Previously, I wrote:
> Saturday, May 16th is Armed Forces Day. One of the traditional events
> for this day is a combination of cross-band military-to-amateur radio
> contacts and reception of a text message from the Secretary of Defense.
>
> The military-to-amateur crossband operations will start at 1300 UTC May
> 16th and continue until 1300 UTC May 17th. Military Affiliate Radio
> System (MARS) stations, including AAE (Fort Sam Houston), AIR (Andrews
> Air Force Base), and WAR (Fort Meade), will transmit on announced
> military frequencies. The amateur frequencies being monitored will be
> announced by the operators on duty. This crossband, or split-frequency,
> operation is made possible by each station transmitting on their
> authorized frequencies, and receiving on the other station's authorized
> frequencies.
>
> A broadcast in several digital modes, including Radio Teletype (RTTY),
> Packet Teleprinter over Radio (PACTOR), and Amateur Teleprinter over
> Radio (AMTOR), of a text message from the Secretary of Defense will
> begin at 1640 and 2340 UTC on announced military frequencies.
> Successful copying of the message will be recognized by a special
> commemorative certificate.
>
> The SACMARC will be participating in these communications tests using
> station K0AIR, which will once again be set up in the back yard of the
> home of John Sheffield, N4OWG, which is at 6904 Capehart Road,
> Papillion. We will probably be operating from about 10 AM to 6PM local
> time. Interested amateur radio operators, as well as other guests and
> observers, are quite welcome.
>
> A more detailed announcement, including specific military stations
> participating and their frequencies of operation, may be found on Page
> 107 of May QST.
>
> Questions, or requests for directions to John's home, may be directed to
> me.
>
As announced, we set up in John's backyard around 10 AM and began
working the military stations crossband on HF. Stations we contacted
included:
AIR, USAF, Andrews AFB, Maryland
AIR-2, USAF, Onizuka (formerly Los Angeles) AFB, California
NMH, U.S. Coast Guard, Alexandria, Virginia
NBL, U.S. Navy, Groton, Connecticut
AAH, U.S. Army, Ft. Lewis, Washington
AAZ, U.S. Army, Ft. Huachuca, Arizona
All stations were contacted on SSB (upper sideband) working split near
the amateur radio 20 meter (14 MHz) band (us transmitting 14.200-14.300
MHz, them transmitting either 13.900-14.000 MHz or 14.350-14.450 MHz).
AAH was also contacted working split near the amateur radio 17 meter
(18.1 MHz) band (propagation to Washington State was excellent on that
band, yielding one of the best contacts).
Using our distinctive amateur radio callsign was a plus in terms of
recognition, but also a minus in terms of initial confusion for the
weaker contacts with AIR and AIR-2, especially when Andrew, operating
K0AIR, tried to work AIR at Andrews, and give them his name and callsign.
The RTTY message from the Secretary of Defense was scheduled for 2340
UTC (1740 local), but occurred about 10 minutes late. After tuning to
all of the published frequencies (including those for AIR and AIR-2), we
finally found a strong signal for NAV-4 (U.S. Navy, Great Lakes,
Illinois) on 7375 kHz, which we decoded using an AEA PK-232 modem. The
following is the message (transmission errors included):
161800Z MAY 98
FM NMH ALEXUVDRIA VA
TO ALL STATIONS
BT
UNCLAS//N02000//
SUBJ:ECDEF ARMED FORCES DAY MESSAGE
1. H B CAMED FORCES DAY MESSAGERH TO THE MEN ANDTWOMEN =
OF THE ARMED FORKZS
WWM ARMED FORCES DAY IS YOUR DUY - TMEPDAY YOUR NATION SETS ASIDE EACH
YEAR TO HONOR AMERICAS M ANDWOMEN IN UNIFORM. IT IS A DAY WHEN
ALL AMERICANS ARE REMINDED OF YOUR WILLINGNESS TO ENDURE WNY HARDSHIP
AND CONFRONT ANY CHALLENGE TO KEEP OUR COUNTRY FREE AND STRONG9
BECAUSE OF YOPK -.348:- ')330' 59,8{}5 8, '3:74856 -, 03-:3.
3. EACH OF YOU SHOULD BE VERY PVMU.| 6974 -:}83=3D3.3,5'. WHETTR YOU
ARE KEEPING PEACE ON THE GROUND IN EUROPE, GUARDING THE SEA LANES OF
THE PACIFIC RIM, PATROLLING THE SKIES OF SOUTHWEST ASIA OR SERVING
HERE IN THE UNITED STATES, YOU ARE PART OF A WINNING TEAM THAT ISSECOND T=
O NONE.
4. 5}8' 0-'5 63-4 53'53 6974 '(8))' -, 6974 :9..85.3,5. YOUR
COUNTRY HAS ASKED MANY OF YOU TO SERVE FAR FROM HOME AND FAMILY -
SOMETIMES ON VERY SHORT NOTICE. YOU HAVE MET EVERY TEST AND OVERCOME
EERY CHALLENGE QUICKLY, EFFECTIVELY AND WITH TOTAL DEDICATION.
5. TODAYTHE NATION OFFERS A HEARTFELT 'THANK YOU' TO YOU, YOUR
FAMILIES AND THE COMMUNITIES THAT SUPPORT YOU. YOU ARE HELPING SPREAD
THE BLESSINGS OF FREEDOM AM03.9:4-:6 59 0390)3 -497, 5}3 294).
6. AU YOUR SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, I SALUTE YMIKIANY AVVIEVEMENTS AND
YOUR SELFLESS SERVICE. YOU VAVE EARNED THE HONOR, RESPECT AND
GRATITUDE OF YOU FELLOW AMERICANS.
7. SIGNED: WILLIAM S. COHEN
BT
NNNN
RTTY is sensitive to noise being interpreted as a shift from letters to
figures, and by default will not unshift until the end of the line
(CR-CR-LF). In retrospect, setting the "Unshift on Space" parameter in
the radio modem probably would have confined the errors to a single
word. There was also supposed to be additional transmissions of the
message in some more modern, error-correcting modes like PACTOR (at
0040) and AMTOR (at 0140), but nothing was heard on any of the published
frequencies (the announcement did warn that these tests would be
dependent on equipment and volunteer availability). I'll send the
copy of the message (with transmission errors included unmodified, as
requested) to the office of the Chief of Navy MARS, for the certificate
on behalf of the SACMARC.
Thanks go to John, N4OWG, who allowed the use of his backyard and
antennas (as well as a loan of a RTTY modem and laptop), Frank, AA0ZP,
who lent his large screen tent, and Andrew, KC0BDX, who showed up to
operate and managed to finally contact AIR-2 near the end of the day
(after I had repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to get them to pull us out
of the noise).
73, Paul W. Schleck, K3FU
pschleck@novia.net
SACMARC President
K0AIR Trustee
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