Area ham radio operators will be participating in a Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) exercise from October 30th through November 1st, according to Amateur Radio Emergency Services Coordinator Jim Goodrich, WA4VGZ.

Goodrich noted, "The purpose of this quarterly exercise is train amateur radio operator how to provide communications following a "very bad day" scenario when traditional forms of communications will likely be unavailable. While the simultaneous loss of all communications nation-wide is not likely, for training purposes, we are assuming there has been a massive nation-wide outage."

One of the objectives of this exercise is to continue the partnership with the amateur radio community to help provide information about local conditions and send this information to the Department of Defense to help understand what is happening around the United States.

During this exercise, Murfreesboro area amateur radio operators will communicate on 60 meters, local VHF and UHF repeaters as well as HF NVIS amateur radio bands. The group's goal is to have a conversation about the local conditions in and around this county. During the conversation, operators will be asking basic questions such as the status of commercial power, public water systems, and road conditions. These will be person to person conversations...you don't need to use any digital modes or know any special messaging formats.

To kick off this exercise, the amateur radio community is encouraged to monitor 5,330.5KHz from 0300-0400 Hrs Zulu on October 31st. During this hour, there will be a high power voice broadcast from a military station on the east coast and alternate with a voice broadcast from the west coast. Amateur radio operators are encouraged to submit a reception report as indicated in the voice broadcast.

For the remainder of the exercise, MARS personnel will be calling for amateur radio operators on the 60 meter channels as well as using already established amateur radio nets on HF NVIS and VHF/UHF repeaters.

If you have further questions about this exercise, please email: mars.exercises@gmail.com .