The Marin Amateur Radio Society or MARS has a long and storied history in Marin county. We were founded as the Marin Amateur Radio Club in 1933. We started our public service work in 1938 when we started providing communications for the The Dipsea Race. Our hobby, Amateur Radio, which is recognized and licensed by the federal government has since its inception been charted to provide service to the public and to facilitate communications in the public interest. The scenic beauty and challenging topography of Marin and Sonoma counties have drawn many rides, races, and outdoor events to the county. The topography has meant that even advanced technologies like cell phones do not work in much of our region. Amateur operators who sometimes build their own equipment or modify commercial equipment enjoy figuring out how to communicate from point with ad hoc setups.
The need for folks to communicate from locations where no commercial channel is available and our desire to practice our art, our interest in serving the public, and the chance to hang out is some spectacular parts of our region have kept public service a core value of the club. At present we provide communications for about a dozen events per year with around 60 people volunteering to work on our events.
You no longer need to build or engineer your own equipment. There are many reasonably priced amateur radios available, so you don’t need to be an engineer to participate and a significant part of the Maker community is also involved in amateur radio, sometimes called ham radio. You do need to pass a test to get a license. We provide testing quarterly at our club house and provide training on both the technical skills as well as good on air practice. We are also a social club hosting month regular meetings on the first Friday of the month both in person at the clubhouse and online.
If you are interested in finding more information about MARS and amateur radio, I suggest looking around this website. If you have specific questions please contact me at Contact Us
Thank you for taking the time to visit.
Curtis Ardourel WA6UDS- President, Marin Amateur Radio Society
