From Team Fortress Wiki

“ — Saxton Hale on knowledge-testing headwear Guaranteed manufactured with a minimum of 7 Leopards! You'll need each of them, too, given that you've clearly devoted more time to memorizing a dictionary than anything that even looks like contracting a pectoral muscle. ”

The Lo-Fi Longwave is a cosmetic item for all classes. It is an off-white hard hat with a miniature radio tower mounted on top and the KritzKast logo printed on the front.

The hat is a promotional item that was added to display Valve's official support for the podcast. It has since become somewhat coveted due to its rarity and inability to be traded or sold on the market.

Distribution

The hat was first awarded in Vintage quality to a limited but unspecified number of players for being a member of the KritzKast Steam Group prior to 7pm (GMT+1) June 12th 2011, 1 hour before the live recording of podcast episode #121. Before a hat was awarded, the members had to obtain a passing score on the KritzKast quiz. Players who did not win on the quiz were allowed to retake it as often as they wished so long as they left four hours between attempts. Those who were not part of the KritzKast steam group before the deadline received a message from Saxton Hale stating they were "manly enough not to receive" the "girly" hat.

The 30 winners of the Lo-Fi Longwave Owners Group "Meet the Robin" event were also awarded Vintage hats. Those who were already in possession of Vintage were awarded a Unique version of the hat instead.

Players were able to submit questions before August 31, 2011 for a KritzKast interview with the creator of NerfNow. The questions used in the interview had the player quoted and granted a Vintage Lo-Fi Longwave.[1]

Since episode #129 a Vintage hat has been given to each "Player of the Week", assuming they did not already have one. This policy has been retroactively enforced.

As part of the celebrations for episode #200, a total of 600 Unique Lo-Fi Longwaves were given out via the KritzKast Facebook page, Twitter, and Steam group.[2]

Players were able to submit questions before January 14, 2013 for a KritzKast interview with the creator of Backpack.tf, Brad Pitt. The 23 players whose questions were picked from the more than 6,000 submissions all received a Vintage Lo-Fi Longwave, a special badge on their backpack.tf profile, and had their question used in the interview with Brad Pitt.[3][4]

Players were able to submit questions for a KritzKast interview with co-creator of Scrap.tf, Geel9, until May 12, 2013. Users whose questions were picked for interview received a Vintage Lo-Fi Longwave. In addition to this, 100 random participants in voting on questions received a unique version of the hat.[5]

Each month, a Monthly Screenshot Competition is run in the KritzKast Steam Group. Players that win one of these competitions will receive a Vintage Lo-Fi Longwave.

In celebration of 1000 Facebook likes, KritzKast held a competition for a signed poster from i49 2013. Additionally, everyone who entered the competition received a Unique Lo-Fi Longwave.[6][7]

During the AbleGamers 24H Fundraiser for AbleGamers, KritzKast had announced at the $10000 donation milestone that those that had donated $30 or more would get a Vintage Lo-Fi Longwave as an added bonus to the other perks for donating to the charity. The Lo-Fi Longwave was also given out randomly to players that were on the Ablegamers server during each donation milestone in vintage quality.

Kritzkast's favorite participant entries to the TF2Haiku were rewarded with a Unique Lo-Fi Longwave.

During Valentine's Day in 2014, a single random winner would be drawn from within the people who commented on this post found in the KritzKast Steam Group with the person who they think should win and their nominee would receive a Vintage Lo-Fi Longwave painted Pink As Hell. The players who nominated someone for the Lo-Fi also got one in Unique quality.[8]

On March 13th 2014, as Steam servers went down a single player could obtain a Vintage Lo-Fi Longwave by coming up with the most original comment on a KritzKast Facebook post.[9]

On November 16th 2014, KritzKast announced on their Steam Group page, in celebration of PodKast Episode #300, 300 Lo-Fi Longwaves would be awarded to everyone who completed the mini-comp. Although, toward the end of the podcast, they announced that all 700+ people who enter the mini-comp would get a Unique Lo-Fi Longwave.

During the Birthday event for r/RandomActsOfTF2, Kritzkast donated 5 Lo-Fi Longwaves to celebrate the joyous event. Two players could get two each, for themselves and a chosen friend, if they send a screenshot of them inviting said friend to the sub-Reddit and supported either Heavy or Pyro respectively. Another one got up for grabs for commenting the best bit of advice for beginner players.

