US Department of Defense (DOD) Military Auxiliary Radio Service (MARS) operators in the US, Germany, and Japan, will take part in an interoperability communications exercise in August. The exercise will take place on Monday, August 15, from 1200 UTC to 2359 UTC.

The focus of the exercise is “to train during a simulated communications-constrained environment using radio-only communication capabilities,” MARS said. Throughout the exercise, MARS operators will reach out and attempt connect with Amateur Radio operators at the local and regional levels using HF, VHF, and UHF. For the purposes of this exercise, the use of the 60 meter interoperability channels — dial frequencies 5330.5 and 5346.5 kHz — are authorized and encouraged. Other bands will be coordinated by MARS members at the local/regional level with their ARES/RACES/club counterparts.

The exercise is tied in with a larger DOD exercise, which will include participation by active duty forces. — Thanks to Army MARS Program Manager Paul English, WD8DBY