Radio Amateurs to Participate in MARS Interoperability Exercise in May
04/29/2022
Members of the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) will conduct an HF skills exercise from Monday night, May 2 through Saturday, May 7, 2022 to practice interoperability with the amateur radio community.
A 60-meter high-power broadcast will begin on May 3 at 0200 UTC followed by the FEMA region net. That will continue four more nights at 0200 UTC with the region net. At 1200 local each day (May 3 – 7; Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific) the net will be called by region. See slide (PDF).
MARS members will be reaching out to the amateur radio community via the 60-meters Channel 1 Net (5330.5 kHz). These are directed nets. The nets will be run by region. These are not typical “everyone check into the net” operations. Amateur ops who participate should listen first. Net control will ask for stations meeting specific criteria to check in, e.g., stations in a particular geographic area. Only stations that meet the criteria should check into the net.
In addition to 60 meters, MARS stations will also reach out on amateur frequencies such as 80-meter traffic nets and other bands they may be able to reach. – Thanks to Rob Hurd, N3HU and Chief Army MARS Paul English, WD8DBY
