Posted on 02/08/2016 9:10:14 PM PST by MarchonDC09122009
Nationwide Air Force & Army COMEX communication GRID down exercise Friday 02/12/2016
http://blog.pwcares.org/?p=182
Amateur Radio Emergency Service, Events, PWCARES Air Force & Army MARS COMEX 2016/01/19 David Lane Air Force & Army MARS COMEX
By: Clarence, K4CNM – (AAA3R3, Army MARS Region Three Operations Officer)
The Air Force and Army MARS (Military Auxiliary Radio System) will conduct their first 2016 communications exercise (COMEX) from 7:00 am until 6:59 pm EST on Friday, 12 February. The scenario will be: there is no power, no phones (cell or landline), and no internet. Also, internet linked radio repeaters (such as D-Star) should not be used. One of the objectives of this COMEX is to reach as many counties and cities within the entire country as possible. It is expected that sometime during the second hour (8–9 am), a request will come down asking MARS stations to contact hams for a local conditions report. That request will probably have a deadline of around eight hours (and certainly be due a couple of hours before End of Exercise – ENDEX). Prior contact and pre-arranged schedules between MARS stations and hams is permitted and encouraged.
MARS stations will be instructed to collect the data from hams via radio only – using any FCC authorized amateur frequency and/or mode – and prepare the report that will be consolidated within the region and then sent back up the line. Note: In order not to unduly excite those who are not aware of the COMEX, only real information should be reported. Following is a list the items (with possible conditions) that will be requested:
   Power: Fully functional, brownout, rolling or partial blackouts, complete outage    Water: Full service, service in parts of county only, contaminated, no service    Sanitation: Fully functional, service in parts of county only, no service    Medical facilities: Fully functional, partial service due to facilities, partial service due to personnel, facilities max’ed out, none available due loss of personnel or infrastructure    Communications: Fully functional, partial service, no service    Transportation: Fully functional, service in parts of county only, no service
Unless there is something actually going on, report everything as fully functional. The condition of one or more of these might not be known, that’s okay, report what is known; reports from other hams may fill in the missing data. Hams can report on any county or city that they have first-hand knowledge of.
MARS Region Three is the same as FEMA’s Region Three and includes Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. According to the FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) code list there are 245 counties and 42 independent cities within our region. Virginia has 95 of those counties and all but one of the cities.
More information about the Army MARS program is available.
All Amateurs are encouraged to forward this to other groups and clubs that you are a member of and to any of your ham buddies that might be interested. More information will be provided as it becomes available. MARS
Back in the day used MARS to talk to family back home OVER. Was very grateful for those men and women that provided that capability to servicemen in remote regions of the world ......OVER.
How neighborly of our gov’t. to let terrorists know exactly when a good time to attack will be.
We currently have idiots running the DOD and every one of them should be demoted and fired for ruining our military with all the PC crap, ROEs and publication in advance of their planned exercises.
MARS has a long and proud history of providing world-wide contingency emergency communications during times of need.
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I agree. I knew a married couple that were long time HAMS and they were connected with MARS.
I want to clarify that my reply to an earlier posting on this thread was not intended in any way to diminish MARS. My rant was against the pitiful leadership of our military forces under Obama and the people he has put in charge of the DOD.
Bflr
Assuming that happens, what keeps ham radios from getting fried along with the grid? Most have antennas and modern solid state electronics.
Some would survive an attacks, but this test seems to assume they all would. Plus most need AC power.
Time to get a HW-101 - a tube rig. And a generator.
ping for later.
If there was an EMP attack in November or December when Obama plans to be in South America with (amongst others) Cuba and Venezuela (who house the embassies from which EMP attacks could be triggered by North Korea and Iran, respectively)... there could be a situation where there are either no elections (if it’s done before the election) or the President-elect can’t be inaugurated because of the chaos and death as the Islamist sleeper cells take over state capitols and eventually DC. Given the time it would take to totally dismantle the US and claim it for the Islamic caliphate, Obama could well have been right back in July of 2008 when he said (before he had even been nominated as the D candidate) that he would be POTUS for “the next 8-10 years”, which would require a massive catastrophic event right before his 2nd terms was done...
And it sure seems like they’ve got everything in place for that to happen
What will you write fan fiction about when Obama is gone?
RE: EMP attack... If you have a gun safe with a digital keypad entry system, you won’t have access to your zombie apocalypse supplies. Old fashion tumblers may be slower but they will still work.
Hmmm. Just like the exercises they were having when Sandy Hook and Riverside just happened to happen?
One drunken fool here tried to contact Crystal Palace on a military channel. He got through alright and the local Sheriff detained him until the FCC arrived and pressed charges.
BTW our local HAM community is having a big debate as to if they should support this exercise or not. Even some elmers are skeptical of the timing and the actual purpose of it.
At no point in history has any government ever wanted its people to be defenseless for any good reason ~ nully's son
Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!
To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don't add you to the list...
I was going to ask whether ham radio operators who respond have their position known, then, to the regime agents who know they are likely preppers.
Guaranteed all activity will be logged and mapped.
Sorry, HG. When NK and Iran both have the entire US painted for a hit, you’re not gonna get people willing to blow it off because you post a silly C&P. People know this is serious. They don’t like having their kids and grandkids in direct line of fire with nobody willing to protect them. A silly ninja frog graphic is not going to do your work for you this time.
It’s a well known fact that the NK dictator’s birthday is Feb 16. Speculation is the satellite they launched this past sunday, on a polar orbit, contains an EMP device. The satellite is at about 300miles altitude which is a perfect height for this particular sort of attack. And, that the attack will coincide with his birthday.
Is that part of the reason some HAM operators are wondering whether to respond to this “exercise”?
The terror that lurked in the deep is now falling from the skies.
Yes and a lack of trust on what will be done with the info. Since all legal HAMs are licensed the FCC already knows who we are but our actual capabilities are not known in detail.
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