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.