[GCARC] try something new: make contact with a US military station Saturday!

[Jim n2gxj]

This is a good way to learn how to do something new with your HF radio.

The Department of Defence (DoD) on Saturday will be conducting cross-band
exercises with all ham radio operators.  And you can get a QSL card to
confirm the contact.

Of course, there is a trick.

And that trick is what makes figuring out how to do this with your radio a
fun challenge!  See, the military stations will transmit outside the ham
band, and tell you where they are listening for you to call them from
within a ham band.

You will hear strange calls, like "WAR" (Whiskey Alpha Romeo - from the
Pentagon, for example)/ don't be surprised! These are NOT ham stations!

The frequencies and times they will be transmitting on are listed here:
https://www.dodmars.org/mars-comex-information-website/armed-forces-day

Tip/technique:
So you need to figure out a way to listen to them on their frequency, and
then "split" your radio so that when you key up the mic, that it will
transmit in the ham band on the frequency they say they are listening on.
On my radio, I can do this by using an A/B channel select, and putting the
radio in "split" mode.
On channel A, I tune outside the ham bands to listen to their frequency, as
listed on the above web site.  When I hear them, and they say frequency
they say they are listening on, I press the A/B to get to the B channel on
my radio, and dial in the inside the ham band frequency on the B channel
that they say they are listening in on.   Then I press the A/B again to go
back to their channel that I am listening to on A.  Being in split mode,
when I key up the radio, the radio switches from listening on the A channel
to doing TX on the B channel frequency. When unkey, it goes back to A
automatically, so I can listen to see if they are responding to me.

Good luck to anyone who tries!

Jim Wright, n2gxj