[Elecraft] OT: MARS frequencies, etc.

[Mike Morrow]

Ken wrote:

>It seems ... to me anyway ... that attempting to keep MARS
>frequencies "secret" is terribly silly!

It is "Monty Python" silly.  MARS frequency/net information has no
security classification.  The only repercussion to MARS frequency
disclosure is aggravation of some folks for whom an aura of "I know
something that you don't" is appealing.

This restriction is NOT historically characteristic of MARS.  I spent
14 years in Navy-Marine Corps MARS and almost as long in Army MARS,
beginning in 1968.  The Vietnam War is the last campaign in which MARS
played a persistent and useful part in providing message and phone patch
services to US servicemen.  At hamfests, we would hand out flyers with
net times and frequencies to encourage potential members to listen and
possibly affiliate.  I suspect that most MARS members, especially those
of long membership or with actual military background, share my assessment
of this pointless sense of secrecy.  

If one wishes to listen to local Army or Navy-Marine Corps MARS nets,
tune 4000 to 4080 kHz (USB-mostly) about 1800 to 2000 local time and
you'll find most.  Air Force MARS (and Civil Air Patrol) nets
are scattered halfway between 4 and 5 MHz.  There are many MARS HF
frequencies, but the most local activity is found in these ranges.

MARS members seek to be of service, but technology (cell phones, e-mail,
internet) now available to most service members have made the historical
prime service of MARS almost superfluous.  Now MARS traffic is essentially
all administrative or training in nature.  The emergency communications
function remains, though rarely activated.  

Though not now a member, I highly regard the motivation for MARS service.
I only suggest that frequency and net info restrictions are absurd,
inappropriate, and misplaced in a system that has no security classification,
has never handled classified traffic, and has never performed background
investigations of potential members. 

Mike / KK5F
(ex-Navy MARS N0LTD/NNN0LTD, ex-Army MARS AAT6UI, ex-CAP)