05/09/2024

The US Department of Defense (DOD) is hosting this year's Armed Forces Day (AFD) Crossband Test on Saturday, May 11.

For more than 50 years, military and amateur stations have taken part in this event, which is an interoperability exercise between amateur and government radio stations. The event is open to all licensed amateur radio operators and will not impact any public or private communications.

The AFD Crossband Test is a unique opportunity to test two-way communications between military communicators and radio stations in the Amateur Radio Service (ARS), as authorized in 47 CFR 97.111. 

The annual DOD message will be transmitted via RTTY on 14.667 kHz at 1400 and 2000 UTC. These tests provide opportunities and challenges for radio operators to demonstrate individual technical skills in a tightly controlled exercise scenario. Military stations will transmit on selected military frequencies and announce the specific ARS frequencies monitored. All scheduled times will be in Zulu, and all scheduled frequencies will be upper sideband (USB), unless otherwise noted. Information on frequencies, times, and other technical information can be found at DoD MARS - Armed Forces Day[1]. 

The Battleship IOWA Amateur Radio Association[2] (BIARA) and the ship's Innovation, Engineering and Technology Team will activate NEPM, which was the ship's original radio station call sign from 1942 until 1997. It was reassigned to the ship in 2015. The activation will begin at the same date and time as the Armed Forces Day Crossband Test, from 1400 to 2000 UTC. All SSB operations are USB only for transmit and receive. 

Assigned transmit and expected receive frequencies are: 


o 4.0435 to 3.943 MHz USB
o 6.9035 to 7.295 MHz USB
o 9.9440 to 10.113 MHz CW
o 14.4635 to 14.343 MHz USB
o 18.2930 to 18.143 MHz US 



Information for QSL cards and contact information is available at Armed Forces Day QSL request form[3].


[1] https://www.dodmars.org/mars-comex-information-website/armed-forces-day
[2] https://biara.org/
[3] https://www.usarmymars.org/armed-forces-day-qsl-card-request

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