Here’s the plan from Stan:
With the cancellation of in person SIMCOM this year it threw a wrench
into out initial MINI-SET plans.So plan B is going to be an exercise to reach out during this weeks
COMEX exercise with Air Force and Army Mars on one day or evening. Then
on Saturday May 8th for the national Red Cross exercise.For our portion: Have all members with 60 meter capability make contact
on the COMEX exercise with MARS Net controls. Then those with WINLINK
check into the Red Cross Drill Via winlink. Then report to their
respective EC on:1. If they were successful with getting checked into the nets and
how may MARS stations each could copy. (MARS will NOT give out locations
though).2. Either in conjunction with your weekly nets or a special net-
your call, collect reports from your members and compile those into a
message to the DEC on either WINLINK or via the Sunday Morning WI
ARES/RACES HF net on Sunday May 16.NOTES FOR MARS Contacts:
ARMY MARS
ARMY MARS takes over on Wednesday noon Central time. ARMY MARS plans
regularly scheduled network activity on 60 meter “Channel One” for the
first Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of each month (May 5-8 )There will be Thursday, Friday and Saturday nets at 12:00 (Noon) Local
Time which are considered to be for local operations. There will also be
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nets at 20:00 Local Time
considered to be for intermediate to long distance operations. These
descriptions are based on typical propagation conditions.ARMY MARS will use just 60 meter Channel One for their nets which will
be primarily in SSB voice. They will also include test message traffic
in voice and data modes. Messages will be initially sent in MIL-STD
188-110A Serial PSK, Synchronous Mode in Plain Text (non-encrypted).
After a message has been sent in M110A they may switch to a prevailing
Amateur mode. Messages will be sent in ICS-213 format, whether by voice
or data.The nets will begin Wednesday with responsibility for the 20:00 EDT nets
split among the East Coast Regions with half taking Wednesday and Friday
and the other Thursday and Saturday. [Both ARMY and AF MARS are divided
into regions which coincide with the FEMA regions, so I have included a
map of FEMA regions for reference. What you hear will be determined by
equipment and propagation, but if conditions are at all decent you
should hear someone.]For the 20:00 CDT net, again responsibility is split among the central
regions on the same basis. This pattern continues to Mountain DT where
20:00 local is 21:00 CDT, then to Pacific DT at 22:00 CDT, next Alaska
DT at 23:00 CDT, Hawaii ST at 01:00 CDT, and you might(?) hear Guam
(Chamorro ST) at 05:00 CDT. Since they are a day ahead of us (across the
international date line), if they operate on Wednesday, you may hear
them Wednesday morning, but don’t count on it.Similarly, beginning on Thursday, nets will occur at 12:00 local time in
each of the Time Zones, beginning with Eastern Daylight Time and
continuing to Pacific Daylight Time and also Alaska, Hawaii, and Guam at
their respective 12:00 local times. Although it is expected that
propagation will be mostly local, conditions can always vary.
