|
HF-80 Series, the replacement technology for the early URG-II systems Updated: 19 January 2006 Frequency Range: 2.0000 Mhz to 29.9999 MHz (100 Hz steps) Channels: 280,000 Modes: AM/CW/SSB (LSB/USB plus A2 and B2), SSB channel is 2.85 KHz wide up to 4 channel ISB operation Data capable: Yes Full duplex capable: Yes (separate transmit and receive capable) Split site capable: Yes (this was a common event) External freq. Std: Yes Audio Interface: 600 Ohm, 0 dBm balanced audio (4 wire) Receiver RF: 50 Ohm, BNC Exciter RF: 50 Ohn, BNC, 250 Milliwatt (nominal) Power Requirement: 100-240 VAC, 50-400 Hz HF-8010 Exciter, single channel HF-8010A HF-8012A Exciter HF-8014 Exciter, 4 channel ISB capable HF-8014A Exciter, 4 channel ISB HF-8020 RF Amplifier, 1 KW output (Tubed), uses the HF-8030 Power Supply HF-8022 RF Amplifier, 10 KW Output (Tubed) HF-8023 RF Amplifier, 1 KW output, solid-state AM-7163/TSC-60(V) 622-3490-207, uses the HF-8031/32 Power Supply and the 8010/14 Exciter HF-8030 Power Supply (Picture) Used with the HF-8020 1 KW Amplifier, 90 lbs (40 kg) HF-8031 Power supply for the HF-8023 Amplifier 622-3512-001 (this is known supply) HF-8032 Power supply for the HF-8023 Amplifier 622-3490-207 (this was shown as a possible replacement but may not be correct) - input power is: 208/220/230/240 VAC 57-400 Hz 3 0 input HF-8040A Antenna Tuner, 1 KW 622-3384-002 Equipment Manual (partial) The replacement, CU-2040 HF-8051 Basic HF Receiver, one audio channel at a time Picture HF-8054 Receiver, 4 channel ISB, full features HF-8054A HF-8060 Pre-selector/Postselector 622-3386-001 (replaced by the HF-8064 series) HF-8061 Transmit filter/line flattener 622-3497-202, can support up to 1 KW of output power HF-8064 Agile HF preselector 622-3522-203 (picture) Power: 100/115/215/230 V 47-63 Hz. 5.3x19x24, 32 lbs HF-8070 Transceiver (simplex only) HF-8070A Front panel picture HF-8090 Used to control the HF-8010 Exciter HF-8091 Used to control the HF-8050 Receiver HF-8092 Used to control the HF-8070 Transceiver HF-8093 Used to control the HF-8014 Exciter HF-8094 Used to control the HF-8054 Receiver HF-8096 Receiver-Exciter control system, has early ALE capabilities (ALE phase I?), plus HF squelch, this equipment is early 1980's design Here is a picture of the system controller Here is one for sale(search for it) The replacement is here VP-100 Voice Privacy on HF bands - generally for Aviation industry An view of the older VP-100 system Its current replacement Sources and use of the HF-8xxx series Radios Much more information is available at Paul Keyes site, Columbia Electronics where you can obtain these high quality systems. The pages on the actual Rockwell-Collins HF-80 series are here. This link is to a sales document that details each system element. Very useful to give an overview. Additionally, you may wish to check the Missoula County Auxiliary Communications Service site where more technical infomation is available on some of the above systems. This site has a number of pictures that provide useful information. There are limited technical documents available also. You may wish to check the Hypertools web site for more information also. This site has a lot of "hands on" experience with this technology so he can really help you. My personal guess is that he works on "milspec" systems as his full time employment. Also see Mike Murphy famous site in San Diego, California. His store has an extensive collection of Rockwell-Collins HF systems that are "milspec". He is an honest place to buy from. You will not go wrong there In any case, while the HF-80 series are nice to own and operate, in general, you may need to have a good bank account as building a complete system may set you back you a few thousand US dollars. But, as they say, "you will not be unhappy with the results". The Rockwell-Collins HF-80 technology lives on however. We recently found that some commercial marine networks are using the HF-80 to provide SITOR service. See article published by the shortwave radio club Worldwide Utility News. Interesting information. Automatic Link Establishment (ALE) For more information about ALE and how the HF-80 and later generation HF radios were to be controlled, please go to the NTIA Report on ALE technology. In summary, this site discusses the following: "High frequency (HF) communications has been an essential part of worldwide information transmission since the advent of radio and has advanced nearly in step with information technology. Today, advanced thinkers in the field envision HF radio technology as embracing and supporting such technological advances as HF e-mail and compressed multimedia voice and data services. A guide has long been needed that brings together into one concise user's handbook all of the working knowledge of HF Automatic Link Establishment (ALE) radio technology. Many publications exist that deal with one or more aspects of this technology - sometimes in great detail. This guide, which is general in scope, provides a broad approach. It is a tutorial for explaining the basics of this HF ALE technology and for passing along working knowledge for hands-on operation of HF ALE systems. This guide is the product of many authors who have combined their considerable expertise." Rockwell-Collins presentation on ALE evolution is here And if you really need bed time reading material, try reading the MIL-STD document on ALE (188-141). MIL-STD-188-141B or the 188-110B document on HF modems. To quote the document summary: "This document contains technical standards and design objectives for medium and high-frequency radio systems. Included are: (1) the basic radio parameters to support both conventional and adaptive radio communications; and (2) technical parameters for automatic link establishment (ALE), linking protection, and other advanced adaptive features and functions." And the ALE Operations manual for US Forces is here More ALE data can be found here at the ARRL site at this link Want to listen to ALE? Go here! Have lots of spare money, buy one of these to solve your ALE needs: Rockwell-Collins ALE Information on the early Rockwell Collins aircraft based 309L-3 system. Was very popular in the early days of ALE operation. Paper on ALE Abstract: The Rockwell Collins SELSCAN adaptive high-frequency (HF) radio system, using an Air Force AN/ARC-190 transceiver, was operated over a 2615-km temperate latitude path for 24 hours. Propagation was monitored by an FMCW chirp oblique sounder. Voice and data transmissions were used to assess the quality of the selected channels. The SELSCAN always found a usable channel, and usually a very good one, even when propagation was limited to a small range of frequencies. A parallel effort to develop a test bed for experimentation with alternative probing waveforms is described. Results are incomplete because of difficulties with equipment and software. A theoretical analysis of probing waveforms for use with adaptive HF systems is presented. Finally, some recommendations are made for the application of adaptive HF. Keywords include: Adaptive High-Frequency Radio, HF Radio Communications, AHF, Oblique Ionograms, and SELSCAN. The US Custom Department COTHEN ALE network. Informal list of ALE users from Ominous-Valve or a backup copy is here. Other utility listening sites for ALE modes include: Chace-Ortiz.org Please also see the Harris section in this site as we some information on the RF-7210 series ALE system.
Another area that I like to learn more about is the area of using HF Radio systems to support E-Mail messaging. There are a number of issues that come up. One is on using TCP/IP over HF (bad idea). Thus, a lot of work has been done to resolve this issue. See this great study that has been done. In specific, NATO create a Standard called: STANAG 5066 which is a variation of SMTP using pipelined SMTP called "HMTP". I will be posting a lot more on this area in the near future as I find out good sources of material. Information on various HF modems is here here Both Rockwell-Collins and Harris Radio has solutions for this requirement. Hope this is all useful. I find HF is an interesting technology with still considerable promise as a global wireless technology. The key phase I use often is "use the right technology to solve the right problem".
To offer us additional help on this site, please contact us by sending us a mail at:
tsc-60@cellmail.com! |
