[MRCA] MARS CW Ops

[Mike Morrow]

Breck wrote:

> USAF MARS and Navy MARS are now starting up CW nets again.

Meir wrote of Navy MARS:

> We started the CW nets about 6 weeks ago.

I believe that Army and Navy MARS chiefs "pioneered" the recent revival of Morse operations.  It was very good news to hear, and I've given some thought to rejoining.  When Morse was outlawed in the various MARS organizations in 1996, not even Morse training nets were to be allowed.  Even Morse IDs on MARS repeaters were to be eliminated!  

See the end of MARS Morse declared at:

http://www.marinecorpsmars.com/Misc/last_mars_cw_message.htm

See the revival declared at:

http://www.navymars.org/northeast/cw.htm  
(But the date of the Morse ban is incorrectly stated as 1992.)

I was active in NAVMARCOR MARS 40 years ago as N0LTD (later NNN0LTD), to the extent of about 25 hours per week, and later in Army MARS as AAT6UI.  I spent 20 years between those two MARS systems.  There was a lot of "real" traffic from servicemen during the Vietnam war, including many "Arrived safely at the recruit depot, my address is..." messages that were the only communication with the outside world allowed to the recruits for the first several weeks.  The Vietnam war era was probably the last time that serviceman traffic outweighed routine administrative and training traffic on MARS circuits.

Disturbing in today's MARS organizations are some quirky attitudes.  MARS circuit frequencies are "withheld from disclosure" in an amusing attempt to apply some "if I told you I'd have to kill you" mystique to MARS.  But back when MARS had a clear and practical purpose, it was very common to publish MARS frequencies, modes, and schedules in ham bulletins and on MARS handouts at hamfests to encourage monitoring and potential membership application.  MARS operating frequency information has never had military security classification at any level, so the current attitude is theatrical nonsense.

PS:  I never liked the mid-1970s call sign change of NAVMARCOR MARS calls from N0xyz to NNN0xyz (to free up the 1x3 call for ham use).  I'd have preferred N0xyz transforming to Nxy0z.

Mike / KK5F