Thursday, April 04, 2013

Some Personal Thoughts on Government HF Radio Systems

The other day I got to thinking about the big mess we had last September in Benghazi with the loss of our ambassador and others back in that terrorist attack. That triggered a radio related thought just a bit ago. So to those in Congress investigating the mess be sure to add the DoS HF net to your list of things that failed that night in Libya.

The Department of State spend a bunch of our tax money establishing their super secret "US Department of State HF Emergency and Evacuation Network." A net that was designed to help keep our diplomats safe and help get them out of harms way.

So like so many other HF radio systems that we tax payers fund (i.e. SHARES, FEMA, MARS, etc) look at what we have. Another major failure of a radio system to work as advertised. When will we all say that enough is enough and get our U.S. government radio communications systems under control. Our government has way too many layers of waste in money and the RF spectrum with all these HF radio nets and we are not getting much in a way of return for the bucks we spend.

I have a novel idea. For every new good idea HF radio system that some bureaucrat in Washington DC thinks up and implements the feds will then be required to take two existing government HF radio systems offline (especially those that are a total waste like SHARES).

Time and time again the fools in DC think they have a great new idea, spend the money only to have another HF radio system failure on their hands.

And then there is this thought. Why do certain government agencies need an HF presence in the first place? Please, can someone tell me why the TSA needs to operate an HF radio network via Army MARS? Really. Really. Really!

Please will someone in Congress please exhibit some adult leadership and get this mess that is spiraling out of control under control.

I doubt it, but it is Spring and hope does spring eternal!

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on this blog are soley those of the original author (me). These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of my employer Grove Enterprise, Monitoring Times or of the staff of that magazine. My employer is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by this blog. So don't be a whimp/loser like a few have and write my boss. If you have a complaint, put your man pants on and complain to me directly.