US Navy-Marine Corps MARS Program to End

Blog Editor: This has been a long time coming. I have discussed this on this blog and other venues several times over the years. DoD should now do the smart things and combine AF and AR MARS into one service auxiliary. Failure to do so is fraud, waste and abuse of valuable HF frequency resources and the taxpayers money. As a former members it pains me to see this organization fold. Fair winds and following seas to all who served in NMCM.

From the ARRL website:
The US Department of Defense is phasing out the US Navy-Marine Corps Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) program. Its operational mission will transition to the other MARS service branches by the end of September.

The head of the US Navy-Marine Corps MARS program in Williamsburg, Virginia, made the announcement. The Navy-Marine Corps MARS program also supports the US Coast Guard as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the US Department of Homeland Security, and local emergency management agencies.

A US Department of Defense-sponsored program, MARS branches are separately managed by their respective military service branches. MARS volunteers are Amateur Radio operators who provide auxiliary or emergency communications to local, national, and international emergency and safety organizations, as an adjunct to normal communications.

Message from Navy-Marine Corps MARS (edited content by author):

DE NNNØASA ØØ1
R 122Ø3ØZ MAY 2Ø15
FM CHNAVMARCORMARS WILLIAMSBURG VA
TO ALNAVMARCORMARS
INFO ZEN/CHIEF ARMY MARS FT HUACHUCA AZ
ZEN/CHIEF AIR FORCE MARS SCOTT AFB IL

BT

UNCLAS

SUBJ/TRANSITION OF NAVY MARINE CORPS MARS (MILITARY AUXILIARY RADIO SYSTEM PROGRAM//
REF/A/PHONECON/NCTAMS LANT/NAVIDFOR/FCC-C1ØF/STRATCOM/Ø8 MAY 2Ø15//
REF/B/DODI 465Ø.2/MILITARY AUXILIARY RADIO SYSTEM (MARS)//
REF/C/DODD 3Ø25.18/DEFENSE SUPPORT OF CIVIL AUTHORITIES//

RMKS/1. IAW REF A, NAVAL COMPUTER AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS AREA MASTER STATION ATLANTIC (NCTAMS LANT) INTENDS TO WORK WITH U.S. ARMY MARS AND U.S. AIR FORCE MARS IN TRANSITIONING THE NAVY MARINE CORPS MARS (NAVMARCORMARS) PROGRAM BY 3Ø SEP 2Ø15. THE INTENT OF THE TRANSITION IS TO BEST ALIGN THE PROGRAM TO SUPPORT NATIONAL MISSION REQUIREMENTS.

2. EVALUATION OF THE NAVMARCORMARS PROGRAM BY FLEET CYBER COMMAND (FCC)/COMMANDER 1ØTH FLEET (C1ØF), NAVAL INFORMATION DOMINATION FORCES (NAVIDFOR), AND NCTAMS LANT DETERMINED THAT THERE ARE NO U.S. NAVY SERVICE UNIQUE REQUIREMENTS.

3. NCTAMS LANT WILL WORK WITH OTHER U.S. NAVY, U.S. ARMY, U.S. AIR FORCE, U.S. STRATEGIC COMMAND, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY REPRESENTATIVES, AND NAVMARCORMARS VOLUNTEERS TO DEVELOP A TRANSITION PLAN FOR NAVMARCORMARS MEMBERS WHICH MEETS THE REQUIREMENTS OF REF B AND REF C.

4. CURRENT NAVMARCORMARS INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS AND CLUBS ARE ENCOURAGED TO BEGIN SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS TO U.S. ARMY MARS OR U.S. AIR FORCE MARS PROGRAMS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. U.S. ARMY MARS MEMBERSHIP CAN BE REQUESTED AT
HTTP://WWW.USARMYMARS.ORG/RESOURCES/APPLICATIONS-AND-FORMS AND U.S. AIR FORCE MARS MEMBERSHIPS INFORMATION CAN BE REQUESTED VIA E-MAIL TO 38CYRS.SCM.MARS@US.AF.MIL.

