Ionospheric Prediction Service

IPS is an Australian Government Agency based in Sydney which provides frequency management
software, ASAPS & GWPS , to enable HF radio users to select optimum frequencies and times for
reliable communication. HF long-range, and NVIS communication is facilitated by the reflection of
radio waves from the ionosphere, ionised, horizontally stratified, regions above the earth's surface.
The position and nature of these layers is determined by space weather, encompassing activities on
the sun including solar flares and sunspots. The IPS is continually collecting and collating data from
many sources to monitor space weather and the effect of it on the ionosphere.

We can provide comprehensive radiation-pattern files of our HF antenna range,
for insertion into the ASAPS & GWPS antenna database.

Australias Role in HF Communication

Australia is a world leader in HF communication technology. Major worldwide suppliers of high
frequency radio equipment are based here including Q-Mac, an innovative company at the leading
edge in this field.

Australia's has a vast, arid and uninhabited inland where even today, fully equipped travellers in
4WD vehicles can die from heat-exhaustion and thirst, in our deserts. In 1912 the Rev. John Flynn
began thinking of ways to overcome the isolation of the inland, particularly in relation to the
problems suffered by settlers in event of illness or injury. People died in large numbers simply
because there was no way of getting medical aid to them. Part of the answer was the aeroplane but
it was not until 1927 when Alfred Traegar.invented an HF, portable radio-transceiver, that Flynn's
idea could become a practical reality. Flynn could now develop a network of outback base stations,
transmitting across the inland to isolated outposts, and the R.F.D.S. (Royal Flying Doctor Service)
was born. HF radio became the major source of communication for outback Australians and a radio
industry developed.

Today the industry makes most of it's sales overseas and microwave, optic-fibre and satellite
technology is replacing HF for communication with remote settlements. There is however a rapidly
growing use of HF radio by outback travellers who communicate on a system established by the
Australian National 4WD Radio Network Inc. It provides road and weather reports, telephone
interconnects, and emergency back up for travellers across the country. The primary role of HF
has changed but Australia is still an ideal proving ground for HF transceivers and antennas.