History

The current MBARA-N6IJ facility has a long and interesting history because the station was initially known as a MARS station within Fort Ord, a United States Army training post on Monterey Bay.

The Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) is a Department of Defense-sponsored program established and separately managed and operated by the United States Army and the United States Air Force. (The United States Navy-Marine Corps program closed in 2015.) MARS program is a civilian auxiliary activity consisting primarily of licensed amateur radio operators interested in assisting the military with communications on a regional and national level when access to traditional forms of communication may no longer be available.

Before the worldwide web’s existence, military personnel’s only way to communicate with family back home was by letter. Mail delivery to overseas locations could take weeks, so the news they sent or received was not current by the time it arrived! However, if there was a MARS station nearby, the military member could request a voice communication with the family.

The MARS operator would contact a US Ham (Amateur Radio Operator) and request a “phone patch” for the GI’s family. A phone patch connects the ham radio to the telephone line so people can speak to one another. It requires using radio talk procedures because the connection is simplex – only one direction at a time. Therefore, the person speaking would have to say “over” when they are done, and the ham operator would switch his ham radio from transmit to receive or vice versa.

Again, this was in the days of “long-distance” phone charges, and the ham with the phone patch would have to pay these fees. The hams were more than happy to pay these long-distance fees as a service to their country.

As you can imagine, military members loved the MARS operators.

Operating under the call sign ABM6-WAE – “ABM6 Wild American Eagle” – the MARS service was available for decades until Fort Ord closed in 1994.

Local area hams and the City of Marina recognized the importance of having such a facility in the area, and just two years later – in 1996, the City issued a proclamation saying that “the former Military Affiliate Radio Station (MARS) will become a Marina city recreational and educational site, manned by a local volunteer organization of ham radio operators” to be known as the Marina Amateur Radio Station. The site was to be available to licensed amateur radio operators and was to become a place for training and classes for those who want to become amateur radio operators.

The facility operated as the Marina Amateur Radio Station for five years until, in 2001, it was incorporated as a non-profit under a current, more encompassing name: Monterey Bay Amateur Radio Association (MBARA).