JBER airmen spend 54 hours testing long-range radio in an international contest

Airmen at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson spent 54 hours last week trying to reach bases as far away as Iraq and New Zealand, using high-frequency radio instead of satellites or the internet.

The 673d Communications Squadron was competing in Exercise Noble Skywave, an international contest hosted by the Canadian Armed Forces' Communications and Electronics branch that brings together hundreds of teams, the Air Force said. The goal, according to Canadian exercise guidance, is to "confirm HF interoperability and prowess amongst the international community" and keep coalition forces ready when satellite and digital links are degraded.

The squadron uses the same equipment to connect remote Pacific island sites with JBER, said Airman 1st Class Jacob Romine. "If we can demonstrate these capabilities at those extreme distances, then we can have confidence in communicating to the hub from a spoke location," he said.

Each team's first task is to reach the contest's control station in Kingston, Ontario. That's relatively easy for some teams in Canada and the Lower 48 and much more challenging for the JBER squadron, the Air Force said. "Radio transmissions are affected by clouds, solar storms, even day and night can make a difference," said Staff Sgt. Sheldon Brown, a team lead.

The contest, held between Oct. 20 and 23, ran for 54 hours without a break, so three JBER teams worked in shifts to keep the station going. The teams included airmen from all of the squadron's communications career fields, not just its radio specialists. "We all have specific jobs we do here on base, but when it comes to setting up communications down range, all of us know how to do it," Romine said.

The squadron trains year-round. Airmen have carried a backpack version of the equipment on 8-mile rucks up and down mountains, and teams have radioed back to base from Girdwood and Talkeetna, Brown said.

"Training with HF radios in Alaska is difficult because of the mountains, the cloud cover and the solar storms," he said. "It's kind of a strength though; if we can succeed here, we're prepared to succeed anywhere."