5. ADDITIONAL GUIDANCE WILL ALSO BE PROVIDED SEPCOR FOR MARS STATIONS UNDER MILITARY AUSPICES, AGENCY STATIONS, AND INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS WHO ALSO PARTICIPATE IN THE DHS SHARED RESOURCES (SHARES) HF RADIO PROGRAM.

6. AT A MINIMUM, FUTURE NOTICES WILL BE PROVIDED VIA CHIEF, NAVMARCORMARS MESSAGE. OTHER MEDIA WILL BE IDENTIFIED AS PART OF THE TRANSITION COMMUNICATIONS PLAN.

7. THE U.S. NAVY GREATLY APPRECIATES THE THOUSANDS OF MARS VOLUNTEERS, PAST AND PRESENT, WHO HAVE BEEN INTEGRAL TO THE SUCCESS OF MARS. NCTAMS LANT WILL KEEP YOU INFORMED OF TRANSITION EFFORTS AND REQUESTS YOUR ASSISTANCE TO HELP START THIS NEW CHAPTER IN MARS OPERATIONS.

12. INTERNET RELEASE IS AUTHORIZED.//

BT
NNNN

New Summer 2015 International Shortwave Broadcast Guide Now Available at Amazon

Teak Publishing is proud to announce the publication of their 9th e-book on Amazon.com -- Summer 2015 International Shortwave Broadcast Guide

So why should you listen to shortwave radio? Quite simply shortwave radio is your window to the world.

The best source of global information continues to be shortwave radio. Throughout the world, shortwave remains the most readily available and affordable means of communication and information. It lets you listen to voices from around the world. You'll also learn about the lives and concerns of people from all walks of life, from soldiers, to farmers, to retired scholars. Shortwave radio provides nearly instantaneous coverage of news and events from around the world.

Shortwave listening, or SWLing, is the hobby of listening to shortwave radio broadcasts located on frequencies between 1700 kHz and 30 MHz, also known as HF or the High Frequencies bands.

If you live in the U.S., you can easily listen to shortwave broadcast stations from countries like North/South Korea, Iran, Australia, Cuba, China, New Zealand, Pakistan, India, Japan, England, Egypt, Tunisia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United States and many other counties if you have a shortwave receiver, and you know when and where to listen!

That when and where to listen is covered comprehensively in the pages of a new edition of the International Shortwave Broadcast Guide.

The International Shortwave Broadcast Guide (Summer 2015 edition), by Amazon bestselling author Gayle Van Horn, W4GVH, is that all important information resource you need to tap into the worldwide shortwave broadcast radio spectrum. It is a 24-hour station/frequency guide to “all” the known stations currently broadcasting on shortwave radio at time of publication. This unique shortwave resource is the “only” publication in the world that offers a by-hour schedule that includes all language services, frequencies and world target areas for each broadcast station. There are new chapters that cover basic shortwave radio listening and Who’s Who in the Shortwave Radio Spectrum. Also extensive work has been done to improve the readability of this edition on the various Kindle platforms.

The International Shortwave Broadcast Guide (Summer 2015 edition) is now available for purchase worldwide from Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00X8BIF0K. The price for this latest edition is still US$4.99. Since this book is being released internationally, Amazon customers in the United Kingdom, Germany, France Spain, Italy, Japan, India, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and Australia can order this electronic book (e-Book) from Amazon websites directly servicing these countries. All other countries can use the regular Amazon.com website.

This new e-publication edition is an expanded version of the English shortwave broadcast guide formerly printed in the pages of Monitoring Times magazine for over 20 years. This one of a kind e-book is now being published twice a year to correspond with station seasonal time and frequency changes.

If you enjoy listening or monitoring HF shortwave stations, and you miss the monthly English frequency listings formerly published in the late Monitoring Times magazine, and multilingual station listing in the old MTXpress electronic magazine, this valuable tool will now be your new guide to listening to the world.

