Annual Armed Forces Day Military/Amateur Radio Cross Band Comm Test

[RADIOMAN015]

Mark you calendars for May 12th, 2012  (Being held early due to ham convention in Dayton OH)
See: http://www.netcom.army.mil/MARS/docs/AMC_Test_2012.pdf

Wow, all those Army, Air Force, Navy/Marines, & Coast Guard HF/SSB and digital mode frequencies being given out to the hams and others with HF/SSB/digital receive capabilities to monitor :angel:

For those with receive capabilities you can download a free digital code/decode program at:  http://panbems.org/, it will work fine even with the radio speaker/headphones placed next to the computer microphone. 

RM
   

[RogueLeader]

WYWG has been asked to be at Wyomings', and WY 066 will represent cap.

[RogueLeader]

Oh, didn't see the second part of the title. Oh well.

[RADIOMAN015]

Regarding cross band operation as defined in this test (one agency (licensee) transmits on their authorized frequency and and another agency (licensee) not authorized to transmit on that frequency monitors/listens on that frequency, and vice versa on answering), has pretty much fallen out of regular use, primarily due to mutual aid type channels both in the HF/SSB as well as VHF/UHF/700/800 mhz bands.

The last time I remember hearing this type of activity was in the late 1970's between two counties sheriffs department in rural Michigan (Alcona & Iosoco) on a low band VHF frequency.

Even with CAP today our HF/SSB MICOM III's can easily be tuned to any HF frequency in an emergency (e.g. contacting USAF Global ground stations).   On VHF many if not most wings have some mutual aid frequencies programmed into the radios, many of which are monitored 24 hours a day by public safety dispatch centers, so in an emergency it might be possible for a CAP radio station to get assistance in an emergency when cellphone or land line phones were not operational and the CAP radio network wasn't being monitored or was not in range.

As with any communications technique, it's always good practice because it's possible it might be utilized.   For example in my state all the state police patrol vehicles have radio scanners/receivers installed so have the capability to monitor any unencrypted clear frequency (VHF/UHF/800) generally within their appropriate patrol area.  So we could always have them program in 123.10 mhz and than have them transmit on one of their VHF low band frequencies (42.XX, 44.XX mhz) to our aircraft (with an appropriate portable scanner/receiver tuned to this, and vice versa) for "on scene" type coordination but not long range radio communications.
RM