The Department of Defense will host this year’s Armed Forces Day (AFD) Crossband Test, scheduled for May 10, 2025. This annual event is open to all licensed amateur radio operators and will not impact any public or private communications. For more than 50 years, military and amateur stations have taken part in this event, which is an interoperability exercise between hobbyist and government radio stations.

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. These tests provide opportunities and challenges for radio operators to demonstrate individual technical skills in a tightly controlled exercise scenario that does not impact any public or private communications. ¹

ℹ️ The complete event schedule is available for download from the DoD MARS COMEX information website.

On February 18, at 0100 UTC (the evening of Thursday, February 17, in North American time zones), the US Army Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM) will host a Zoom call to discuss amateur radio and AUXCOM support to the US Department of Defense.

During this presentation, the NETCOM representative will discuss:

• The authorities for these operations
• Upcoming DOD exercise opportunities for 2022, where outreach to the Amateur radio/AUXCOM community will be a primary training objective
• Use of the five 60-meter channels
• The concept for the types of amateur/AUXCOM outreach

There will be an opportunity for Q&A throughout the presentation.

Use this Zoom link to attend. The meeting ID is 837 8115 4615, and the pass code is 670665. Dial in by location: (346) 248-7799 (Houston); (669) 900-6833 (San Jose); (253) 215-8782 (Tacoma); (929) 205-6099 (New York); (301) 715-8592 (Washington, DC), and (312) 626-6799 (Chicago).

One-tap mobile: +13462487799,,83781154615#,,,,*670665# US (Houston); +16699006833,,83781154615#,,,,*670665# US (San Jose) ¹