The Mongolian Amateur Radio Society (MARS) (in Mongolian

Mongolian language

The Mongolian language is the official language of Mongolia and the best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner...

, Монголын радио сонирхогчдын холбоо) is a national non-profit organization

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 for amateur radio

Amateur radio

Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...

 enthusiasts in Mongolia

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

. Key membership benefits of MARS include the sponsorship of amateur radio operating award

Amateur radio operating award

An amateur radio operating award is earned by an amateur radio operator for establishing two-way communication with other amateur radio stations. Awards are sponsored by national amateur radio societies, radio enthusiast magazines, or amateur radio clubs, and aim to promote activity on the amateur...

s and radio contests

Contesting

Contesting is a competitive activity pursued by amateur radio operators. In a contest, an amateur radio station, which may be operated by an individual or a team, seeks to contact as many other amateur radio stations as possible in a given period of time and exchange information...

. In the spring of 2008, MARS purported to be a successor organization to the Mongolian Radio Sport Federation

Mongolian Radio Sport Federation

The Mongolian Radio Sport's Federation is a national non-profit organization for amateur radio enthusiasts in Mongolia. Early activities of the organization focused on radiosport, and the MRSF was active in promoting Amateur Radio Direction Finding competitions throughout the country...

, and supplied the International Amateur Radio Union

International Amateur Radio Union

The International Amateur Radio Union is an international confederation of national amateur radio organisations that allows a forum for common matters of concern and collectively represents matters to the International Telecommunication Union...

with documentation regarding a name change and updated organizational constitution. The name change from Mongolian Radio Sports Federation to Mongolian Amateur Radio Society was recognized by the IARU Region I Executive Committee at its April, 2008 meeting. Subsequent to that meeting, the IARU determined that the name change documentation was not authorized by the Mongolian Radio Sport Federation, which had in fact not changed its name or constitution, and continued to exist as a separate organization. The IARU currently recognizes the MRSF as the IARU member society representing Mongolia.