In the USA, the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) will sponsor the traditional military/amateur radio communication tests to mark the 67th annual Armed Forces Day Saturday, May 12.
Armed Forces Day is May 19, but the AFD Cross band Military-Amateur Radio event traditionally takes place 1 week earlier in order to avoid conflicting with Hamvention.
Complete information, including military stations, modes, and frequencies, is available on the US Army MARS website.
The annual celebration is a unique opportunity to test two-way communication between radio amateurs and military stations. It features traditional military-to-amateur cross band SSB voice, CW, practice using legacy interoperability waveforms, and the opportunity for participating hams to utilize more modern military modes, such as MIL-STD Serial PSK and Automatic Link Establishment.
Military stations will transmit (USB, unless otherwise noted on the schedule) on selected military frequencies and will announce the specific amateur
frequencies they are monitoring. MARS stressed that frequencies used for the test will not impact any public or private communications and will not stray outside the confines of the exercise.
