[CQ-Contest] Work your fellow contesters operating during Armed Forces Day this Saturday

Thu May 9 11:19:40 EDT 2019

Yeah... I know its not a contest but its lots of fun to work your 
fellow contesters operating during this more than fifty year old 
emergency preparedness and patriotic event. 

This year’s Armed Forces Day (AFD) Crossband Test is on Saturday May 11. 
This annual event is open to all licensed amateur radio operators . For more 
than 50 years, military and amateur stations have taken part in this event, 
which is only an exercise scenario, designed to include amateur and 
government radio operators alike. 

http://www.usarmymars.org/events/armed-forces-day 

Twenty PVRC members will activate the historic NSS callsign this 
Saturday from the location of the former U.S. Navy High Power Radio 
at Greenbury Point in Annapolis. Visitors are welcome at Beach Circle, 
Annapolis. 

https://goo.gl/maps/KHuMYaS1tiNGpQ9v7 

NSS began operations in 1918 using a pair of Federal Telegraph Company 

500 kilowatt Poulson arc transmitters and four 600 foot towers in the 
Very Low Frequency (VLF) band. Until 1921 VLF provided the only 
known capability for trans-oceanic radio communications. 

NSS began fifty years of continuous operations in the HF bands from about 
1926 until 1976 when its HF mission was terminated and transferred to 
NAVCOMMSTA Norfolk, Virginia (NAM). NSS was dismantled in 1999, 
only three 600 foot towers remain at the tip of Greenbury Point, installed 
during a major VLF antenna upgrade in 1938. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/NSS_Annapolis_Towers.JPG 

NSS plans to operate continuously on six frequencies on CW and SSB from 
about 8 a.m. until midnight Saturday. Who will work NSS on all eleven 
bands and modes? 

A commemorative NSS QSL is available via K3LU. 
This is last year's QSL: 
https://i0.wp.com/swling.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/NSS-QSL-CArd-e1529320144216.jpeg?ssl=1 

NSS transmitting frequencies , NSS will listen for callers on announced 
frequencies in adjacent amateur bands 

4041.5 LSB 4039.0 CW 
5330.5 USB 5330.5 CW 
7536.5 LSB 7534.0 CW 
9447.0 CW 
14487.0 USB 14487.0 CW 
17545.0 USB 17545.0 CW 

In addition to working your fellow contesters operating at military 
stations this Saturday , please also spot us on the DX Cluster because 
no one is ever going to find our transmitting frequencies by accident 
except on 60 meters where government frequencies are shared with hams. 

DX Clusters will not accept out-of-ham-band frequencies, 
t his is the only DX spotting procedure that will work: 

DX NSS 14037 transmitting 14487 

Have some fun and work (and spot) as many of the Armed Forces Day 
stations on as many bands and modes as you can, the full announcement 
including transmitting frequencies is here. Click on the pdf document 
at the bottom of the page: 

www.usarmymars.org/events/armed-forces-da y 

Information about interesting history of NSS is available here: 

https://youtu.be/jWuJ6DB9drw 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he428tqLbpk 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSS_Annapolis 

http://j-hawkins.com/nss.shtml 

https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/greenbury-point.htm 

73 
Frank 
W3LPL 