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

[Jim n2gxj]

just made contact right now with NIIW on USS Midway CV-41 San Diego
CALIFORNIA.
They on 14.383.8
I talked to them on 14.343
They will be on for another 15 minutes today, then again tomorrow
Good luck!


On Fri, May 13, 2022 at 8:03 PM Jim n2gxj <jim.n2gxj at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>