HF Academy
Welcome!
HF Academy
History of and Introduction to
HF Operating
200 Meters and Down
Spark Gap to CW
Tubes to Transistors (Mostly)
State of the Art
How We Got Here
HF Academy
200 Meters and Down 1912
 Wavelength
 1,500 Kilocycles (kHz)
 “Useless” RF Territory
 Clinton DeSoto, W9KL
 Published 1st in 1938
 Spark vs. CW
 Everything Was New
HF Academy
200 Meters and Down
 1914—ARRL Formed
 1914-1917—1200 to 5700 Hams
 1917—World War 1—Off-The-Air
 1919—Back On-The-Air
 1921-22—Transatlantic Tests
Shorter Wavelengths Work Better!
 1923—14,000 Hams
 1924—80, 40, 20, 5 Meters Bands
 1927—Radio Act Creates the FCC
HF Academy
HF Academy
Spark Gap Radio
www.scitechantiques.com
HF Academy
No HOA’s in 1920!
Radio Luxembourg
HF Academy
1927 Neutrodyne Receiver
 Glass case for showing off the insides
 Six tubes
 3 RF Amplifiers
 1 Detector
 2 Audio Amplifiers
 Battery Operated (not AA cells!)
Radio Luxembourg
HF Academy
Spark Gap to CW
Reduce Transmitter Spectrum
Tubes for RX & TX
Improved (S+N)/N Ratio
Simple, Effective TX
“Easy” to Detect
HF Academy
“Modern” Gear circa 1960
K8TE’s First Rig
HF Academy
“Modern” Gear circa 1960
Terminated,
Tilted, Folded
Dipole
Dow Key
TR Relay
Heathkit QF-1
“Q Mulitplier”
Heathkit B-1 BALUN
Hallicrafters S-38D
HF Academy
Tubes to Transistors (Mostly)
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Follow-On to SB-102
All Solid State but 3 Tubes
“Compact” & “Lightweight”
Internal AC or 12 VDC
Powered
Operated Fixed & Mobile
100 Watt TX
Ham Bands Only
Improved, Not Great RX
Japanese Stole HF Market
Worth More than my Car
HF Academy
Elecraft—State of the Art
K3S Transceiver
P3 Pan Adapter
KAT500 Tuner
KPA500 Amplifier
HF Academy
Elecraft K3S—State of the Art
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160-6 Meters
All Solid State
10/100 Watts TX
SDR Technology
Software-Defined Radio (SDR)
Hybrid Superheterodyne RX
Ultra Low Noise RX/TX
Manufactured or Assembly Kit
Top Choice for DXpedtions and Multi-Multi Contest Stations
Constantly Refined firmware—easily updated
Field Day Experiences
Buy Once—Cry Once
HF Academy
How We Got Here
Experimentation
Always Improving
Developing/Exploiting
Technology
Weaker and Weaker Signals (DX)
More Contacts/Hour (contesting)
HF Academy
How We Got Here
CW to Voice (AM)
Radio Teletype™ Teletype Corp
Slow Scan/Fast Scan TV
Computers & Digital Modes
PSK, JT65, Olivia…
HF Academy
How We Got Here
 Traffic Handling CW to Winlink
 Public Service
Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES)
 Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service
(RACES)
FM/Repeaters
 Store and Forward Messaging
 Value of Video
 Remote HF Operations
HF Academy
Part 97 Basis and Purpose
 Providing Emergency Communications
 Advance the Radio Art
 Advance Skills in Communications and
Technology
 Reservoir of Trained Operators, Technicians,
and Electronics Experts
 Ability to Enhance International Good Will
HF Academy
Air Force Values
Integrity First
Honest; Moral Uprightness
Excellence in All We Do
Outstanding; Extremely Good
Service Before Self
Balance Between Self and Service
HF Academy
Recap
200 Meters and Down
Spark Gap to CW
Tubes to Transistors (Mostly)
State of the Art
How We Got Here
HF Academy
Old Folks’ Chant
What do we want?
More memory!
When do we want it?
What do we want?
Questions?
HF Academy
References
 https://archive.org/stream/CallingCq-
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AdventureOfShort-waveRadioOperators/CallingCqDesoto-FirstEdition-1941_djvu.txt
www.Elecraft.com
http://www.arrl.org/files/file/FCC%20Documents/47
%20CFR%20Part%2097%20%20September%2023%202014.pdf
https://www.airforce.com/mission/vision
http://www.arrl.org/files/file/conop.pdf