Armed Forces Day Crossband Test Scheduled for May 11
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Special Bulletin 2 ARLX002
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT May 9, 2024
To all radio amateurs
SB SPCL ARL ARLX002
ARLX002 Armed Forces Day Crossband Test Scheduled for May 11
The US Department of Defense (DOD) is hosting this year’s Armed
Forces Day (AFD) Crossband Test on Saturday, May 11.
For more than 50 years, military and amateur stations have taken
part in this event, which is an interoperability exercise between
amateur and government radio stations. The event is open to all
licensed amateur radio operators and will not impact any public or
private communications.
The AFD Crossband Test is a unique opportunity to test two-way
communications between military communicators and radio stations in
the Amateur Radio Service (ARS), as authorized in 47 CFR 97.111.
The annual DOD message will be transmitted via RTTY on 14.667 kHz at
1400 and 2000 UTC. These tests provide opportunities and challenges
for radio operators to demonstrate individual technical skills in a
tightly controlled exercise scenario. Military stations will
transmit on selected military frequencies and announce the specific
ARS frequencies monitored. All scheduled times will be in Zulu, and
all scheduled frequencies will be upper sideband (USB), unless
otherwise noted.
Information on frequencies, times, and other technical information
can be found at DoD MARS – Armed Forces Day at,
.
The Battleship IOWA Amateur Radio Association (BIARA) and the ship’s
Innovation, Engineering and Technology Team will activate NEPM,
which was the ship’s original radio station call sign from 1942
until 1997. It was reassigned to the ship in 2015. The activation
will begin at the same date and time as the Armed Forces Day
Crossband Test, from 1400 to 2000 UTC. All SSB operations are USB
only for transmit and receive.
Assigned transmit and expected receive frequencies are:
* 4.0435 to 3.943 MHz USB
* 6.9035 to 7.295 MHz USB
* 9.9440 to 10.113 MHz CW
* 14.4635 to 14.343 MHz USB
* 18.2930 to 18.143 MHz USB
Information for QSL cards and contact information is available at
Armed Forces Day QSL request form at,
