Thursday, April 27, 2017

Battleship Iowa Armed Forces Day Military/Amateur Cross-Band Operation

The Battleship Iowa will be operating with her original US Navy callsign of NEPM on 11 May 2017 from 0900PDST to 1700PDST, 1600UTC to 2359UTC.

The ARRL announcement is located here, and the official MARS announcement is located here.

Frequencies used to transmit from the ship, and the frequencies we will be listening on, are shown below.

The transmit frequencies have been assigned by Army MARS for exclusive use by NEPM, so you shouldn't have any trouble hearing use as nobody else will be transmitting on these frequencies.

We'll be using our "regular" Commercial Amateur Radio gear and the Disc/Cage antenna on the bow of the Iowa, and the Trussed Monopole located on the top of the AFFF station near the helodeck on the stern of the ship.

The "Grey Radio Gang" WILL be operating the ship's "legacy" on the 75/80 Meter and/or the 40 Meter frequencies.

12 comments:

  1. I was very impressed with what you showed me in the radio room of the USS Iowa (thank you again - very much - for the tour). It's obviously a labor of love, but you've done SO MUCH. BZ to you and the team.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, LL!

      One of the really good things about volunteering on the Iowa is that we all want to be there, there's very little "schedule pressure" to get things done, and we all know what's going on.

      Delete
  2. It sounds like a very good day, indeed - enjoy! I hope to visit the Iowa, one of these days.

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    Replies
    1. The cross-band "test" is still coming up, but we're 99% ready for it.

      The legacy radios operate on the military frequencies without any modification (whoda thunk it?!?), and it was a very easy mod to get the Kenwood radios operable outside the Amateur Radio band assignments. We dropped the front panel on the TS-850S so we could get at the "digital control board", and removed one surface-mount diode, and resoldered it in a different position.

      Delete
  3. You sure stay busy. Keeps you from getting old, though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not busy enough, at least according to my wife......

      Delete
  4. Replies
    1. This Wednesday we're going to have a "training session" for the benefit of those not familiar with proper operating practices.

      One of the things we're going to stress, is the use of the PROPER phonetic alphabet, i.e., the NATO usage. We have too many operators that use whatever phonetics pop into their head at the time, and we cannot allow that!

      Delete
  5. Check your date. The ARRL announcement linked is for 2013. The MARS announcement is for this year and says May 13.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I know the ARRL date is wrong.

      It will be on Saturday, 13 May 2017, as in the MARS press release.

      Delete
  6. drjm.

    Thanks for the info. I have been busy elsewhere and missed it, and the ARRL stuff is wrong in any case. I will try contacting the Annapolis on 80 meters, or 40 meters. Good test of my vertical, and good test of operating split mode. I have a Yaesu FT-450D, with to VFOs, but have never yet had to split my transmit and receive.

    Thanks again for the info, and 73,

    KG4KAH
    Wade in Raleigh

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No problem, Wade.

      The Iowa is extremely active on the Ham bands, at least three days per week. Look for NI6BB on a DX spotting cluster, and try and contact us if you can.

      Delete

Keep it civil, please....

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