Frequency updates between editions will be posted on her Shortwave Central blog at: http://mt-shortwave.blogspot.com/.

And, the good news is that you do not need to own a Kindle reader to read Amazon e-book publications. You can read any Kindle book with Amazon’s free reading apps.

There are free Kindle reading apps for the Kindle Cloud Reader, Smartphones (iPhone, iTouch, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry); computer platforms (Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8 and Mac); Tablets (iPad, Android and Windows 8), and, of course, all of the Kindle family of readers including the Kindle Fire series. A Kindle e-book allows you to buy your book once and read it anywhere. You can find additional details on these apps by checking out this link to the Amazon website at www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771.

For additional information on this and other Teak Publishing radio hobby books, monitor the company sponsored Internet blogs – The Military Monitoring Post (http://mt-milcom.blogspot.com/), The Btown Monitor Post (http://monitor-post.blogspot.com/) and The Shortwave Central (http://mt-shortwave.blogspot.com/) for availability of additional e-books that are currently in production.

You can view the complete Teak Publishing book catalog online at http://mt-shortwave.blogspot.com/. Click on the Teak Publishing radio hobby e-book link at the top of the blog page. You can learn more about the author by going to her author page on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Gayle-Van-Horn/e/B0084MVQCM/.

The International Shortwave Broadcast Guide will have wide appeal to shortwave radio hobbyists, amateur radio operators, educators, foreign language students, news agencies, news buffs and many more interested in listening to a global view of news and events as they happen. 

If you are an amateur radio operator or shortwave radio enthusiasts, and want to hear what is happening outside the ham bands on that transceiver or portable shortwave radio in your shack, then this new e-book from Teak Publishing is a must in your radio reference library.

Here are a few of the public comments from radio hobbyists who purchased the first three editions of this Amazon e-book.

Excellent Shortwave Introduction and Program Guide by Don K3PRN
Excellent, very reasonable guide to shortwave radio. As a long time shortwave listener, the listing of all shortwave stations by UTC time is very useful to me. I had previously a shortwave website that listed only English broadcasts rather than an all station listing with the language that will be broadcast. I would highly recommend this e book for all new shortwave listeners and those that interested in a very portable listing of all stations by UTC. I only hope that this will be updated twice a year for many more years.

Good Product by Radio Freq 

Since Monitoring Times stopped publishing shortwave radio schedules, there has been a dearth of resources for radio-heads. This guide nicely fulfills gap. It is very comprehensive.

It is nice someone is dedicated to SWL by Robert K. Mallory 

Very concise and well organized. Not much to choose from these days, it is nice someone is dedicated to SWL.

Shortwave Broadcast Guide by Kindle Customer

Since Monitoring Times is no longer in publication, this guide is required for the dedicated shortwave listener. There is information provided that I have found nowhere else. It will be a welcome addition to any listener's equipment. Gayle Van Horn has been publishing this research for many years and the followers are numerous, from beginners to professionals. The author's work is accurate, concise and thorough. If you have a shortwave radio, you need this publication as much as a set of earphones. There is none better.

Very Good Source for Shortwave Stations Broadcast Schedules by Kenneth Windyka

I've got to admit up front that I don't have a strong interest in this part of the hobby. HOWEVER, Gayle Van Horn makes it easy to determine what one can hear on the short wave bands during a particular time period (in GMT time sorted format). I also like the internet reference available, so that one can listen to programs via the internet even if its' not possible via the shortwave radio.

NJ Shortwave listener hears International Frequencies with new guide help by Stanley E Rozewski, Jr.

This e-book is complete and accurate in presenting a low cost SW frequency guide and important must read topics for the new or experienced user. I liked the easy reading format, and understandable frequency guide. I will order the second edition next year.

