H/T NC Renegade:
NC Renegade- DOD Interoperability Exercise 12FEB16
Disclaimer- the guy narrating the embedded vid is a blathering idiot. He has little information, is jumping to ill-informed opinions, and lacks proper annunciation- in other words, your average tin foil moron. Never mind the fact that he did us all a favor through his insightful commentary, he also provided a solution to all of our signal problems. One wonders why we don’t just consult him for all the answers…
Be that as it may, the date and what .gov is doing IS important.
What’s actually happening is a MARS readiness exercise that’s fairly routine. What’s MARS? Military Auxiliary Radio System. In a nutshell, a system by which Amateur Radio Operators integrate with DOD and National Guard Units. They happen fairly often, and serve a small role in the Continuity of Government plan.
Now before anyone dives off into stupid land, understand that this is both voluntary for Amateur Radio operators and a good training opportunity for folks wishing to sharpen their communicator skills. MARS stations serve a variety of unclassified functions, but most often are for training for military communications units on the air. Had anyone with any sense listened or gained information before they shouted the sky was falling, they’d know that this was an exercise centered out west. And there happens to be a lot of military bases out west and desert rat hams.
That being said, it’s free to listen. And you should be listening. With your data book. Things to listen for is the type of traffic, urgency of the senders, and how well it seems to be working over the air(such as, effectiveness and efficiency of relays…)
With a little bit more careful attention paid to the details, we know this is a dual layered exercise- 2M Line of Sight(LOS) and HF. New Mexico has a statewide repeater linking system known as Mega-link. HF operations will be conducted on 40M-7.2365 and 80M-3.939, as per the article. Likely 40 will be active during the day, 80 during the night. Almost all MARS traffic is in USB. Keep an ear out for these as well. They’re in the Upper Side Band too.
Great training opportunities are happening all around you, everyday. There’s no excuse not to be out there on it, always learning and getting better.