Maryland-DC ARES sponsors the monthly Maryland/DC HF Hospital Net on 3820 kHz LSB. Despite the name, all local amateurs are invited to check into the net from your home station. The concept of operations is as follows.

Most hospital EOCs in the DC/Maryland area are not equipped for HF operation. In the event that a hospital needs to communicate with an entity outside of VHF/UHF range, the traffic will be passed to a nearby HF-equipped ham via VHF/UHF, then forwarded to the distant entity via HF radio. In other words, the home-based HF station serves as a relay point for the hospital traffic.

We encourage such home-based hospital relay stations to equip themselves with Winlink capability so that record traffic can easily be relayed, but voice-only stations are welcomed to participate.These exercises are normally scheduled on the third Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM local time. (Net control is usually on the air by 6:45 for early check-ins.) If the frequency is busy, tune  ± 5 kHz.