05/02/2012
The Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard are co-sponsoring the annual Military/Amateur Radio Crossband Communications Test in celebration of the 62nd anniversary of Armed Forces Day (AFD). Although the actual Armed Forces Day is celebrated on the third Saturday in May — May 19 in 2012 — the AFD Military/Amateur Crossband Communications Test will be conducted on May 12 to prevent conflict with the Dayton Hamvention®, scheduled for May 18-20.
The annual celebration features traditional military-to-amateur crossband communications SSB voice and Morse code tests. These tests give Amateur Radio operators and short wave listeners an opportunity to demonstrate their individual technical skills and to receive recognition from the appropriate military radio station for their proven expertise. QSL cards will be provided to those stations making contact with the military stations.
Military-to-amateur crossband operations will take place on the dates and time in UTC on the frequencies listed for each station. Voice contacts will include operations in single sideband voice (SSB). Some stations, depending on propagation and staffing, may not operate the entire period. Participating military stations will transmit on selected military MARS frequencies and listen for Amateur Radio stations in the amateur bands. The military station operator will announce the specific amateur band frequency being monitored. Duration of each voice contact should be limited to 1-2 minutes. The Secretary of Defense message will be transmitted via digital modes, inclusing RTTY, PACTOR, AMTOR, PSK-31, MFSK and MT63 from certain stations.
Click here for the schedules and frequencies of participating military stations, including the stations that will be transmitting the message from the Secretary of Defense. Instructions on how to copy and submit the message are also included.
Article source: http://www.arrl.org/news/view/annual-armed-forces-day-crossband-test-scheduled-for-may-12
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