clear, thank you.
Coincidentally I got my email to book my medical today!  ;D

 

[PuckChaser]

The training for the Sig Ops and Line Techs will not change substantially

Doomed to fail if that's the case. The ACISS training system created subpar Core members, who needed maximum supervision as CFSCE downloaded tasks to the unit to teach. If the new SigOp course isn't back to the length of the old SigOp QL3 before ACISS, we're just repeating the same mistakes.

 

[211RadOp]

I know they are working on the new Sig Op QS/TP but I don't know where it is at.  I have been out of the school for over a year now.

 

[Zarack21]

It will be three trades coming out of the old ACISS trade.  They will be Signal Operator, Line Technician and Signal Technician (Cyber Operator is a new trade that was not part of ACISS although most (all?) came from ACISS).  What is above is the old ACISS trade (less Cyber Op) with it's sub-occupations.  Essentially the only real change will be that the Communication System Techs and the Information System Techs will merge into one occupation (Sig Tech), and the training that ACISS received and what the new trades will receive.  If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

EITS, I think that it is good for the Branch and the Corps.  The training for the Sig Ops and Line Techs will not change substantially, but the Sig Techs will have some (a lot?) of conversion training to go through, depending on what sub-occupation they were as ACISS.

This is apparently not correct anymore, they are looking at NOT merging IST and CST. Current rumor has it that D Sigs thinks it's not a good idea anymore.
As such, implementation was delayed until Apr 2020.

And as for the QS/TP (at least for dp1 and dp2, for Sig Tech), they are complete, we are currently building the Courseware Dev. Although this might/will change if they actually go with not merging IST/CST.

 

[PuckChaser]

This is apparently not correct anymore, they are looking at NOT merging IST and CST. Current rumor has it that D Sigs thinks it's not a good idea anymore.
As such, implementation was delayed until Apr 2020.

And as for the QS/TP (at least for dp1 and dp2, for Sig Tech), they are complete, we are currently building the Courseware Dev. Although this might/will change if they actually go with not merging IST/CST.

Oh god, here we go again. Paralysis by analysis. Branch stuck in limbo for 3 years until we get a new D Sigs. Meanwhile we're stuck at ~75% PML (unsure if that's the exact number right now) and not recovering for going on a decade. Coupled with the fact that the Branch is freezing promotions means top performers are going to get stuck in their current rank and just VOT/release instead of sticking around to see what gets sorted out.

:facepalm:

 

[211RadOp]

Letter today from D RCCS says that Sig Op and Line Tech will remain, but the implementation is delayed until 1 Apr 20.  There will be "additional staff work and analysis with a view to creating two separate and distinct trade occupations as opposed to the one Sig Tech occupation."  This will be implemented in Apr 20 as well.

 

[simzara]

I applied for ACISS reserves and have been accepted. I Will start my BMQ soon but I have started my parade nights two months ago. ACISS is not the tradeI had hoped it would be. I want a trade where I can be outside more instead of just doing boring repetitive stuff and have a strong brotherhood. As far as I can see, ACISS will not provide that. In the CFAT and in medical I qualified for armored and infantry. What are my chances to transfer over to either of those trades?
I want a strong brotherhood, I want to be able to volunteer for deployments, and if I do get selected for deployment I want a weapon to defend my self.

25 years old, male, born in Canada.
In BC
multiple certifications, a diploma in an IT field. And, just got accepted into computer science.

 

[Brasidas]

I applied for ACISS reserves and have been accepted. I Will start my BMQ soon but I have started my parade nights two months ago. ACISS is not the tradeI had hoped it would be. I want a trade where I can be outside more instead of just doing boring repetitive stuff and have a strong brotherhood. As far as I can see, ACISS will not provide that. In the CFAT and in medical I qualified for armored and infantry. What are my chances to transfer over to either of those trades?
I want a strong brotherhood, I want to be able to volunteer for deployments, and if I do get selected for deployment I want a weapon to defend my self.

25 years old, male, born in Canada.
In BC
multiple certifications, a diploma in an IT field. And, just got accepted into computer science.

