The Department of Defense has a mission to provide Defense Support to Civil Agencies in certain types of disasters. We rely on local amateur radio operators to be our eyes and ears on the ground. During a disaster situation local media outlets, such as AM broadcast, TV and newspapers can be a good source of information. AM broadcast stations can be particularly important because they can usually be on the air during a disaster to transmit recovery information intended for local populations. 50 KW clear channel stations, such as KSL, have a federally mandated responsibility to do this. For this exercise we ask all amateur radio operators wanting to participate to provide a synopsis of a top local news story of the day. The news must be local in nature relative to the source of the information. Information must be resourced from a local new source, such as a local television or radio station,
newspaper, or by night-time monitoring of AM radio broadcasts. Summary of information no more than approx 20 words. Participants may do this once during the exercise or once a day through January 21st.
In the future we hope to be able to receive information via a digital mode on an amateur frequency but for this exercise the information should be sent to me via email at nn7rm@arrl.net
The news story synopsis should include the source of the information.
The subject of the email should be MARS Local News Exercise and the sender should include their amateur radio call sign.