ab8az1968

AB8AZ

Dong Tam

Old Reliables - 9^th Infantry Division / 9^th Signal Battalion

US Army MARS

(Military Affiliate Radio System)

Vietnam 1968

The 9^th Infantry Division AB8AZ MARS radio station was located in Camp Dong Tam, just outside the City of My Tho, ~41 miles south of Saigon, along the My Tho River in the Delta rice fields.

Dong Tam – 9^th Infantry Division Vietnam, on the My Tho River

The 9^th Infantry Division expanded its theater of operations south of Saigon in 1966. A second main base camp called Dong Tam was built in partnership with the US Navy Mobile Riverine Force. A second MARS callsign was assigned for this new location, AB8AZ.

Looking for a new home to house the AB8AZ MARS station, there was no facility available on the army side of Dong Tam, so the US Navy allowed AB8AZ to be housed in the front half of the US Navy river boat radio communications center. In doing so, the US Army MARS unit was assigned to the U.S.N.S.A. (U. S. Navy Support Activity). So in a sense, the army operators were now in the navy.

Since the army MARS was now attached to the navy, all the army MARS operators now lived (bunked) in a navy hooch and ate all their meals in the navy mess. This was very nice for two reasons; sleeping quarters were only a few hoochs away which made it very convenient when doing a late night radio shift, and the army MARS operators didn’t need to travel back-n-forth to the army side of Dong Tam for meals three times a day. This was a treat, for the navy mess was quite better then army mess.

Phone patches were run for all members of the armed services, army, navy, marines and even a few air force personnel.

For more information about:

The US Navy Support Activity

The 9^th Infantry Division

The US Navy Mobile Riverine Force

MOUSE CLICK on the above shield

AB8AZ Dong Tam operators during 1968

MSGT Harry Chichester, (K7OUG) Seattle Washington

SGT Gene Harris, Seattle Washington
SGT Brian Jewhurst, New Haven Michigan
SP4 John Dearing, (WA0CEC) Ft. Madison Iowa
SP4 Jack Cimino, Baltimore Maryland
SP4 Tom Boza, (WA8NSH) Toledo Ohio

SP4 Thomas Nichols, Newman Georgia
SP4 Pat Burmm, Selma California
SP4 Gary Edwards, Tulsa Okalahoma
SP4 Yoshihiko Taniguchi, Los Angles California

From left to right

SGT Gene Harris – SP4 Tom Boza – SP4 Yoshihiko Taniguchi – SP4 Pat Brumm

From left to right

SP4 Gary Edwards - SP4 Jack Cimino - SP4 John Dearing,

SGT Brian Jewhurst - SP4 Tom Nicholis - SGT Gene Harris

SP4 Tom Boza (me) was on R&R sabbatical in Bangkok Thailand when this photo was taken.

SP4 Tom Boza (WA8NSH) at Operating Position #1

Collins 32S-3 transmitter, Collins 75S-3 receiver

Repairing Collins 30S-1 HF RF amplifier

SP4 Tom Boza – WA8NSH

SGT Gene Harris – AB8AZ Station Chief

SP4 Yoshihiko Taniguchi

SP4 Pat Brumm – 52^nd Signal Battalion

SP4 Tom Nicholis

SP4 Jack Cimino - 1st Signal Brigade

SP4 John Dearing (WA0CEC)

SGT Brian Jewhurst

Operating station #1 at AB8AZ Dong Tam

Collins S-Line with 30S-1 amplifier

AB8AZ Antenna Farm

Looking toward the MARS station

Picture taken from the end of the Dong Tam MRF pier which was directly across from the MARS station

Telephone pole far left	20.813 MHz 5 element mono-band yagi @ 50 ft
Telephone pole far right	14.488 MHz 3 element mono-band yagi @ 80 ft 27.820 MHz 3 element mono-band yagi @ 40 ft
Telephone pole center right	24.560 MHz 3 element mono-band yagi @ 60 ft
Center left to center	6.950 MHz dipole @ 30 ft *(used for in-country between other MARS stations)*

20.813 MHz 5 element mono-band yagi @ 50 ft

14.488 MHz 3 element mono-band yagi @ 80 ft

27.820 MHz 3 element mono-band yagi @ 40 ft

24.560 MHz 3 element mono-band yagi @ 60 ft

AB8AU vs. AB8AZ

There was competition between the different MARS stations in Vietnam; Army, Air Force, Marines and Navy. Everyone kept logs on the amount of phone patches per month we ran and which MARS station had the strongest radio signal back into the US. Our sister station AB8AU was always beating us out on signal strength. So one day we talked Master Sergeant Chichester into letting us ordered a full size 3 element wide-space mono-band 20 meter yagi from Honolulu Electronics. When the antenna arrived we installed it on top of a 80 ft wood telephone pole. There was no rotor, it was fixed short-path on the US. Using a Collins S-Line driving a Collins 30S-1 amplifier into this antenna now changed things considerable. We were now S units in signal strength above all the other MARS stations, including AB8AU into the US. We finally were able to hold our heads high and we nicknames ourselves "AB8AZ - The Voice of the Delta!" (We were located in the rice paddies of South Vietnam).

State Site Stations

In order for the MARS system to work, it took MARS operators on “both” ends of the radio, in Vietnam and in the United States. For the 9^th Infantry Division MARS there were four civilian MARS stations and two US Army military MARS stations which supplied the state site connections. Without their dedication and long unselfish hours upon hours of donated operating time, none of the phone patches for the troops would have ever occurred. A special thanks and recognition goes out to all these individuals. They were:

· AD7NNL (WA7NNL) Ned in Phoenix Arizona

· AD7FTN (WA7FTN) Al in Eugene Oregon

· AB6DQW (KH6DQW) Larry in Sunset Beach Hawaii.

· AB6HOU (KB6HOU) Mel in Bakersfield California

· AA6USA US Army, Presidio, San Francisco California

· AA6SIG US Army, Sacramento Army Depot, California

All four of the civilian US MARS station operators operated out of their personal homes. All expenses they occurred were paid for out of their own pockets.