In communications, we move energy through a medium between sender and receiver. When we have control over the medium — the nominal case for a circuit board, wires, or fiber optic cables — it's easy to take for granted how well it will work, and even to forget what's happening. With wireless communications, we don't have control over the medium.

Our most common wireless communication is often either very short distance (e.g., personal area network, such as Bluetooth) or relies on infrastructure we don't usually consider (e.g., commercial cellular networks). Even in the world of what amateur radio operators call "emergency communications," much of that work happens over VHF, aided by repeaters.

Only when working at the edges of the expected operating conditions do we think much about what's happening. Only when repeaters are down, when the distance is great, or when we're in storms, do we think much about VHF propagation for short-distance communication. But if we need to make it work, we think about getting the antenna up higher to overcome the curvature of the earth, or higher gain antenna systems to deal with attenuation from atmospheric factors like rain and fog, or more power to overcome obstacles. Maybe we even move the antenna, stand by a window, or go outside. Whatever we do, we use Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) to work the problem to achieve the mission.

On HF, amateur operators tend to talk about "conditions." If things don't work, we can easily fall into a mode of explaining why it's not working, using words like "propagation" and "absorption" or maybe joke that someone didn't pay the "band bill." If we mean to take on the role of communicators for contingencies and emergencies, we can't afford to see ourselves as a poet described, "a victim of venomous fate."

Some of our friends in more outlying areas like Pennsylvania, New York, and Indiana, as well as some of our Ohio operators have used performance in nets at different times of day, seasons of the year, and phases of the solar cycle to make improvements in station equipment and techniques that make their stations more reliable and capable even in the face of adverse conditions.

Even (especially?) Agency Stations™ — the ones that in theory are the most critical if they're needed — suffer from years of squandered opportunity to improve. We see inability to transmit on 60 meters, antenna systems designed only for the weekly evening operation, focus on VHF, or following “standard advice” that really is about improving contesting performance rather than anything resembling mission needs.

My challenge for each operator is not to think in terms of "good" or "bad" conditions at the end of a net. Think instead of whether the station worked to your satisfaction, and if not, how to make the station perform to your satisfaction in whatever conditions were present in that session.

There's no magic, of course, and nothing works all the time, but persistent improvement in equipment and TTPs will go a long way toward increasing capability and reliability. As a twist on "fortune favors the bold" goes, fortune favors the prepared. With effort, we can make our own luck.

Even so, it sure will be nice to be past the summer daytime D-layer absorption. — C. Matthew Curtin, KD8TTE, from the QTC mailing list at groups.io