Air Force MARS

[blindfire]

Emailed my AF MARS application in yesterday. Haven't received any notice that the paperwork is in process yet.

Does anyone know how long it takes to get going from application to getting on the air?

Thanks

 

[Love Machine]

How do you even apply?

 

[UJay]

Cool. What is the process.. etc...? Are there frequencies that you can share so we can observe the meetings/nets.... etc?

We can try and get an idea what is involved & what the activities are...

What encouraged your application, pse?

uj

 

[FPrice]

How do you even apply?

https://afmars-msn.org/joinmars.php

 

[blindfire]

REPLIES IN-LINE

Cool.

What is the process.. etc...?
https://afmars-msn.org/joinmars.php

Are there frequencies that you can share so we can observe the meetings/nets.... etc? We can try and get an idea what is involved & what the activities are...

AFAIK, the freqs are not published for security reasons. I've asked before and was told that this is not public information.


What encouraged your application, pse?
I've been doing NTS traffic nets for some time and am getting bored with it, especially here in Central MA. There is just no traffic to speak of. On top of this, I wanted to give back to the .mil since I grew up in a Navy household. And...I can transmit on non-ham frequencies.

 

[Love Machine]

So how do you get equipment that can transmit on MARS frequencies?

 

[s&w3913]

I remember reading that MARs used to do phone patches back in the day. Used to see them at the airshow booths. I know there is or was an active chapter in the barnes/westover area,

 

[dans]

So how do you get equipment that can transmit on MARS frequencies?

Most commercial HAM radios can be easily modified to use the MARS frequencies.

 

[blindfire]

Most commercial HAM radios can be easily modified to use the MARS frequencies.

This. I had my ICOM IC-7100 MARS mod done by drgrant. Usually involves removing some zero ohm resisters off the main board of the radio. Every radio has their own version of it. The MARS mod for the Icom lets me transmit from 100 Hz up through 470 MHz excluding the commercial and aviation bands. Sadly, the Icom doesn't do 220, so that band region is not possible, but I don't think MARS operates up in that area. I know they are below the 2m band and placed around the 80m, 40m and 20m bands...but don't know the exact freqs. i suppose you could go to their website and look for the net schedule and then start scanning around and eventually find it.

One other thing that intrigues me is that their nets operate both phone and digital on the same net...so you start of doing phone and then digital data is sent without having to change frequencies. THAT is cool to me.

 

[blindfire]

Well, got my trainee license from Air Force MARS today. Let the learning begin!

 

[Love Machine]

Woot woot!