Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan (K2DLS), who writes:
There is a MARS communication exercise taking place this weekend. As
part of the exercise, a MARS station on the east and west coasts will
broadcast a bulletin which will be verified by a QSL.Please see the notice below:
A HIGH POWER 60 METER BROADCAST WILL BE MADE TO THE AMATEUR RADIO
COMMUNITY THIS SUNDAY 30 OCT AT 2300 HOURS ON 5330.5 USB (60 M). IT
WILL REPEATEDLY RUN A 5 MINUTE BROADCAST FOR AN HOUR ALTERNATING
BETWEEN AN EAST COAST AND WEST COAST STATION. THE BROADCAST WILL
INSTRUCT AMATEUR RADIO STATIONS TO MAKE CONTACT WITH A MARS STATIONS ON
60 METER CHANNELS (INCLUDING 5330.5 USB) AND REPORT LOCAL CONDITIONS.
AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS WHO RECEIVE THE HIGH POWER 60 METER BROADCAST
WILL ALSO RECEIVE A QSL CARD BY ENTERING A RECEPTION REPORT ON THE
WWW.USARMYMARS.ORG WEBSITE.Carver W2TFM
MARS Region 2 (NY & NJ) Director, AAA2RD
——–73, Dan
VEry cool! Thank you, Dan!
QSL card showing a map with locations of U.S. mainland reception reports and locations of AAM3 (Virginia?) and AAM9 (Arizona) received yesterday.
Report on the test from the MARS Facebook page:
High Power Broadcast on 60 Meters a huge Success!
On 31 Oct from 0300-0400 Hrs Zulu, a military station on the east coast and the Fort Huachcua HF Gateway station broadcast a voice message on 5330.5 KHz upper sideband to the amateur radio and shortwave listening community. The purpose of this broadcast was to promote the use of the 60 meter channels for interoperablity between military and amateur radio stations. Stations who successfully received the broadcast were requested to submit a reception report. Approximatley 450 reports have been received.
Pictured is David McGinnis running a Barrett 2050 and a Tokyo High Power 1Kw amp feeding a 5-30 MHz log periodic antenna mounted at 90 feet. For each broadcast, Fort Huachuca oriented their log antenna to different locations to maximize reception
I listened at 2300 UTC and did not hear anything. I saw some comments today on qrz.com that indicated the transmissions took place beginning at 2300 EDT. It is surprising to me that the schedule was provided without a timezone reference and that UTC was not implied by its absence.
Very cool – I am doing this soon for sure!
Oh I just commented in the wrong thread – I was intending to say “very cool” to the inflight FM SDR reception. But while I am here MARS is cool as well 🙂