Morris County NJ
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Quick Index for this page:

MARS
SATERN
American Red Cross

  MARS 

The Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) is a Department of Defense sponsored program with separately managed and operated programs by the Army, and Air Force. (Note: You may not join or belong to more than one MARS service at the same time.)

MARS consists of licensed amateur radio operators who are interested in military communications and provide auxiliary or emergency communications on a local, national, and international basis as an adjunct to normal communications. 

MARS applicants must: 

1. Be 18 years of age or older.
2. Be a United States citizen or resident alien.
3. Possess a valid amateur radio license issued by the FCC
4. Possess a station capable of operating on MARS HF frequencies which are outside the FCC ham bands. 
5. Agree to operate a minimum of 12 hours  per calendar quarter, with 6 hours in their primary HF assignment.

MARS members stations meet periodically in scheduled nets on military frequencies outside of the amateur bands. There are various types of networks and each accomplishes a specific goal. For example, administrative networks to take care of much of the day-to-day management of the program; traffic networks which exist solely to pass third party traffic; and of course, emergency networks which are established to provide for communication needs during periods of emergency. There are also technical nets and training nets. MARS nets operate in different modes. Although high frequency (HF) single sideband (SSB) voice is predominant, there are RTTY, VHF, PACKET, other digital modes and even slow scan TV nets. 

To find out more about the program and membership, visit these sites:

  SATERN

"The purpose of the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN) is to train and acquire personnel skilled in emergency communications and message handling, who will support Salvation Army operations in local,
regional and international disaster situations."

"Despite its unique mission--to provide communications support for The Salvation Army--SATERN is in many respects like many other radio groups. There are formal nets--HF, VHF, and digital. Net skills are particularly important for SATERN members. VHF Net discipline is essential to coordinate on-site activities. On the HF side, SATERN typically opens a net following any kind of
disaster to handle health-and-welfare traffic."

These quotes are from the SATERN North American Command Web Site which also has information about membership.

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