Members of the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) will
conduct an HF skills exercise July 20 - 24 to hone their operating skills and
messaging-handling capabilities. MARS members will be reaching out to the amateur
radio community via the 60 meters Channel 1 Net (5330.5 kHz dial) twice a day,
the SATERN HF net (14.265 MHz), and by contacting various stations via HFLink
throughout the exercise.
Participating MARS members will be requesting assistance
with collecting county status information as well as airport weather
information, called METARs. MARS members will also be passing ICS 213 messages
to numerous Department of Defense (DoD), federal, and amateur radio addressees.
This exercise will be announced via WWV at 00:10 and via
WWVH at 00:50 starting on or about July 13. WWV and WWVH listeners will be
asked to take an online listener survey. This HF radio training event will not
impact regular communications.
A Department of Defense program, MARS organizes and trains
amateur radio volunteers to operate in military radio networks to support HF
radio contingency communications. Among other missions, MARS provides
communication support to civil authorities and assists in establishing normal
communication under emergency conditions. -- Thanks to Paul English, Chief,
Army MARS
