[PPRAANet] Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) Exercise

[John Bloodgood]

The ARRL released this today:
 
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02/10/2016 

 
The first quarterly Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) US 
Department of Defense communications exercise of 2016 (COMEX 
16-1) is set for February 12. The scenario will be a loss of electrical power, 
landline telephone and cell service, and Internet. The exercise will get under 
way at 1200 UTC and run for 12 hours. Individual radio amateurs and 
Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) groups will be encouraged to 
participate.
 

“The purpose of this exercise is to focus on individual MARS operator skills, 
refine our joint operations procedures between Army and Air Force volunteer 
leaders, and to continue to develop the working relationships at the local level 
between MARS operators and individual Amateur Radio operators as well as ARES 
and other Amateur Radio groups,” Army MARS Program Manager Paul English, WD8DBY, 
told ARRL. “ MARS is continuing to develop new techniques for how to make better 
use of Automatic Link Establishment (ALE) capabilities and will use this 
exercise to continue to refine how we integrate ALE.”
 

At some point in the exercise, MARS stations will be requested to contact 
local radio amateurs for a condition report. MARS stations will collect 
information from hams and ARES groups only via radio.  http://www.arrl.org/news/army-and-air-force-mars-communications-exercise-set-for-february-12
 
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In the past, MARS members would request information using their normal amateur call signs during scheduled nets and the procedures were spelled out more in advance.  This exercise is a little different, more like a real world event.  
 
Keep an ear out for requests for status on Friday the 12th (if they start the COMEX at raday UTC, that would actually be a start time of 5 PM Thursday).  The requesting station will tell you what status info they need.  If requested, our FIPS codes are 08 for the state, and county codes are 041 for El Paso and 119 for Teller.  Again, the MARS station will be using their normal amateur call sign.  
 

 
 
John Bloodgood, KD0SFY
EC & PIO -- Region 2 District 2, Colorado ARES (Pikes Peak ARES)
www.facebook.com/PikesPeakARES
Twitter  @PikesPeakARES