Thursday, April 7, 2022

MARS and RRI to Conduct Monthlong Drill

Radio Relay International (RRI), in cooperation with U.S. Army MARS Region 2, will be conducting a joint interoperability exercise from April 15 to May 15, 2022. According to RRI Director of Emergency Management Jim Wades, WB8SIW, the exercise will consist of two phases, starting with a limited infrastructure test and training phase, followed by a test utilizing RRI/NTS (ARRL National Traffic System) assets through the last mile in selected states.

Messages addressed to various emergency service organizations will originate within the Army MARS Region 2 network from which they will be transferred to the RRI Digital Traffic Network for routing to their destinations. Replies will return via a similar path.

RRI operates an international infrastructure of layered communications networks including both manual mode systems and a hybrid mesh network utilizing high frequency resources. More information regarding the exercise and the organization may be found at the RRI website, <www.radio-relay.org>.