"BNB Sound" wrote in message
oups.com...
I've been an amateur operator for a little over a year now and one of
my favorite parts of the hobby is soaking up stories from previous
decades. One of the things I'm curious about is professional HF work.
I've heard it mentioned in passing that when the early trans-Atlantic
cables went down they would shift to HF circuits as available to try
and pick up the slack.

So, what else is out there. I know the military has always been
heavily invested in radio gear, but what else was (and is?) there? I'd
love to hear from anyone who ever brought home a paycheck for working
the airwaves.

I used to run a company in Tanzania that supplied HF radio kit to NGO's
Mines, Aid agencies, Safari companies,Farms, Shipping and transportation
companies. Not much of a mobile phone network away from the cities.
Also we provided a HF email service called Bushmail, similar to Sailmail
using Pactor 3 SCS modems for HF email.

HF kit that we supplied Kenwood TRC 80/TK88, Icom IC-78/IC-718, also some
kit from Codan and Motorola

So, yes there is a business market for HF comms kit in Africa.

Robin