HRN 555: What's MARS Today?

Ya know that 'MARS MOD' you use to jeep your radio so you can talk on GMRS? Well, it's really a thing.

MARS, the Military Auxiliary Radio System, turned 100 last year. It's changed some over that time, but it's still all ham radio operators providing public service communications in affiliation with the Army and Air Force.

The 'Army guy', Paul English WD8DBY, and the 'Air Force guy', Dave Antry WD9HBA, were at the 2025 Dayton Hamvention®, and they talked to East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ about what MARS is today.

If you’re interested in the history, Gary found this PDF article while he was digging up some QST articles from the 1920s. (The QST articles are available to ARRL members in their archives. You’ll find a bunch of references as footnotes in the PDF)