OMARC and its membership are very much interested in providing Public Service via Amateur Radio. Many club members provide support locally with their various Township Office of Emergency Management (OEM) within the NJ State RACES program and with our county based ARRL ARES programs. Within Monmouth county OMARC has an Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in place with MCARS for the use of our club 145.110 repeater station located in the county.

With its club station presence at the Diana site, a former U.S. Army facility, OMARC can not think of anything more appropriate for the club to do at the Diana site in recognition of its deep history with the U.S. Army than to offer our proven ability to provide communications in support to our men and woman in uniform.

As such the OMARC Board of Directors approved the use of OMARC's radio station at the Diana site for Army MARS use in the spring of 2002. Following this approval, a number of OMARC members that were not already Army MARS members, applied to join the U.S. Army Military Affiliated Radio System (MARS) and are currently in training as Army MARS operators.

In October 2003 OMARC applied to the U.S. Army MARS program to become an Army MARS club station, this request was accepted and OMARC has been issued the Army MARS club station callsign AAR2CAB.

The OMARC Army MARS station custodian is Steve Hajducek, N2CKH/AAR2EY with the second point of contact for the station being Bob Witham, WD2U/AAR2JC.

For some photo's taken at our AAR2CAB station click here

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What is Army MARS all about ?

The Military Affiliated Radio System is not an Amateur Radio service as such, rather it is licensed outside the Amateur Radio bands, but, most MARS operators in the U. S. are licensed hams. MARS provides health and welfare as well as other Military traffic for our service men and women.

At present, the primary mission of MARS is to provide communications support for federal agencies responding to emergency situations. This is done by supporting state and local government efforts to save lives, protect public health, property, and to ensure individual safety.

The primary disaster relief agencies supported by MARS are FEMA, Nationa Communications System (NCS) including Shared Resources (SHARES), National Disaster Medical System (NDMS), National Weather Service (NWS), State and Local disaster relief agencies and the Red Cross.

MARS stands for Military Affiliate Radio System. It is an auxiliary communications service sponsored by the Department of Defense (DoD) and operated by the United States Army Signal Command (USASC). Army MARS consists of trained, licensed individual volunteer Amateur Radio operators, club stations, and Military Unit stations.

Army MARS stations:

• provide official communications services for the US Army and other branches of the military.
• provide emergency communications services for US Government agencies such as FEMA.
• handle health and welfare messages for US service personnel and their families.
• assist in testing and developing radio communications procedures and techniques.
• train in military communications procedures, to provide a pool of reserve radio operators.

History

In 1925, the US Army Signal Corps created the Army Amateur Radio System (AARS) to develop a pool of trained radio operators. AARS operated until the outbreak of hostilities on 7 December 1941.

Following the end of World War II, the Military Amateur Radio Service was created by action of the Secretaries of the Army and the Air Force. The service was renamed in 1952 to its present name, Military Affiliate Radio Service. In 1963, Navy-Marine Corps MARS became operational.

Membership

Individuals wishing to participate in Army MARS must meet several qualifications:

• Must be 17 years of age or older. Applicants under the age of 18 must have a parent or guardian sign the application.
• Must be a US citizen or legal resident alien.
• Must be willing to comply with regulations pertaining to Army MARS.
• Must have access to a radio station capable of operating on HF or VHF MARS frequencies.
• Must have a valid FCC and/or host country Amateur Radio Operator License.

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To learn more about Army MARS click here.

To send a MARSGRAM to service personal please click here.

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OMARC members interested in participating in Army MARS pease address all such coorespondance to n2mo@qsl.net

The club snail mail address is:

OMARC, Inc.
P.O. Box 267
Oakhurst, New Jersey 07755

Address any questions on the club and its events to:

Ron Olender, WA2HZT

President: wa2hzt@aol.com