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NTS and MARS
Message-handling networks.
Message-handling networks.
Both NTS and MARS move messages by radio, but they belong to different worlds. The National Traffic System (NTS) is an amateur network of scheduled nets, sponsored by the ARRL, that passes formal written messages from place to place in relays. The Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) consists of programs sponsored by the US military services in which volunteers, typically licensed amateurs, support military and government communication on frequencies assigned to MARS.
NTS is built in layers. A message starts with someone who wants it delivered, such as a greeting, a welfare enquiry or an emergency request. A local net collects it, a wider net carries it toward the right part of the country, and a net there passes it down again until someone delivers it to the recipient. The point is reach without a single long link: no one station needs to hear the whole way, and each handoff is short and reliable. The names and schedules of nets vary and change, so the figure shows the idea rather than a map.
What travels is called traffic: formal messages, written in a standard form, called radiograms. Their preamble holds the information needed to track the message, including a check, the count of words in the text, which lets each relay confirm nothing was lost or added. See Radiograms and message handling.
| NTS | MARS | |
|---|---|---|
| Sponsor | the ARRL, a national amateur organisation | the US military services |
| Where | amateur bands, under Part 97 | assigned MARS frequencies, under government rules |
| Purpose | message relay, routine and emergency | support for military and government communication |
| Joining | check into a net, learn the procedure | apply and be accepted into the program |
The two are separate from ARES and RACES. RACES is the amateur service that needs certification by a civil-defense agency; membership in MARS or NTS does not give you that, and does not give you extra amateur privileges either.
Handling messages is a skill that fades unless used. NTS gives regular practice in clear speech, correct format and net discipline, and these skills carry over directly to emergency work, where an exact message matters more than a fast one. Digital methods have taken over a lot of everyday message traffic, but a radio relay does not depend on any internet connection. See Winlink for emergencies for the digital counterpart.