April 2004

Summer 2004 HFIA Meeting Moves to Europe

At the last HFIA, a motion was made to seperate from the AFCEA conference schedule during the summer months. A member survey sent to many of the members who have recently attended assured we had the statistical data on member preferences for location and sub-committee involvement. The voting showed that the AFCEA Europe as least desirable choice, with AeroTechTelub, Sweden and NATO C3 Agency as top choices. In response, the summer meeting of the HFIA as been re-scheduled to meet on August 26^th, 2004 at the NATO C3 Agency offices in The Hague (http://www.nc3a.nato.int/).

Additionally, the HFIA subcommittees are invited to meet at the NC3A offices the prior day on August 25^th, 2004.

Historically HFIA meetings were a complementary process in conjunction with the AFCEA conferences. This conjoined meeting process used to be more advantageous for three reasons:

1) The AFCEA west coast and east coast conferences were in January and June (5 months apart). Over the last two years, the span of time between AFCEA West and TechNet has gradually shortened to their present periodic conferences being only 3 1/2 months apart.

Note: Establishing enough technical accomplishment and meeting content in the HF forums within these periods has become increasingly difficult, driving members to choose between participation in one or the other industry event.

2) AFCEA would fund the expenses for the HFIA meeting room and audio-visual costs. Coupled with the cost increases to accomodate the industry membership these costs are now five times what they were only three years ago.

Note: Sub-committee involvement has grown six fold, and the number of comittees has tripled. Therefore the HFIA funded sub-committee forums for meeting has been found to be best complimented by meeting formally during days adjacent to the HFIA schedules.

3) The HFIA attendance was mostly U.S. members and addressed U.S. Military standards issues. International involvement in the HFIA was with emphasis on addressing U.S. issues and opportunities.

Note: Non-U.S. members involved in HFIA has risen 32% over the last two years. Many of the technical investigation presentations involve NATO standards instead of U.S. military specs (Mil-Std).

As many members have pointed out, the military and international standards communitees have put more emphasis on HFIA's recommendations and proposals than ever before. The interest in HF research and development has shifted the membership involvement decidedly toward addressing an international marketplace as evidenced by the number and applicability of recent HF specifications and standards. NATO groups have especially applauded this venue change and we expect to achieve even more technical involvement with the Working Group 6 community as a result.

So in summary it was this set of situational changes that brought about the member’s motion and attending member quarum decision to seperate the 2004 HFIA summer meeting and push it into an international meeting at NC3A. We hope to retain allot of our U.S. corporate involvement, as well as receive into our midst a favorable European, Mid-East and Asia/Oceania corporate attendance. We will continue to bring to you the best technologies to this meeting and we plan for two side meetings to address the STANAG 5066 interoperability in the Nato C3A labs, and the Secure Digital Voice with international HF membership partners.

HFIA Website

Additional information about HFIA, including past meeting agendas, attendance lists, and presentations can be found on the HFIA website at http://www.hfindustry.com/.

Further Information

For further information please contact:

James Mahan Bob Baker

HFIA President HFIA Secretary

SAIC DRS Communications

45472 Holiday Drive 1200 East Mermaid Drive

Sterling, VA 20166, USA Wyndmoor, PA 19038, USA

Tel: (703) 925-4331 Tel: (215) 242-7284

e-mail: james.l.Mahan@saic.com e-mail: baker@drs-fsc-comm.com