I followed the hams as a mere onlooker in the 70s. My Peruvian born wife wanted to listen to something closer to home than BBC2 so I started to explore the arcane world of Short Wave. Having acquired a Yaesu FRG-7 communications receiver I scanned the broadcast bands on her behalf but soon found that there was a paucity of international stations broadcasting out of South America (most were inbound to there from the likes of Radio Moscow and the BBC). There was one though that could with luck be pulled in through the variable vicissitudes of the troposphere. It was HCJB, La Voz de Los Andes, based in Ecuador and powered by Hydro Electricity, so very much on trend. It was/is a missionary outlet but attracted a following by airing traditional native music, featuring flutes, drums, and stringed instruments (particularly the Harp). So, a very 'plunky' sound that survived the vagaries of propagation rather better than European classical music would have fared. One of their programmes was DX Party Line, that informed enthusiasts of the varying comings and goings of transmissions heard by correspondents around the world. So started an interest in everything SW; broadcast, ham, and utility bands alike. At certain times of day you could listen in to exchanges between Hams in the USA and USSR for example. The former concentrated in the State of Florida (retirees following the hobby), the latter very avuncular and offering "73s to you my friend" but remaining cagy as to exactly where he was. No doubt a KGB Colonel at least, for who else would be allowed such largesse given that this was during the Cold War (see, it isn't thread drift after all!)?
The point of all this waffle? Merely to illustrate the importance of HF at the time for broadcast listeners, hobbyists, and indeed the RAF. "Upavon, Upavon, this is RAFAIR 1234. How do you read, over? They didn't, as often as not. Changi Comcen had rows of airmen with headphones clamped to their ears vainly trying to pass/receive operational messages along the CENTO route. Gan, Bahrein, Cyprus, UK, all might have been on the far side of the moon for all the good it did. One day a USAF officer from a detachment covering the first orbiting Gemini missions appeared at the front door. Could he please set up his Comms Equipment on the building's flat roof, pointing to his attaché case? An airman was duly provided to humour him, and it was from that airman that the whole camp soon learnt what had happened. Out of the case comes a corkscrew aerial duly pointed to the sky, and a handset. He checks his watch and soon begins intoning, "Canaveral, Canaveral, this is Singapore, report my signal, over. Roger, loud and clear also. Out". He restows his gear and follows the airman downstairs again. We were witnessing things to come...