A really dramatic increase in solar activity during 2011, with sunspot numbers up to 208 already on 9 November 2011, will provide excellent HF propagation conditions in 2012! Says ARRL's CEO David Sumner K1ZZ in QST December 2011: "October 2011 was a very, very good month for HF radio propagation. No one who was licensed for HF operation in the past six or seven years has had the chance to experience conditions as good as they are right now." And in QST January 2012: "The waning months of 2011 have blessed us with the best HF propagation conditions in at least eight years, but the best is yet to come. 2012 should be a great year to surf the radio waves." - Says ARRL News Editor Khrystyne Keane K1SFA: "I've only been licensed since 2006, and I've heard all the older hams tell me about how wonderful 10 meters could be, but I never saw it myself until the contest. Wow! It was better than I ever imagined, and I'm told it will only get better. We worked Senegal, Kenya, New Zealand, South Africa, Europe and Asia, and even Japan on 10 meters. I couldn't believe how hot the band was!"

We have predicted already in 2000 that HF e-mail will continue to spread rapidly and will soon develop into the major application of modern digital HF techniques that we have analyzed - and used! - for decades. Interestingly enough, the immense potential of HF e-mail has not been realized - let alone monitored! - by any other author and publisher so far.

HF is the only worldwide communications medium that is totally free of transmission time charges - an important factor today in the era of bankrupt economies, tight budgets and heavy cost control. It saves companies and organizations a major portion of their communications budget every year to use on more important things, because - once the equipment is installed - there are virtually no on-going costs.

Contrary to the situation in the decreasing world of HF broadcasting, professional worldwide communication on shortwave - i.e. digital data transmissions of utility radio stations! - has been a superb success for decades. Global technical standards have been agreed upon many years ago, and innovative procedures and protocols resulted in a strong increase in the intelligent use of worldwide shortwave frequencies. Just think of ACARS/HFDL that currently handles more than 400,000 messages - per day! Then, there are thousands of HF networks using ALE. What's more, we've got hundreds of CODAN and PACTOR networks worldwide. Another international radionet with hundreds of frequencies is Global Wireless. For maritime traffic on MF and HF there is worldwide NAVTEX, DSC, and NBDPT. And so on ...

There is not - and there will never be! - Internet access available all over the world. Says Horst Weise DL4SBK on 22 JAN 2011, after a recent trekking trip to Ecuador: "I have been able to keep me very well informed with my 40 Euro portable shortwave receiver!" Now consider the absurd decision by leading international broadcasters to drastically reduce their worldwide shortwave transmissions ... or to shut down HF completely! Just how do BBC, Deutsche Welle, Voice of America and the like get their message - and mission! - across the border to the poor people that is most in need of independent information - and international support? Read our comments here!

HF spectrum monitoring and control of harmful interference has been neglected for a long time. Today, up-to-date information on real spectrum occupancy - especially when it is based on real-time data such as ours - is invaluable for the planning of modern HF radio systems. Within living memory, bureaucratic government authorities - and, in particular, the International Telecommunication Union - have had absolutely nothing to offer in this field. The best data quality has been supplied from locations where we held instruction courses, e.g. Singapore (Yio Chu Kang monitoring station). By consequence, leading radio monitoring services routinely come back to us because we have been monitoring the HF spectrum continuously for 43 years. For decades, we have strived for the Asian approach to company qualities:

• innovative in responding to customer needs;
• high quality of services and products;
• management has long-term vision;
• financial soundness;
• company that others try to emulate.

For decades, our products have been distributed by leading professional equipment manufacturers and amateur radio organizations worldwide - see our worldwide dealers list here.

The selection from our long list of professional customers reads like the Who is Who? in this fascinating field. The continuous correspondence with our worldwide reading public ensures our manuals to continue to be the standard references of both professional monitoring services and non-professional radio listeners.

A few products from our 1968-2012 archives Click to enlarge!

A few products from our 1968-2012 archives Click to enlarge!

Klingenfuss Publications and Klingenfuss Radio Monitoring are located in the countryside, far away from industrial noise and pollution. The digital panoramas hereafter (by Joerg Klingenfuss) are usually three-dimensional, i.e. they comprise not only one primitive row of blunt horizontal pictures, but multiple rows of vertical pictures instead, up to 360° x 180°!

... a few kilometres outside of Tuebingen, the most beautiful city in Germany and always on the very top of the quality-of-life index throughout the country.

Tuebingen Neckar riverside Medieval centre with Hoelderlin-Turm Stiftskirche, founded in 1188 19 MAY 2007, 0707 UTC Click to enlarge!

Tuebingen Market square and town hall 23 MAY 2007, 0613 UTC Click to enlarge!

Tuebingen
View from the Count Palatine Castle, dominating the medieval town centre
26 OCT 2011, 1345 UTC
Click to enlarge!

Tuebingen is located right in the geographical centre of the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg, the industrial centre of modern Germany and the leading export State within the nation, with global players such as Audi, Bosch, Mercedes, Porsche, SAP, Stihl, Wuerth and Zeiss, and the heartland of the superb German Mittelstand - see The Economist 27 NOV 2010 page 71. The world-famous university has been founded by Count Eberhard Karl in 1477. Fortunately, we're a world away from strange places such as Berlin, the ideological centre of the German mezzogiorno and debladigarmen: GPS says 542 kilometres, and that's damned all right so!