FYI "Exercise Blue Ham" on 5 megs/60 metres, Saturday 18th October and Sunday 19th October - break out the "green" radios!

[John Gumb]

Folks,

Apologies for the short notice. This one crept up on me - again. Thanks Ted G6IJK for reminding me.

For 5MHz enthusiasts, it is "Exercise Blue Ham" https://alphacharlie.org.uk/exercise-blue-ham/ on Saturday 18th October and Sunday 19th October 2025. "RAFAC Callsigns will be active 0700-1700 UTC". It is run by the RAF Air Cadets.

Please see https://alphacharlie.org.uk/blue-ham-exercise-guide/ . It has some useful info, including 5MHz channel numbers and frequencies.

It's a very friendly and fun event and presents a unique opportunity to communicate with our armed forces, specifically air cadets. It's interesting as the form of a military contact is rather more structured than an amateur contact. The exchange includes your Maidenhead locator, your equipment and antenna and a signal report. Also, it provides a great illustration of propagation on 5MHz. The official website does note "It is requested that Amateur radio operators don’t adopt the ‘Cadets’ radio procedure but maintain their own personal amateur radio style of operating." If you are not familiar with the event then best bet is, as ever, have a listen for a short while then have a go.

If you have a military ("green") set then it's an excellent opportunity to use it! You will receive a particularly warm welcome. A humble PRC-320 (circa 15 watts) will stand it's ground amazingly well against many who will be running "100 watts".

As it's on 5 megs/60 metres, only full licensees can take part but for all foundation/intermediate license holders out there,  getting on to 5MHz is generally is a very good reason to progress to your "full" as it's a great band (not unnoticed by the military).

73

John

G4RDC

[Tony Cox]

Excellent - thanks John.  It's also a POTA activity weekend so I plan to combine the two.  Hopefully my ex-military spike antenna base will count for something! 😂

Cheers

Tony

G8TEE

Sent from Outlook for Android

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From: rad...@googlegroups.com <rad...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of John Gumb <jo...@gumb.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2025 10:29:53 AM
To: rad...@googlegroups.com <rad...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: {RADARC Group Forum :3218} FYI "Exercise Blue Ham" on 5 megs/60 metres, Saturday 18th October and Sunday 19th October - break out the "green" radios!

 

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