HF Trial

Iraqi customer unhappy with HF performance of their fielded radio’s halted further deployment and put a hold on all contracts (multi-$10M) being negotiated at that time.

BDC provided the Lead Technical Authority (LTA) and halted all support operations, and focused the in-country local national team directly on the issue. The LTA designed and conducted a country-wide HF trial that tested typical communications links sending combined customer/supplier teams out to customer sites to assess installation integrity, antenna deployment, frequency selection, and operator skills over a seven-week period. From this trial, detailed technical data was collected and collated on the frequency and antenna performance, installation issues, and operator problems that were compiled into a comprehensive report which contained comprehensive recommendations addressing top-down strategic and tactical issues in turn. This was presented and recommendations accepted by the customer before resumption of normal service occurred. This incident became a key turning point in the customer use of HF and has led to a high confidence and subsequent reliance on their HF data and voice networks.

The significant and detailed report generated from this extensive trial provided the justification and impetus to challenge an ingrained culture within the user that resisted the new HF technology. This led to proper use of the HF spectrum which was tailored and regularly adjusted (frequencies) to adapt to the changing propagation environment throughout the year.