Civil Air Patrol (CAP) will conduct a special nationwide high-frequency radio net to support the North American Air Defense Command’s 60th annual Santa Track the evening of Saturday, December 24.
The CAP radio net supports NORAD Tracks Santa’s goals of spreading goodwill and cheer during the holiday season while simultaneously informing diverse publics worldwide of the missions of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the United States Northern Command.
Listeners will hear CAP radio operators across the country report local weather conditions and other factors that could affect Santa’s flight operations and navigation. The radio messages will be addressed to North Pole Mission Base.
“For many years, CAP performed its own Santa tracking net,” said Malcolm Kyser, CAP’s chief of communications, adding, “we are pleased to revive the program this year.”
Stations across the country will check in with CAP and pass on weather conditions for a geographic area to the North Pole Mission Base. At least seven CAP national net control stations also will provide periodic updates on Santa’s position from NORAD.
The CAP stations will begin Santa reports at 7 p.m. Eastern and 4 p.m. Pacific time. The stations will remain on the air until at least midnight.
“The HF radio systems that we will use for this net are an important resource in CAP’s overall mission capability,” said Kyser, “especially in big disaster relief missions where phones and Internet may not be working. Our net supporting NORAD Tracks Santa will demonstrate our mission capabilities to NORTHCOM and it will be a good training exercise that will be a lot of fun for our CAP communicators.”
Civil Air Patrol, the longtime all-volunteer U.S. Air Force auxiliary, is the newest member of the Air Force’s Total Force, which consists of regular Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, along with Air Force retired military and civilian employees. CAP, in its Total Force role, operates a fleet of 550 aircraft and performs about 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and is credited by the AFRCC with saving an average of seventy-eight lives annually. Civil Air Patrol’s 56,000 members nationwide also perform homeland security, disaster relief and drug interdiction missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. Its members additionally play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to more than 24,000 young people currently participating in the CAP cadet program.
Performing missions for America for the past seventy-five years, CAP received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2014 in honor of the heroic efforts of its World War II veterans. CAP also participates in Wreaths Across America, an initiative to remember, honor and teach about the sacrifices of U.S. military veterans. Visit
www.capvolunteernow.com for more information.
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