The Department of Defense will host this year’s Armed Forces Day (AFD) Crossband Test on May 9, 2026. This annual event is open to all licensed amateur radio operators and will not impact any public or private communications. For more than 50 years, military and amateur stations have taken part in this event, which is an interoperability exercise between amateur and government radio stations.

The AFD Crossband Test is a unique opportunity to test two-way communication between military communicators and radio amateurs as authorized in 47 CFR 97.111. These tests provide opportunities and challenges for radio operators to demonstrate individual technical skills in a tightly controlled exercise scenario.

Military stations will transmit on selected military frequencies and will announce the specific amateur radio frequencies monitored. All times are in UTC and all frequencies are upper sideband (USB) unless otherwise noted.

An AFD message will be transmitted with the Military Standard (MIL-STD) Serial PSK waveform (M110) followed by MIL-STD Wide Shift FSK (850 Hz RTTY) as described in MILSTD 188-110A/B. Technical information.

The AFD Defense Message will be sent at 1400Z and 2000Z on the frequencies designated as follows:

MIL-STD-110/RTTY 13,963.5 kHz USB

MIL-STD-110 14,438.5 kHz USB

MIL-STD-110 14,484.0 kHz USB

MIL-STD-110 14,512.5 kHz USB

MIL-STD-110 14,463.5 kHz USB

MIL-STD-110 20,994.0 kHz USB

CW 14,375.0 kHz USB

MIL-STD-110/RTTY/CW 14,476.0 kHz USB

MIL-STD-110/RTTY/CW 14,383.5 kHz USB

QSL cards and other information are available via the Army MARS (Military Auxiliary Radio System) website.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has responded to a complaint involving a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, amateur for operating outside the privileges of his Technician Class license and causing interference to local emergency service communications by transmitting on a public service frequency, 470.4375 MHz.

According to a letter released by the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, agents investigating an interference complaint from Allegheny County Emergency Services determined that the interfering signal originated from the residence of David Knudtson, KD3ASC, who also holds a General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) license, WSDQ885. The letter states that Knudtson gave the agents a BTech UV-Pro handheld which had been programmed to monitor the county emergency services frequency. Agents determined that its “Audio Relay” feature had been activated, turning the HT “into a simplex repeater that was retransmitting the Allegheny County channel.”

The letter continues that Knudtson, who is a relatively new amateur licensee, surrendered the radio to the agents, who then “verified that the interference to the Allegheny County system had ceased.” The letter also notes that Knudtson’s BTech radio was certified as a Part 90 (private land mobile radio) device and that he was not licensed to transmit on the emergency services frequency.

Knudtson was warned that unauthorized operation and its associated harmful interference must not resume. He was given 10 days from the date of the March 25 letter to respond with a description of the steps he is taking to avoid a repeat violation.

Amateurs are reminded to exercise care when programming non-amateur frequencies into their VHF/UHF radios, and to ensure that transmitting on those frequencies is disabled.