[ARC5] HF/VHF Documentation

[David Stinson]

Work and family issues have been pressing very hard.
I haven't had time for many long emails and am behind on 
reading some as well.  Apoligies to friends- I'll get there ;-)
Clock is ticking right now, so I will summarize a couple of 
subjects on which I had intended to deliver more data.
Perhaps later.

I've been combing USAAC sectionals for CONUS and 
Central-South America from 1943, 44 and 45.

Summer of 1943, the War had been going-on 
in Europe for four years and in east Asia, for ten.
That's a big chunk of WWII, and a whole lot of
aircraft radio went on in that time.
Most Towers were TX on MF/LF RX on HF, 
with a few RX/TX on HF.
All Air-to-Ground comm and Direction Finding was HF.

Here is a sample of radio resources available in typical 
"rural" and "urban" CONUS and Canadian flight 
sections, showing the total number of radio communication 
facilities (including Tower, Air-Ground, direction-finding 
freqs and what we would now call "Unicom,"
but not beacons or ranges):

All of southern Canada:  12 facilities, 1 VHF-capable.
Bismark, ND:  6 facilities, no VHF.
Oakland, CA:  25 facilities, 8 VHF capable.

Most section radio facilities without any VHF capablility:
Nashville:  29 facilities, No VHF.

Most VHF capable section:
New York:  51 facilities, 17 VHF capable (including
additions made in pencil by a radio op, so some of these
may be from a later date).
The few VHF channels were Tower or "Unicom".
All Air/Ground and Direction Finding channels were HF.

Sample section from 1943
http://home.netcom.com/~arc5/Section/1943Section.jpg

In August of 1945,  the situation for Tower freqs had very 
much reversed.   Nearly all USAAC Towers were VHF
capable and most "unicom" stations were VHF, 
but retained their MF,LF and HF channels.
About 2/3 to 3/4 of Naval Air Stations also had 
VHF Tower or "unicom" channels.
Most retained their LF/MF/HF channels.
There were still very few VHF stations in Canada.

With a very few exceptions, 
Air to Ground and Direction Finding channels
remained on HF.
Summer, 1945.... HF... lots of it.

Sample Section from 1945
http://home.netcom.com/~arc5/Section/1945Section.jpg

Big surprise:  Summer 1945 document shows 50+
Army Airways Communications Stations and
no VHF channels listed among them.

Most aircraft that were in service with HF rigs
retained those rigs, unless they were 
in individual commands where USAAC 
ordered otherwise.
This is why 99.9% of  towers and 
the other comm boys kept HF on line:
they had lots of aircraft using it.
I have documentation here of Navy F4U fighters
in *October of 1944* with ATA/ARA installed.
I'll be posting on that later.

Were there exceptions to all this?  Certainly- many.
In a hot war, "the book" is only for the REM*S
and inspections ;-).

The flight sectionals are solid documentation:  
As late as Summer of 1945 (even into December)
over most of the world, HF was very much an active system.
In Summer 1945, there were *5* VHF "radio range" stations 
in the entire U.S., all in the northeast.

This idea of a fixed date where "VHF replaced HF",
or that "HF wasn't used" just isn't so, guys.  
The whole thing was a slow, "flowing river" of change 
that took a long time, with lots of "eddys and backwashes" 
along the way.  VHF didn't even become paramount until
long after the guns fell silent.

More later... got to get to work.

73 Dave AB5S