04/21/2016
The US Army, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard will cosponsor the Armed Forces
Day Military/Amateur Radio Cross-Band Communications Test[1] on Saturday, May
14, 2016. The event gets under way at 1200 UTC, with activity continuing
throughout the day. Some military stations may not operate for the entire
period.
"New for Armed Forces Day this year, military stations and Amateur Radio
operators are authorized to directly communicate on the 60 meter
interoperability channels," US Army MARS Program Manager Paul English, WD8DBY,
pointed out.
This year marks the 66th Armed Forces Day (AFD[2]) observance, a week later
than the radio event. Armed Forces Day is observed this year on May 21, but the
Military/Amateur Radio Cross-Band Communications Test is held earlier in order
to avoid conflicting with Dayton Hamvention[3]?.
The annual communications exercise is an opportunity to test two-way
communication between amateur and military communicators and features
traditional military-to-amateur cross-band SSB and CW communication and offers
an opportunity for radio amateurs to utilize modern military communications
modes such as MIL-STD serial PSK and automatic link establishment (ALE). These
tests give Amateur Radio operators and shortwave listeners (SWLs) a chance and
a challenge to demonstrate individual technical skills, and to receive
recognition from military radio stations. QSL cards will be provided to
stations that contact military stations during this event. The complete
announcement[4] of stations, times, and frequencies- subject to change - is
available on the US Army MARS website.
Participating military stations will transmit on selected military frequencies
and listen for Amateur Radio stations on selected amateur frequencies, which
the military station operator will announce. Contacts should be limited to a
minute or two, so all participants get a chance. Some stations will operate on
Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) frequencies; others will use CW.
Amateur Stations with automatic link establishment (ALE[5]) capability can
contact military stations on specific half-duplex cross-band channels
established for this purpose. Military stations will scan and receive certain
Amateur HFLINK ALE frequencies, and transmit on the corresponding military ALE
frequency. Military stations will also transmit ALE station identification
(soundings) on each military frequency at 30 to 90-minute intervals.
The traditional Secretary of Defense message will be transmitted via Military
Standard radio teletype modes, described in MIL-STD 188-110A/B. Reception of
serial PSK will provide a technical challenge to amateur stations to receive
the broadcasts using a high symbol rate serial PSK waveform not utilized in
Amateur Radio, but found in all modern military equipment. See the complete
schedule for details. Additional transmissions will use wide-shift FSK (RTTY),
as this mode represents a baseline in interoperability common in all radio
services. Most RTTY programs can be set to decode this mode. To accommodate
amateurs some stations will transmit the Secretary of Defense message using
common ham radio modes such as RTTY, PACTOR, AMTOR, PSK31, MFSK and MT63.
Transcripts of the received text should be submitted "as received," without
attempting to correct possible transmission errors. Provide time, frequency and
call sign of the military station copied, including the submitter's name, call
sign, and address (with ZIP code). This information should appear on the paper
containing the test message.
Stations copying the Secretary of Defense message from Army and Navy stations
should send their entries to Armed Forces Day Celebration, Commander Netcom,
ATTN: NETC-ITSMD, Bldg 90549 Jim Ave, Fort Huachuca, AZ 85613-7070.
Stations copying Secretary of Defense message from Air Force stations, should
send entries to Armed Forces Day Celebration, 38CYRS/Chief AF MARS, 203W Losey
St, Room 1200, Scott AFB, IL 62225.
[1] http://www.usarmymars.org/home/announcements
[2] http://afd.defense.gov/
[3] http://www.hamvention.org/
[4] http://www.usarmymars.org/home/announcements
[5] http://hflink.net/
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