EX Noble Skywave 17 - Dialogo Military Magazine

[dimsum]

I totally understand that HF is important, but 48 hours of monitoring static.  No thanks.

EX NS 17 is a training exercise among partner nations based on a communications competition involving the use of high frequency radios. The Communications & Electronics Branch, the 8th Air Communications and Control Squadron (8 ACCS), and the School of Communications and Electronics of the Canadian Armed Forces conduct the exercise, which contributes to strengthening capacities related to radios, antennas, and high frequency transmission.

“We seek to create a fun and interactive exercise that facilitates voice and data links between national and international teams through the transmission of high frequency sky-waves,” 8 ACCS Captain Natasha Dargan told Diálogo. “This type of exercise is carried out to maintain skills in a challenging communications environment, but [is] of great importance.”

Today, the most widely used means of communication is via satellite. High frequency radio operations are difficult and essential skills. Additionally, armed forces around the world use the high frequency system as a backup in case of damage to satellite equipment, which could happen during a natural disaster.

https://dialogo-americas.com/en/articles/peru-puts-high-frequency-radio-equipment-test

 

[PuckChaser]

Its only static if your kit isn't working. There's so many callsigns participating that sometimes it's hard to get your message out.

 

[MOOXE]

I participated in this for 2015. My team was out of Borden and we had a single 138 set. We set our antennas up on top of the old Borden bunker.

It basically is 48 hours of radio checks. This was a rewarding experience though. We coordinating over the internet and telephone with other call signs to conduct the radio checks. Operators learned how to use frequency prediction software, setup HF antennas and operate and troubleshoot the 138 set.

We were able to contact St. Johns using Automatic Link Establishment and frequency predictions. We also made contact with Shilo just using frequency prediction. We contacted about 10 other call signs around Canada and the US. No matter what we did though we couldn't contact Kingston, could hear them only.

You get points for each station you contact. Once two way comms were established, both stations send successful contact notifications to the NCS. The NCS keeps a running tally of all scores. The goal obviously is to get as many points as possible. A team from Quebec won in 2015, pretty sure they were using a QRT which is high power HF.