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About MARS

Maldives Amateur Radio Society (MARS) is a registered NGO at Ministry of Youth, Sports & Community Empowerment – Republic of Maldives. Registered on 10th December 2017 (at Ministry of Home Affairs).

Our Aims are:

To spread Amateur Radio (Ham Radio) awareness in Maldives.
To increase the number of Amateur Radio (Ham Radio) Operators in Maldives.
To make Maldives a disaster prepared country in terms of Amateur Radio (Ham Radio) with a Nationwide network.

Elected Office Bearers – Maldives Amateur Radio Society:

#	Post	Name	Call Sign
1	President	Ali Mahir	8Q7AM
2	Vice President	Mohamed Ibrahim (MI)	8Q7MI
3	Treasurer	Ibrahim Rasheed “Parker”	8Q7PR
4	Secretary	Abdulla Ismail	–
5	Program Coordinator	Mohamed Ivan Latheef	–

A Bit of History:

Our cofounder Mr. Ali Mahir (8Q7AM), is one of the most active and long serving Amateur Radio (Ham Radio) Operator in the Maldives. In the 90s he worked as a Radio Officer for Male’ Coastal Radio Station.
As an Amateur Radio (Ham Radio) Operator, Mr Mahir experienced the terrorist attack in 1988 and later the Tsunami in 2004. During both incidents he helped the authorities and felt the need for more Amateur Radio Operators in the Maldives.

In 2006 and 2007 he helped The Scout Association of Maldives to run a Radio Station during the JOTA JOTI weekend. Jamboree On The Air – Jamboree On The Internet (JOTA JOTI) is the largest Scouting event in the World with over 1.5 million Scouts participating across 150+ countries. Scouts and Guides across the world connect with each other during JOTA JOTI using the Airwaves and the Internet. The event has been held during the third weekend of October since 1957.

During the 2007 JOTA JOTI events, we started discussing about forming a Radio Club.

Maldives Amateur Radio Society .. around 2014, we restarted the work. We began by meeting with technical experts to seek their advice, as Amateur Radio was a new endeavor for the Maldives. Subsequently, we held a series of meetings with the relevant Government Ministries and Departments to discuss Amateur Radio and its role in disaster preparedness.