The AM Forum

Looks like a few stations about this evening.

W1E is out there on 3885 right now.   ;D

Here's a screenshot of 3700 to 3890 khz at 5:37 est.

I see 5 or 6 frequencies with AM stations at this time.

That's a great broad spectrum shot of the activity Bruce. I have been sitting on 3705 for most of the evening and have worked a nice continuous string of stations over a three hour period. At one point there were two AM QSO's above me and one AM QSO down below. As I was making my last CQ of the evening I was greeted by Don's formidable signal from the K4KYV broadcasting studio. He was running anywhere from +10 dB to +30 dB over S-9 and was definitely a clear-channel signal. He's still holding court there and chatting with Ralph W3GL and Paul WA3VJB.

  

Great screen shots !

Don't ever let anyone tell you the "carrier has no information."

Not only does it provide punctuation, where nothing is something as someone delivers their thoughts, but it also supplies a dandy tuning aid for modern SDR rigs to locate a wholesome AM signal.

160 was disappointing. A few extremely feeble carriers around 1880 and 1885, too weak to even tell if there was modulation.  Zilch around 1985.  I called CQ on 1880 (sounded like a weak AM QSO in the background on 85) and a station in Dallas came back with 90 watts.  He said I was 10 over S9, but he was barely perceptible over the background noise.  A few heavy static crashes, but the band was quiet in between.

Better luck on 75.  I stayed parked on 3705 until after 0700Z.  Was planning to give 40 a try, when we were hit by a power failure that affected this entire side of the county.  No sign of light anywhere.  I stayed up for a while, but finally called it a night.  I woke up a few hours later and the power was back on, but I just rolled over and went back to sleep.

So far, a total of 17 stations.  Not an impressive number, but represents about 4 hours worth of QSOs.

There's some 10m prop showing.


http://www.vhfdx.info/spots/map.php?Lan=E&Frec=28&ML=M&Map=NA&DXC=N&HF=N&GL=N


klc

just FWIW, I fired up the upstairs receiver somewhere around midnight or 12:30 while sending a few emails. Condx sounded absolutely terrible. !!

I found Don holding court on 3.705. Don was walkin the dog, but he was the only one I could hear!! Don was working Steve and Timtron, but I could not hear them at all!! the band was definately wierd Noisy and long. Don was absoultely strapping, but with Steve and Timy, I couldn't even detect a carrier!! And Steve is only about 150 miles from here...........................

The band was definitely long at that time of night Frank. Too bad we did not hear much from out west.

Anyone still running in the rally?  I'll be able to get back on about 8pm or so. It would be nice to end the weekend on a good note with a few more QSOs. 

Did anyone get on 20- 15- or 10m?  I listened up there but didn't hear much. Called CQ but nothing. Went back to 80 and it was hopping from 5pm to about 830.  160 was ok, but the static crashes began to build something fierce even wiping out some strong locals...

I have made contacts on 20, 75 and 160....I checked 40 but no joy...20 meters was very busy with the OSO PARTY on SSB ...... hard to find a spot for AM until late afternoon...I will be on after 7 PM PST looking for the east coast on 75...I heard W1E and a few others last night but no contact made....Where are all the eastern tall ships?  Rally runs until 11 PM PST...See you on the air!  Steve   W7W

I hear K9ACT and others now at 3885.  Worked many stations yesterday at 3885 then 3880.  I only worked 75 yesterday.  

Listening on 3885 and will jump in if the lousy power line noise subsides.

Edit: Kerry KC2UFU is banging in here form NJ above the QRM and QRN.  Slopbucket crap is much more offensive tonight, hardly noticed it yesterday....

Here's another shot from a few minutes ago.

This is the ENTIRE 80/75 meter band.  625 Ksps.

A few AMers still present  :D


Note how little activity there is between 3600 and 3700khz

Late this afternoon there was an AM group on 3629! At the same time I heard groups at around 3705, 3715, 3733, 3837, 3873 and 3880.

I've worked a lot of stations this evening.  It's been pretty good.  I'll be hanging in, probably until at least midnight our time - maybe later if there's a lot of activity.

My throat was getting very dry from all the talking, so I'm on a break now - will go back on at around 11:00 EST.

I don't know if there was as much activity as last year, but the logs will tell the story.  One very positive development - I worked probably a dozen stations who had NEVER BEEN ON AM BEFORE, but liked it very much.  Several are going to be regulars.

One very good thing about the modern rigs like the PRO3, FT-1000 and Flex is the AM works pretty much right out of the box, and sounds reasonable to good, depending.

I'm using the call W1E - just worked W2E - that was a hoot!!!

Regards,

Steve

Was a hoot for me too Steve. I've been stalking you all weekend but you've always had a plate full when I cruised by. I figured it was getting down to the short end of things and I needed to make it happen, so I grabbed you before you could take a break.  ;D

I had a wonderful time even though my total operating time was about 2 hours.  It's a work weekend for me but I managed to have some great QSO's regardless.  Some were on riceboxes and hadn't done AM before but were "enticed" into making the contact due to the contest format.  I made a ragchew out of each QSO.  Contests do not really turn me on as I'm a casual ragchew type operator but it was fun to call "CQ AM TRANSMITTER RALLLY"

Thanks to Steve and everyone who participated.

Called CQ on 7160 and a station in TX came back, using his ricebox on AM.  He said he had used it on AM only a couple of times even though he had heard AM activity on the band before.  Condx were good.  No QRM.  Almost like a pipeline, but no other stations broke in.  I signed out after about a half-hour to watch a show at 8 PM on the boob tube, rare for me, but something I usually do on Sunday evenings.  As I was turning off the transmitter but left the receiver warmed up, I heard him back on the frequency calling CQ on AM!

Sunday afternoon I worked some fellow Ohioans on 3700kHz using military gear they just got at a fester.
First, Ron KB8CQX was heared on a Thompson TRC302-4 manpack at 20W.
Then, His Pal Kevin K8SU fired up the big rig. A T195/R392 combo at 100W complete with jeep mount et al!

Saturday night Steve KL7OF (W7W) came rolling into 8 land at S9+15 followed closely by Mel K6KBE in Ione, Cal at S9.

Fun schtuff!!!

So, till next next year, this is W8L.... W 8 Land signing off!

Thanks Steve, W1E. It was a fun time.