I'm likely from your unit, and you may have noticed several pers who aren't around much lately. We're deployed and/or deploying overseas on operations.

All pers, regardless of trade, have a weapon whenever the threat level justifies it.

Pers in your trade spend plenty of time outside. Not all the time, but they certainly do with CNR. I sleep in a tent, and I've spent time working GD and escort tasks along with my trade. You might want to talk to pers with more time in your trade. Drop me a PM sometime if you want.

Brotherhood? Sure. I had tight-knit section overseas.

Can you change trades? Sure. I suspect that you're more likely to deploy as a sig than any other trade though, given the proportion of positions offered to reservists across sig, infantry, and armour vs the number of pers in those trades.

Your certifications/diploma *might* be useful for a PLAR. Being a computer science student won't. Your comments make me strongly suspect you're not a candidate for going cyber, but you'd get something out of being a det comd on support ex when you've got your trades course.

Does your Tp WO's name start with a Y, btw? For the field tp, not BTL. He's a pretty good guy for talking about this stuff.

I'm not going to disparage your experience, but two parade nights does not get you much of an idea of how your trade is employed or how you'll enjoy it.

 

[211RadOp]

...I'm not going to disparage your experience, but two parade nights does not get you much of an idea of how your trade is employed or how you'll enjoy it.

And nor will you have an idea of any trade at this point in your career.  Until you complete your BMQ and DP1, you will spend a lot of time sitting around the Armouries.

Once you are DP1 qualified, you will have much more time in the field and it will change your outlook on the trade.

 

[simzara]

I'm likely from your unit, and you may have noticed several pers who aren't around much lately. We're deployed and/or deploying overseas on operations.

All pers, regardless of trade, have a weapon whenever the threat level justifies it.

Pers in your trade spend plenty of time outside. Not all the time, but they certainly do with CNR. I sleep in a tent, and I've spent time working GD and escort tasks along with my trade. You might want to talk to pers with more time in your trade. Drop me a PM sometime if you want.

Brotherhood? Sure. I had tight-knit section overseas.

Can you change trades? Sure. I suspect that you're more likely to deploy as a sig than any other trade though, given the proportion of positions offered to reservists across sig, infantry, and armour vs the number of pers in those trades.

Your certifications/diploma *might* be useful for a PLAR. Being a computer science student won't. Your comments make me strongly suspect you're not a candidate for going cyber, but you'd get something out of being a det comd on support ex when you've got your trades course.

Does your Tp WO's name start with a Y, btw? For the field tp, not BTL. He's a pretty good guy for talking about this stuff.

I'm not going to disparage your experience, but two parade nights does not get you much of an idea of how your trade is employed or how you'll enjoy it.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. So just because someone is in a combat trade doesn't mean that they'll get to travel more than someone in ACISS?

If I stay in aciss can they make me do a speciality that I don't enjoy? Such as fixing computers or will they let me decide?

I've heard rumors that someone in aciss can take a course in para. How true is that?

Also, can someone from reg forced aciss take courses listed as "common" here: https://army.ca/forums/threads/114268/post-1591287.html#msg1591287

 

[211RadOp]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. So just because someone is in a combat trade doesn't mean that they'll get to travel more than someone in ACISS?

If I stay in aciss can they make me do a speciality that I don't enjoy? Such as fixing computers or will they let me decide?

I've heard rumors that someone in aciss can take a course in para. How true is that?

Also, can someone from reg forced aciss take courses listed as "common" here: https://army.ca/forums/threads/114268/post-1591287.html#msg1591287

Going from memory, most ResF ACISS are in the core side, meaning they will work in Radio Detachments.  There are some, not many, technicians who will work on repairing/replacing radio and IT components and there are some "geeks" that will look after network administration.  Your sub-occupation will be a combination of your wants and the unit's needs, combined with your competency.  For example, if you can't find the ON/OFF switch on the computer, you will not be put into an IS position.

Yes, as ACISS you can get loaded on the Basic Para course, however don't hold your breath unless you need it for your employment.