The Army, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard are sponsoring the annual military/amateur radio communications tests in celebration of Armed Forces Day (AFD). The AFD Military/Amateur Crossband Communications Test is conducted in May of each year.

The annual celebration is a unique opportunity to test two way communications between Amateurs and military communicators authorized in 47 CFR 97.111, and features traditional military to amateur cross band SSB voice, Morse Code, practice using legacy interoperability waveforms, as well as an opportunity for Amateurs to utilize more modern military communications modes such as MIL-STD Serial PSK and Automatic Link Establishment (ALE).  New for Armed Forces Day this year, military stations and amateur radio operators are authorized to directly communicate on the 60 Meter interoperability channels.

These tests give Amateur Radio operators and Short Wave Listeners (SWL) an opportunity and a challenge to demonstrate their individual technical skills, and to receive recognition from the appropriate military radio station for their proven expertise. QSL cards will be provided to those stations making contact with the military stations.

(http://www.usarmymars.org/home/announcements)