Contact Cadets on 60m

Next weekend, 16 and 17 March 2019, Army, Navy and Air cadet units in the UK will be carrying out Exercise Blue Ham 19.

Operating on the 5MHz shared band, the expected period of operation will be from 8am to 5pm both days.

QSO exchange details can be found at alphacharlie.org.uk/exercise-blue-ham.

Amateur operators may claim a certificate if they contact 10 or more stations over the weekend and submit a copy of their log sheet.

Source : RSGB

The exercise will take place on the MoD 5MHz (60 Metre) Band and a significant part of the exercise will be on the section of the band that amateurs are authorised to use. PSK31 Data Mode or Olivia Signal 16/500 may be used on the 5371.5kHzfrequency exchanging the same QSO information as listed in bold below.

Various Cadet stations will be operating on each of the days, mainly from 08:00 to 18:00, but could also be outside these times and will be on various frequencies within the band. Where possibly stations will advertise which frequency they are listening on using the live page on this website as the exercise is in progress and amateurs are welcome to check this page and call in on the advertised frequencies. The website will be going live at the start of the exercise and before that time it may be running test software/calls where all data will be simulated.

Cadet stations will call ‘Alpha Charlie’ which is the equivalent of CQ, amateur stations are welcome to reply. Exercise Callsigns will all be in the range MRE01 up to MRE98 although other MR, MF and MA prefixed callsigns may be taking part.

The information exchange to score the contact will be

Your Callsign
Signal Report
Antenna Type
Transmitter Power
Your Location. Using the 6 Digit Maidenhead locator only,

use http://www.levinecentral.com/ham/grid_square.php and enter your postcode at the top, it will generate your locator square in blue at the bottom.

Your operating location is to be in 6 digit Maidenhead Square format as it makes it easier to log (details are above) and can be a location near you. Cadet stations will also be using 6 digits, but this may not necessarily be accurate. As Cadet stations change frequency contacting them again on a different frequency will score as an additional contact, as these frequency changes they will be reported on the exercise website where possible. Maidenhead locators need to be logged carefully and entered correctly on the system so that Amateur callsigns are shown on the AC Map in their correct location.

The contacts will be plotted almost live on the exercise web server.

We will issue Certificates for amateur stations that contact 10 or more Cadet stations during our period of operation, contact with the same station on different days count as separate contacts. After close down of the Exercise email your callsign and contact details to claim your Certificate to: blueham@alphacharlie.org.uk (By contacting us your are confirming that we have your permission to reply to you either by email or post)

We will also issue to Squadrons and Wings a ‘Certificate of Operation’ providing they email a request to blueham@alphacharlie.org.uk

Please Note:-

This exercise does not give amateur stations permission to operate outside of their normal licensing conditions.

The RAFAC/ACF/SCC and CCF RAF Sections look forward to operating as many of you that we can during the period of the Exercise and it will give our young operators an ideal opportunity for them to utilise their radio training on HF equipment to a different audience.

Once a contact is logged into the system it shows up onto a map which can be accessed at http://alphacharlie.org.uk/blueham/showmap.php

Feedback from the last exercise has again been good and thanks go to those who have sent in the detail.

Thank you for taking part and giving the operators plenty of ‘Air time’ which helps to cement their radio training that they have received and experience longer periods of operating.

A big thank you to those that have assisted with the set up and running of the Exercise.