On August 8th 2016, KritzKast member uberchain announced a contest via their Steam Group page that whoever could post video evidence of them beating his high score in the fan-made game Sandvich Maker 3000 before August 13th would receive a unique Lo-Fi Longwave. The person who had the highest score by the deadline would receive a Vintage version instead. [10]

On September 24th 2016, KritzKast member Agro created a "Lo-Fi Caption Contest" on the KritzKast subreddit which entailed that the best two entries would win a Vintage Lo-Fi Longwave; one for the submitter, and a Unique Lo-Fi Longwave for their friend. Due to vote fluffing and various other problems related to the voting method, all that entered received a Vintage Lo-Fi Longwave and those who entered the contest past the deadline received a Unique Lo-Fi Longwave in compensation for the problems.

On October 15 2017, Kritzkast member Agro announced a "Death and Despair" themed killcam contest on the Kritzkast Steam Group. Agro gave all participants a few weeks to submit their entries, and the best five entries would be chosen by admins on October 31 2017, at midnight (UK time). The prizes consisted of a Vintage Lo-fi Longwave for the first place winner with a bonus of a random can of paint, and four Unique Lo-fi Longwaves for the four runner ups. The killcam that came out on top was a screenshot of a gibbed demo in the vents of Turbine, with his blood on the walls, along with parts of his body strewed about.

On February 5th 2018, it was announced on the KritzKast blog that three Vintage Lo-fi Longwaves would be given out along with cash prizes to the winners of a Team Fortress 2 themed tattoo designing contest in celebration of Valentine's day. Participants had until the 23rd of February to submit their art. Winners who already had a Vintage Lo-Fi Longwave in their inventory were given the opportunity to select a friend who would instead receive one in a Unique quality.[11]

In January 2020, Kritzkast member Agro announced an "Edging" competition beta to test the ruleset. Participants have to get as close as possible to levelling up in Casual with the highest score and tier. On 27 May 2020, the Kritzkast Twitter announced the competition, making it public. First and second place winners get a Vintage Lo-Fi Longwave, a friend of the first place winner and a random participant can receive a Unique version. Participants who are 1 XP from levelling up will get a place in the Hall of Fame.

Painted variants

Mouseover cells to preview the images on a dark background. Click on the images to enlarge them.

Single colors An Extraordinary Abundance of Tinge Color No. 216-190-216 Peculiarly Drab Tincture Aged Moustache Grey A Distinctive Lack of Hue After Eight Radigan Conagher Brown Ye Olde Rustic Colour Muskelmannbraun Mann Co. Orange Australium Gold The Color of a Gentlemann's Business Pants Dark Salmon Injustice Pink as Hell A Deep Commitment to Purple Noble Hatter's Violet A Color Similar to Slate Zepheniah's Greed Drably Olive Indubitably Green The Bitter Taste of Defeat and Lime A Mann's Mint Team colors Waterlogged Lab Coat (RED) Waterlogged Lab Coat (BLU) Balaclavas Are Forever (RED) Balaclavas Are Forever (BLU) Team Spirit (RED) Team Spirit (BLU) Operator's Overalls (RED) Operator's Overalls (BLU) The Value of Teamwork (RED) The Value of Teamwork (BLU) An Air of Debonair (RED) An Air of Debonair (BLU) Cream Spirit (RED) Cream Spirit (BLU) Unpainted

June 10, 2011 Patch

[Undocumented] The Lo-Fi Longwave was added to the game.

July 1, 2011 Patch

Updated the Lo-Fi Longwave to be paintable.

October 18, 2011 Patch

Fixed the Lo-Fi Longwave not being able to be used in the Rebuild Headgear recipe.

Trivia

Lo-Fi, or low fidelity, is a term which describes an audio recording with technical flaws, such as distortion, hum, or background noise.

In radio terminology, longwave refers to parts of radio spectrum with relatively long wavelengths.

The hat's description is a tagline for pirate radio. This was originally from the movie Serenity.

According to KritzKast episode 121, the radio tower was mounted directly to the classes' heads during the hat's development. It was modified by Valve to use the same hardhat as the Aperture Labs Hard Hat. KritzKast episode 122 elaborated to say that the radio tower was mounted into the classes' heads with concrete blocks.

KritzKast member Agro confirmed that there are a limited number of Lo-Fi Longwaves available for distribution; however, he did not disclose the exact number.

Gallery

Scout

Soldier

Pyro

Demoman

Heavy

Engineer

Medic

Sniper

Spy

Message received upon completing the quiz correctly.

Message received when completing the quiz with too many mistakes.

Message received when the user is not in the KritzKast Steam group or joined after the deadline.

Concept sketch by Ruskeydoo posted on the Kritzkast forums.