alt Hacker NewsSmall note of clarification. HF in a radio frequency (RF) context actually refers to what we would now consider fairly low frequencies between 3 and 30mhz where wavelengths are in the tens of meters. The black magic is mostly in UHF AND microwave regions where wavelengths start to measure closer to the size of circuit elements.
Although I have also heard it said “RF physics is black magic” to cover all the bases
Yes, radio found out naming is hard before software did, in very old times there was High Frequency (HF), but then circuits got fast enough to go higher, oops, ok no problem, let's call the new frequencies Very High Frequency (VHF) whew that was close, but wait they got even faster! Ugh! Ok let's call the new frequencies Ultra High Frequency (UHF), but wait, we're still not in the Ghz range yet! Thankfully they did not keep going to Super Super Mega Ultra High Frequency.