This is my go-to-first reference by Mary C Larson 

When I turn on the shortwave receiver and want to find out what's on and where to look, Van Horn's handy frequency guide is a smart place to begin. The format is not unlike the one Monitoring Times (R.I.P.) used each month. Presumably, updated ISBGs will be published twice per year, but you can check for the updates on her blog, (mt-shortwave.blogspot.com).

Good value by DrP 

This is an excellent well-written book that is very affordable when compared to encyclopedic guides, e.g., the WRTH. Much the same information is included. The first part is a nice introduction to SW listening pitched to the beginner. Included is an informative section on purchasing a radio spanning low-end <$100 models up through the most advanced transceivers. The bulk of the book contains a list of world-wide SW broadcasters, organized by frequency band. This makes it ideal for browsing one band at a time, but much less so if you want to search for broadcasts from a particular country.

I like this one by Charles

I have only had a brief chance to scan through this book. From what I have seen of it I will enjoy getting in to it.

Shortwave Is Not Quite Dead by James Tedford (Bothell, WA United States)

It was barely breathing as of late, but there is still a lot you can hear on shortwave radio. You need more than a little dedication, and a better-than-adequate radio to hear what remains on the HF bands, but if you have those, you will be rewarded with a lot of interesting audio programming. This book is a good guide to what is currently available over the international airwaves.

Five Stars by Frank S.

Excellent for the price. Glad I found this.

Five Stars by Kindle Customer

Came on time. packaged right, looks as shown and works as advertised.

North Atlantic (NAT) MWARA Profile and Frequencies

Tony Roper posted the following list of North Atlantic (NAT) Major World Air Route Area (MWARA) frequencies on the UDXF list. I have added some additional material from my personal files and monitoring to round out this profile. If you are a military monitor, these frequencies are a great playground in the HF spectrum to catch possible mil aircraft activity. All frequencies are in kHz and mode is USB.

HF Aeronautical Frequencies

HO = Service available to meet operational requirements

NAT Family A: Used by all aircraft flying the Southern NAT Routes. Assigned to aircraft flying routes with reporting coordinates between 43° North and 47° North.
Ground Stations: Gander, New York, Santa Marie, Shanwick

3016.0 kHz 0100-0900 and 1800-2200 UTC
5598.0 kHz H24
8906.0 kHz 0900-2100 UTC
13306.0 kHz HO

NAT Family B: Assigned to aircraft flying routes with reporting coordinates between 47° North and 64° North. Ground Stations: Gander, Iceland, Shanwick

2899.0 kHz 0000-0900 and 1800-2400 UTC
5616.0 kHz H24
8864.0 kHz 0900-2100 UTC
13291.0 kHz HO
17946.0 kHz HO

NAT Family C: Assigned to aircraft flying routes with reporting coordinates between 47° North and 64° North. Ground Stations: Gander, Iceland, Shanwick

2872.0 kHz 0000-0900 and 1800-2400 UTC
5649.0 kHz H24
8879.0 kHz 0900-2100 UTC
11336.0 kHz HO
13306.0 kHz HO
17946.0 kHz HO

NAT Family D: Assigned to aircraft flying routes with reporting coordinates north of 62° North. Ground Stations: Bodo, Gander, Iceland, Shanwick, Arctic Radio (not a NAT station)

2971.0 kHz 0100-0800 UTC
4675.0 kHz 0100-0800 and 1100-1800 UTC
8891.0 kHz HO
11279.0 kHz HO
17946.0 kHz HO

NAT Family E: Assigned on a tactical basis and coordinated between New York Radio and Santa Marie Radio.

2962.0 kHz 0100-0800 UTC
6628.0 kHz 0000-1900 UTC
8825.0 kHz 0000-1900 and 2300-2400 UTC
11309.0 kHz 0900-1900 UTC
13354.0 kHz 1100-1900 UTC
17946.0 kHz HO

NAT Family F: Assigned on a tactical basis and coordinated between Shanwick Radio and Gander Radio.

