"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.

My great uncle was a professional morse operator originally in the RAF but
then as a civilian on weather research aircraft that monitored clouds and
weather for weather forecasting. He used to send the reports to the ground
via HF.
Then he did some time with the civilian search and rescue service manning a
base station which was also on HF (coordinating the rescue helicopters and
aircraft).