FORT CAVAZOS, Texas – A Soldier from Aurora, Colorado, was recognized by the U.S. Army for superior performance in a competition designed to test the Army’s old-school communication systems.
Spc. Austin Young, who graduated from Grandview High School and was previously active in a local Aurora technology club, was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal May 13 by Lt. Gen. Kevin D. Admiral, commanding general, III Armored Corps and Fort Cavazos. His team placed 3rd of 201 teams in the Army’s recent “QRPX” competition. Young now serves at Fort Cavazos.
“I feel proud I was able to gain the knowledge of [high-frequency operations] and spread the knowledge of HF for all my future Soldiers,” said Young.
The competition, represented solely by those letters, tests Soldiers on their ability to communicate over long ranges using high-frequency technology – without infrastructure like satellites or cell phone towers.
“It’s older technology that is not pulled out and used as much, but it’s vital. It’s secure and it can travel great distances – thousands of miles,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Matthew Helmer, command sergeant major of the 11th Corps Signal Brigade.
As an additional challenge, the competition allows only 20 watts of power – roughly the same needed to run a small household appliance.
Teams consider weather, terrain, solar output, and other factors, and custom-design their antennas to maximize range, or wave propagation. As part of their competition, Soldiers were able to contact counterpart stations in Hawaii, as well as multiple locations in the continental United States and Canada.
There are tactical advantages: the smaller, quieter signals are harder to detect and counter, in many cases, than signals with higher power.
QRPX has been hosted annually by the U.S. Army’s Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM) since 2014.
