[ARRL-OK] October 27 and 28 Exercise to Test MARS-ARES Interoperability

[Mark Conklin via ARRL-OK]

>From ARES E-Letter  10/15/2014
 October 27 and 28  Exercise to Test MARS-ARES Interoperability
US Army and Air Force Military Auxiliary Radio Service (MARS) stations will participate in a 48-hour nationwide contingency communication exercise on October 27 and 28 as part of an effort to develop greater cooperation between the Department of Defense (DoD) sponsored MARS program and the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES). MARS is encouraging its members to discuss communication interoperability in advance of the exercise with their ARES section and district or local emergency coordinators.
"This communications exercise is sponsored by the DoD to provide MARS operators the opportunity to develop and train interoperability procedures with their state/local ARES emergency coordinators and their Amateur Radio colleagues," explained Army MARS Program Manager Paul English, WD8DBY. He told ARRL that the DoD/MARS exercise has "full participation" from Army and Air Force MARS, and that he anticipates that some individual Navy MARS members may participate as well.
The plan calls for MARS members, using their Amateur Radio call signs and operating on amateur frequencies, to establish two-way communication with ARES leadership or members in as many US counties as possible by using VHF/UHF simplex channels or local repeaters or near vertical incidence skywave (NVIS) propagation on HF. "The contact can be with any amateur in the county, if an ARES member or leader is not available," English added.
"Ultimately we would like the MARS operator to join an existing ARES net, if one is operational during the exercise," English said. If no net is available, MARS members should come up on local repeaters or check into HF traffic nets to see what amateurs are available and to determine their counties. "We want to use existing net times and frequencies to the extent possible," English continued. "Any mode of operation is fine."
Only one ARES/Amateur Radio contact per county is needed, but more are okay. The contact must be person to person and cannot rely on Internet-linked repeaters, Internet connectivity systems, or store-and-forward e-mail systems, such as Winlink, English said.
The information exchange requested from ARES for each county is the county name and the county Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) code, if available.https://www.census.gov/geo/reference/codes/cou.html
There are two preferred windows of opportunity to conduct the interoperability exercise. These are from 1201 to 1800 UTC on October 27, and from 0001 to 0600 UTC on October 28.  
IN OKLAHOMA - IT IS SUGGESTED THAT MARS OPERATORS MAY CONTACT OTHER ARES / TRAFFIC HANDLERS DURING ONE OF THE FOLLOWING NORMAL NETS. 
Net Control Stations are requested to ask each station checking in to their nets for 
Below is a list of PRIMARY Oklahoma HF Traffic nets:
Oklahoma HF Traffic Nets:  http://www.aresok.org/okAresNets.asp

| 40 Meter |
|  |  |  |  |
| ARES Oklahoma | Sun 2130z | 7260 KHz LSB | KA7GLA John |
|  |  |  |  |
| 75 Meter |
| OK Traffic & Weather Net | Mon-Sat 2300 UTC | 3900 KHz LSB | KK5GY Aryln |
| OK Phone Emergency Net | Sun 8:00 am | 3903 KHz LSB | KE5LTA |
|  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  |  |
| ARES HF Net | Sun 21:30Z | 7260KHz / 3900KHz alternate (3900 most often with the current propagation conditions) | Oscar, WB5GCX |
| Sooner Traffic Net | Evenings 5:30pm | 3845 KHz LSB | WD5HUT Ron |

 Contact Paul English, WD8DBY, for more information paul.a.english.civ at mail.mil. - Thanks to the ARRL Letter
Mark Conklin, N7XYOOklahoma Section Emergency Coordinator
Amateur Radio Emergency Service
918.232.8346
n7xyo at arrl.net
Follow me on Twitter @N7XYO
www.ARESOK.org