[Milsurplus] End of life: Navy MARS, effective 9/09

[dsmaples at comcast.net]

All: Soooo...if your original mission is no longer viable, do you just roll over and die?  Or do you adapt? 



The real value of MARS was not just the HF circuits and networks.  It was also a trained cadre of folks who knew something about radio and could apply it in the field.  That need, I believe, still exists, particularly as it relates to disaster comms. 



Could you learn to: 



a. Set up a WiFi access point, or router? 

b. Terminate an RJ-45 network cable, or an RJ-11 telephone cable? 

c. Construct a temporary antenna support out of materials available at the Home Depot? 

d. Set up and troubleshoot a prepackaged satellite terminal? 

e. Set up and troubleshoot a VoIP telephone bank? 

f. Troubleshoot a generator set? 

g. Troubleshoot a computer system housing data on shelter occupants? 

h. Troubleshoot a DC power system? 

j. Lay temporary power cables safely? 

k. Calmly take emergency traffic from someone using a GMRS radio who is in near-panic and who has no radio skills?  



Perhaps if MARS and CAP commo folks thought to what today's mission is, rather than thinking about what it used to be, they could find things that they could do that current-generation disaster coordinators would give their right eyeball for. 



Just food for thought. 



Dave AFA3WZ 


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Morrow" <kk5f at earthlink.net> 
To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net 
Sent: Tuesday, June 2, 2009 12:53:01 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern 
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] End of life: Navy MARS, effective 9/09 

Ed wrote of the termination of Navy-Marine Corps MARS operation: 

>I spent 25 years in the Navy MARS program Got out when the equipment 
>dried up and the message load went to telephones in the early 90's. I 
>had a feeling this was going to happen. 

Navy MARS was very important to me 40 years ago.  Joining it was the only 
reason I got my ham ticket.  I handled a lot of Vietnam-era serviceman 
traffic, and called many an [old]Eighth Naval District Net.  I was most 
active from 1968 to 1970, but then my own military service time pushed 
MARS to the background.  I spent 1968 to 1981 in Navy MARS, then 1982 to 
1986 in Army MARS.  The equipment program was unimportant...1969 was the 
last year I received a piece of MARS gear. 

I considered re-joining MARS about a decade ago, but by then Morse operation 
had been banned.  It's ironic that a couple of years ago Navy MARS brought back 
Morse operation, but now pulls the plug on the whole works.  The Navy was the 
last service to implemment a MARS program, in the early 1960s, and now will 
be the first to drop it.  It was inevitable. 

I believe that the other services will do likewise in short order.  I made 
several inquiries to Army MARS Headquarters in the past year and  received 
no responses. 

It's understandable.  Today's servicemen (except submariners on patrol) have so 
many diverse and easy methods to communicate with family that those of more than 
twenty-five years ago couldn't imagine.  MARS no longer has a place in today's 
cell phone/e-mail world. 

Still, it's sad. 

Mike / KK5F 
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