Page 17 - EngineerIT June 2022

RADIO COMMUNICATION

of information. They will have less are going to be susceptible to submarines cutting the cables. So, we are already in that
bandwidth but the same connectivity contingency/emergency part of our PACE plan, so HF will be another tool in the kit bag
with HF communications.” that the war fighter can use in an environment where all communications are degraded.”
The Indo-Pacific Command Core HF is drawing from existing off-the-shelf systems, but new technologies will be
(INDOPACOM) J-65 office has its Indo- integrated, especially those from the commercial sector. The joint interoperability test
Pacific Relief Network, or IPRN, through command (JITC) is partnered with the US cyber command to view emerging technologies
which the command is working with and incorporate them into Defence Department modernisation programmes. Next-
several mission partners for HF on generation HF is heading toward wideband, or high-speed, HF for higher capacity
humanitarian assistance and disaster connectivity. A DISA official says that under perfect atmospheric conditions, this HF
relief (HADR). Using a transmitter site connectivity could provide full motion video. Vendors are building radios for that, and
at Wahiawa, Oahu, Hawaii, the office is the department is buying these next-generation radios. Col. Sander says that having a full
testing data, voice and automatic link motion video capability will enable airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
establishment (ALE) across the Pacific feeds from unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft. This will enable soldiers on the ground
region into Fiji, Malaysia, Australia, to see the enemy over the near horizon, and it will assist in HADR operations as well.
Dakar, Singapore and other places, a DISA “Knowing where you can and cannot land supplies after an earthquake … is another
official notes. This effort includes twice- application,” the colonel said.
yearly exercises. And a HADR operation may be the best testbed for HF over the vast region. Those
The Air Force’s 644th combat types of operations tend to occur frequently across the area, and Morgan offers that it is
communications squadron on Guam the type of partner engagement that INDOPACOM emphasises. Col. Sander agrees that
is working with the Air Force high HADR would present an opportunity for HF exploitation. n
frequency global communications system
(HFGCS) activity, which consists of single
sideband short wave transmitters. South Africa and HF communication
This effort aims at passing voice
communications from a tactical PRC-160 he first recorded communication in the HF spectrum was recorded in 1925. The Radio
radio into the defence switched network, Informer, a Canadian publication wrote in its December 1925 edition:” South African
the DISA official said. Tradio amateur talks with the US for the first time” “Hartford, Conn, November 10.
Bruce A. Morgan is the deputy Amateur radio, which has achieved many enviable transoceanic communication has added to
commander of DISA Pacific regional its laurels with the completion of two successful attempts at two-way code communication
field command, cyberspace operations between South Africa and the United States. Such two-way work has been the aim of amateur
directorate, DISA Operations and radio enthusiasts in both countries for many months, but it remained for John S. Streeter,
Infrastructure Centre. He allows owner of the station O-A4Z, Cape Town, South Africa to successfully accomplish the feat on
that the J-65 is integrating various 17 October 1925
communications across the Pacific South Africa entered the international era of HF broadcasting in May 1966 when
into the annual Pacific endeavor inter- Government started Radio RSA. By 1976 the station transmitted for 36 hours a week in
operability exercise. This effort includes twelve languages including English, French, Portuguese, and Afrikaans.
integrating some newer technologies into The service was discontinued in 1992. The only transmission that survived the close
the HF mix to increase its functionality down was a broadcast into Africa, renamed Channel Africa which had daily programmes in
and reliability for basic data transmission Chi Nyanja, Silozi, Portuguese, Swahili and English. The SABC also transmitted Radio Sonder
communications, even beyond the Grense (RSG) on shortwave to the Northern Cape.
threat to satellite and optical fibre Due to lack of funding the shortwave station at Meyerton closed down on 31 March 2019.
communications. “We are certain to see
more involvement and use of proof-of-
concepts and experiments in exercises,”
he says. They are likely to be small scale
and relatively informal.
Col. Sander is blunt about the need
for HF. “If there is a future conflict in
the INDOPACOM area of operations,
the cyberspace portion is going to be
increasingly contested,” he predicts.
“We know we are not going to be able
to operate on our terrestrial fibre optic
leases or our commercial SATCOM
because they are going to be jammed.
They are going to be degraded. They Cape Town Radio Amateur John Streeter make first transatlantic HF contact on 17 October 1925

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