As you all might know, I'm in the US Army. I'm a radio Operator by trade and I've argued this for as long as I've been in the service. Lately, radios have almost become obsolete, being replaced by computers and software. HF has become the bilge of the radio spectrum, too noise and too much junk. It pulls the ash and trash duty or worse, it's been religated to theory and historical citations. Plus, HF is low enough that you pick up quite a bit of clutter from simple electrical components.
Never the less, my argument has always been that HF is free, the equipment is inexpensive and about 80% of the world uses it effectively. You can literally talk around the world with a $250.00 transmitter and a $100.00 antenna and a little skill on HF whereas it costs tens of millions of dollars to launch 4 satellites and pay a team of techs to figure it all out so I can talk around the world on UHF SATCOM. Of course even now with computers, it's getting easier now that the architecture is in place that supports the WWW. I believe we (i.e. Military and other radio professionals) are becoming lazy and neglecting our true radio skills because we like our toys and technology. IMO HF is sexy, but it's a dying art. Heck, if I'm not mistaken, code was even dropped from Special Forces training a year or so ago!
Well, I'm ranting - I would like to obtain my civilian basic licence, so as to appease 'The Man'. When the zombies come to eat my brains in 2012, I guess I can at least talk to myself, on my radio!
