Army MARS Motto:
"PROUD, PROFESSIONAL AND READY"
At the club station there are a number of HF operating positions consisting of both club owned equipments and equipments on loan by members.
The photo above is the main AAR2CAB operating position at the Diana site. It consists of a Kenwood TS-450/AT based HF station with a MC-60 microphone on goosenet and treadlite foot switch, SP-830 speaker, PK-232, MM-3 and Bencher paddle provided by Steve N2CKH/AAR2EY and modified for MARS operation.
The two photos above are the club owned and MARS modified Kenwood TS-440S and the MARS modified TS-130S station (Mike, N2GEG seen operating) provided by Bob, WD2U/AAR2JC.
At the main position the digital capability is provided by a AEA PK-232MBX for traditiona modes such as RTTY, Pactor and Amtor and a PC sound card system for new digital modes such as PSK31 and MT63. Its is planned to add PC sound card digital capability to the TS-440 and TRS-130 stations as well.
For our main MARS station antenna use a Near Vertical Incident Skywave (NVIS) all band antenna consisting of a 135 foot dipole hung half way between a dipole and an inverted vee with its apex at about 20 feet, fed with 12 gauge 450 ohm ladder line to a W2FMI/CSS model 9:1-HB450 ferrite core 10kw rated balun transformer with coax into the stations patch panel.
We also have a Carolina Windom at 30 feet, 40m dipole at 30 feet and a rotatable 10-15-20m tri-band beam at 40 feet. Additional towers and antenna are planned.
In station we also have club owned/member donated Dentron MLA-2500 amplfier and MFJ roller inductor antenna tuner as needed.
We also maintain a MARS member only access safe where all printed materials needed for our MARS station operation are safe guarded.
The following photos actually capture some of the club's MARS members operating station AAR2CAB.
Here we have Joe, N2FW/AAT2MB
Here we have James, AB2QJ/AAR2EX
Here we have Steve, N2CKH/AAR2EY
In the last photo below, we had a full house on Saturday, 8 November 2003 when a number of OMARC club members with an interest in our MARS activity visited the site after the monthly business meeeting.
In the foreground is Sharon, XYL of John, KC2JJD, the fellow with the red baseball cap is no other than Bob, WD2U/AAR2JC, next is Doug, W2UG and then wth the elbow leaning on the partition is Jim, KB2WMP, many more members were out of camera range when the last photo left in the camera was taken, then all let out a sigh of relief learning that !
In a related MARS activity, it was also 8 November 2003 meeting that Joe, N2XYZ provided OMARC a wonderful slide show a presentation on the Batteship New Jersey (BB-62) musem in Camden, NJ and the Battleship New Jersey Amateur Radio Station (BNJARS) and Navy MARS sation NJ2BB/NNN0CNH.
The Battleship New Jersey (BB-62) once again has a MARS station, where Navy, Air Force and Army MARS operators operate.
The callsign held by the USS New Jersey while last activated has been restored as Navy MARS call NNN0CNH. Today, the New Jersey is considered a part of the Afloat Network, participating as a museum ship. For more information on NNN0CNH click here.
To learn more about Army MARS click here.
To send a MARSGRAM to service personal please click here.
OMARC members interested in participating in Army MARS pease address all such coorespondance to n2mo@qsl.net
The club snail mail address is:
Address any questions on the club and its events to:
Ron Olender, WA2HZT
President: wa2hzt@aol.com