3476.0 kHz 0100-0800 UTC
6622.0 kHz 1000-1800 UTC
8831.0 kHz 1000-1800 UTC
13291.0 kHz HO
17946.0 kHz HO

Starting April 22, 2013, the following additional Regional and Domestic Air Route Area (RDARA) HF frequencies  (NAT H/I/J) will be used on a tactical basis by Shanwick Radio, adjoining NARTEL (North Atlantic Enroute HF RTL Network) Radio Stations and domestic ATC agencies. These frequencies are used individually or by common network agreement between the NAT aeronautical stations.

NAT Family H: Used on a tactical basis and coordinated between Shanwick Radio, adjoining NARTEL Radio Stations and domestic ATC agencies.

2965.0 kHz HO
3491.0 kHz HO
5583.0 kHz HO
6556.0 kHz HO
6667.0 kHz HO
10021.0 kHz HO
10036.0 kHz HO
11363.0 kHz HO

NAT Family I: Used on a tactical basis and coordinated between Shanwick Radio,
adjoining NARTEL Radio Stations and domestic ATC agencies.

2860.0 kHz HO
2881.0 kHz HO
2890.0 kHz HO
3458.0 kHz HO
3473.0 kHz HO
3488.0 kHz HO
5484.0 kHz HO
5568.0 kHz HO
6550.0 kHz HO
6595.0 kHz HO
10066.0 kHz HO

NAT Family J: Used on a tactical basis and coordinated between Shanwick Radio, adjoining NARTEL Radio Stations and domestic ATC agencies.

2869.0 kHz HO
2944.0 kHz HO
2992.0 kHz HO
3446.0 kHz HO
3473.0 kHz HO
4651.0 kHz HO
4666.0 kHz HO
4684.0 kHz HO
5460.0 kHz HO
5481.0 kHz HO
5559.0 kHz HO
5577.0 kHz HO
6547.0 kHz HO
8954.0 kHz HO
11276.0 kHz HO

After April 22, 2013, the historical practice of assigning aircraft registered west of 30° west HF Family 'B' frequencies and east of 30° west HF Family 'C' frequencies, no longer applies.  NAT HF Family 'B' and 'C' frequencies are assigned to aircraft flying routes with reporting co-ordinates between 47° North and 64° North.

Search and Rescue (SAR) - Operated as required

2182.0 kHz HO
3023.0 kHz HO
5680.0 kHz HO

Hours of service of individual frequencies, or groups of frequencies, may vary as HF propagation conditions or operational requirements demand.

VHF Aircraft Frequencies

123.450 MHz H24 - VHF air to air frequency enables aircraft engaged in flights over remote and oceanic areas, out of range of VHF ground stations, to exchange necessary operational information and to facilitate the resolution of operational problems.
122.375 MHz - Gander

123.950 MHz H24 - For use by aircraft registered in States west of 030° West for requesting Oceanic clearance direct from OAC.

124.175 MHz H24

126.550 MHz - Reykjavik

126.900 MHz - Churchill, Gander, Goose, Iqaluit, Montreal/Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Winnipeg

127.100 MHz - Gander
127.650 MHz H24 - For use by aircraft registered in States east of 030° West for requesting Oceanic clearance direct from OAC. For this purpose Australia is regarded as being east of 030° West.

127.850 MHz - Reykjavik
127.900 MHz H24 - Gander, Santa Marie, Shanwick. Used when practicable by aircraft when east of 020° West to reduce loading on HF channels. Traffic received on this frequency is handled in exactly the same way as if received on HF.

129.900 MHz - New York

SATCOM

425002 - A/G Shanwick Radio H24 Irish Aviation Authority. Available for routine ATS messages via Shanwick Radio.

423201 - ATC Shanwick Oceanic H24 NATS Ltd.  Available for direct pilot/controller communications in emergency situations only

436623 - ATC New York Atlantic Flights H24

436625 - ATC San Francisco Pacific Flights H24