MARS Communications – General comments

 

  1. Slant Bar – This is not the proper terminology for the punctuation character ‘/’. Ref. MARS Training Manual, Voice Training Guide Page 4-2, second line. Proper term is  “Slant”, as in “Slant Tango” for /T and not “Slant Bar”. See also USAF MARS OI Page 58  Para. 13.5.
  2. NCS Call sign on Check In – Ref. MARS Training Manual, Voice Training Guide, Page 4-2. The Call sign of the NCS (using Full Procedure) need not be given in phonetics except at the discretion of the station checking in. The checking in station call sign must be given in phonetics on initial check in. The NCS may respond with the call sign not in phonetics. Note also that the NCS may specify to use Abbreviated Procedure (see Pg. 4-1 under Answering a Preliminary Call.) This allows for eliminating the need for the checking in station to say the NCS call sign.
    1. All region nets are Directed nets. This implies that all communications are to be directed to the NCS (or the ANCS). Since that is the case, then the Abbreviated Procedure noted above eliminates superfluous transmissions.
    2. Ref. ACP 125(F), Sect. 605 – The Abbreviated Procedure is the procedure specified for checking into a net. It is only when conditions are poor that the NCS may direct the net to use Full Procedure.
  3. Message Form for EEI Reports – Ref. MARS Training Manual Voice Training Guide Pgs 8-4 & 8-5. There are a few minor differences between the format in the Training Guide and the format disseminated in Region 4 as follows:
    1. In the Training Guide after the header info the first line after the BREAK is shown as REF. MARS EXERCISE. (Note there is no /State abbreviation shown.)

                                                    i.     This line does not appear in the Region sample.

    1. In the Training Guide the SUBJ. line only shows EEI REPORT.

                                                    i.     The Region sample shows SUBJ.: MARS EXERCISE/EEI/FL

    1. In the Training Guide the FIGURE 1 line shows only the REF. EVENT IDENTIFIER. There is no /State abbreviation shown.

                                                    i.     The Region sample shows a /State abbreviation after the event identifier.

                                                  ii.     If the State location is germane to the report, then it should be shown as part of I SPELL ALPHA..

    1. In the Training Guide after the line I SPELL HOTEL, it only shows MARS EXERCISE which is the same as the REF line noted in Para. A. above.

                                                    i.     The Region sample shows MARS EXERCISE/EEI/FL.

  1. Superfluous Wording – In the Training Manual it shows that the definition of each line of I SPELL ALPHA through I SPELL HOTEL should be transmitted as part of the voice transmission of an EEI Report.
    1. Assuming that the EEI format is a standard form then the definition of each item A through H is predetermined and is to be assumed by both the originator and the receiver of the message.
    2. Inclusion of the Item definition only serves to add confusion to the transmission and to greatly extend the transmission time needed to process the traffic either in voice or digital mode.
    3. I believe that even FEMA (one of our customers) is familiar with the meaning of each item A through H.
    4. CFARS ( the Canadian counterpart of MARS) uses the same EEI format with the same definitions for Items A through H.
    5. The only instance where it would make sense to transmit the definition of each Item A through H is if the EEI was to be transmitted to a recipient not in the normal MARS customer base. An example would be an EEI being sent to a State or Local Emergency Operations Center which may not be familiar with the EEI format.
  2. Message Number – ACP125(F) refers to this indirectly as a local accounting number for messages. Neither the Training Manual nor the AF MARS MOI give any clarification on the format or use.
    1. A recent bulletin on the Transcon digital net dictated that the message number should be a three (3) digit figure. There are some valid reasons for doing so, even on a voice net.
    2. What is not clarified is how to use the Message number. If it is the first message of a month for a station, then it would be message number 001. However, if it is transmitted to a second station for forwarding to another and it is the fifth message handled by that second station, then they would forward the message as their number 005 as their local message accounting number.
    3. ACP125(F) dictates that all references to a message are by the Date Time Group which does not change as the message is transmitted through the network. Thus the Message Number assigned to a particular message is only pertinent to a particular station along the net path.
    4. It appears that to be technically correct, when we Roger receipt of a message, we should Roger and reference the received Date Time Group instead of ROGER YOUR NUMBER 001. Since the Date Time Group becomes the system wide reference to the message, this would confirm that it has been received correctly.

These comments are for review by appropriate authority for consideration of use in future operations. Other documents not available to this writer may exist that address the above issues.

Respectfully submitted by;

 

Bert Anderson

AFA4BE/AFT4VN