The AM Forum

I will be taking a vintage AM rig out to our Field Day site again this year.  I did this several years ago and it was very well received and everyone enjoyed seeing the old 1947 vintage gear in operation.  We made quite a few contacts, as well.  

Hope to be successful again this year with the Fort Wayne Radio Club (W9TE).  We will be hanging out on 75 meters with the old John Meck T-60-1 transmitter and the National NC 2-40D receiver.  Look for us around 3870-3885, but we might be anywhere on the band working AM and AM-SSB cross mode.

I would greatly encourage others to do the same thing at your local Field Day operation.  It is loads of fun and allows many to see old gear and AM in operation.  I think the ARRL should consider adding an extra credit or a special class for operating vintage (pre-1960) gear at Field Day.  Much the same as they have allowed a "freebie" additional station for VHF or a "Get on the Air" station for beginners .   Hope to see you on the air this weekend.

73,  Jack, W9GT

I had an idea to get on this weekend and just run AM only, not answering any calls from anyone who wasn't running AM. I might still try it.

I'm game...now to just quieten down all the QRN of summer time.  Sheeese what a mess

CQ RAG CHEWERS ONLY, NO CONTESTERS PLEASE! ! !                                   ;D  ;D  ;D  ;D  ;D  ;D  ;D

Field Day is hardly comparable to other "contests".  It is certainly not my intent to offend anyone, Slab! I guess it would be a boring world if we all always agreed with each other.

I plan to introduce some of my interests in the hobby to others whom otherwise might never get to see "boatanchors" in action. 

Anyway, along with thousands of others, I plan to enjoy Field Day this weekend.  If you don't care to participate, that is up to you. 

Have a good day.

73,  Jack, W9GT

Jack,

Please take & post some photos of the setup for us here.

Thanks,

DG

Actually, Jack, I am a very competant field day operator and have worked field day quite a few times with local clubs. I can usually do 2 or 3 operators worth of Qs by myself without a dupe man!! I actually enjoy the fast and furious pace.

But.............I much more enjoy a slower paced relaxed atmosphere. I usually post the "CQ ragchewers only, no contesters please" as kind of a "poke in the ribs" (Usually with the proverbial "szht eating grin") I have also been known to get on during a contest and call that same CQ ;D  ;D

Dont take offense, I didn't, just my orneryness poking through.  ;)  ;D

Jack,

Fantastic idea!  I would love to see some of the pictures of your vintage FD station.  I was just talking this morning to a bunch of my Antique Wireless friends saying how I would like to use one of my 30's vintage stations to work some CW during Field Day.  Maybe my Collins 4A along with an early HRO.  Like a lot of others, contest do not excite me, but a vintage FD setup could be a lot of fun. 

Enjoy....
Joe, GMS

ZUL Gerry ought to set up his broadcast transmitter mobile that he brings to Dayton every year somewhere for Field Day.  That would generate some attention!

From the ARRL web site:
While some will treat it as a contest, most groups use the opportunity to practice their emergency response capabilities.  It is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate Amateur Radio to local elected community leaders, key individuals with the organizations that Amateur Radio might serve in an emergency, as well as the general public. For many clubs, ARRL Field Day is one of the highlights of their annual calendar.

Jack: I am very glad you are going to setup the old equipment, when I first did field day over 50 years ago that is all we had was vintage equipment, I just got out of the hospital and will not be able to go or see a FD operation this year How about some good posted pictures on the forum for us shutins.

John W9BFO

I'm probably gonna try to operate some tomorrow, maybe around the top end of 40 meters or the AM window on 75, calling for field day but running AM. That should get some attention and not have too many people crowding around because what I remember from last time I ran field day, 75 was pretty much dead during the day, and I'd say people will probably avoid the top end of 40 because of the broadcasters.

10 meter AM should be easy if the band is open....It is not too crowded above 29000 kcs..

From the ARRL web site
Abbreviated prop forecast:
The outlook for Field Day weekend, June 22-23, is for low sunspot numbers and quiet geomagnetic conditions. The progression of daily sunspot numbers in the past five days (June 17-21) was 96, 66, 64, 29 and 13. Predicted daily solar flux is just 95 for June 22-29...

I'll be running my Globe Scout 65 and HQ-110 atop the mountain outside of Parsons, WV. on 7290 kc. AM only. Hope to work some of you. The local FM'ers think I'm crazy!  ;)

The ARRL may put that line out there but from my experience with several clubs over the past 30 years or so it is a serious contest period.  They may as well just take sweepstakes, put the ops in tents and call it field day and there you have it.  The exchange is less complex.  Those are about the only differences. 

The first few years I was a ham I was involved with a couple of clubs and it was fun.  We went to a park somewhere in Memphis, cranked the generators, threw up a few tents and shot wires over trees and we were in business.  The rigs were second rate outdoor rigs--old SBE, Swan and Heathkits.  They were no frills simple to operate rigs.  Logging was pencils, dup sheets and paper logs. 

I quit doing anything for several years from around 1975 to early 1980s because I was in the Army or in civilian jobs but around 1981 or 1982 I went back for a Field Day with the old club.   It was night and day.   Gone were all the old rigs and simple ways of doing things.   They had crank up towers and beams and quads.  Trailers and then, rudimentary computer logging.  The rigs were fancy JA plastic radios with 100 buttons I could not figure out.   It was all about being seriously competitive and WIN WIN WIN!!!
I stuck it out but on Sunday instead of dropping wires, heaving the gens onto a trailer and wadding the tents and card tables into a van and being home in an hour, they spent all Sunday afternoon dismantling everything.   That did it for me with that club.

10 years later when I had moved up here I went to the local ham club meeting in November 1992.  I walked in and found the usual ham club meeting--a bunch of guys down in front, presumably the club officers, facing lots of middle aged guys siting in rows in folding chairs.  A fat guy with greasy black hair combed back was standing up and yelling at everyone telling them they had to use the distributed logging system and if they needed to hit the john, they had to let central operations control know on some 2 m. frequency so a fill-in op could be there to take over his position.  After a few minutes I figured out they were preparing for Field Day...six months ahead of time, and getting yelled at about it.   I turned around and left -- I found better things to do than Field Day.

K5UJ,

you hit the nail on the head, very well said.

Thats why I've been doing it by myself instead of with the local cub, too complicated. Last time, I just dragged a rig outside, ran an extension cord out the door, threw some wire in a tree and went from there. Paper logs and everything. Today I might just go in the shack and fire up the rigs right from there, and do a computer log. But I'll mostly be on AM on 40 and 75.

I've never done a field day but have always wanted to do an AM field day on my own with something portable.

I did the club thing too when I first was licensed. I was persuaded by the people that administered my novice license in 1981 to join the club. It was very short lived because the experience was pretty much what Rob described. Everything was about the 2m repeater.  I never looked back.

If time permits this weekend I'll do a quick setup and run solar/battery AM with the Retro75 and Retro40 out in the back 9.

pencils and paper logs; maybe squirrels on a treadmill running the generator

I'm on 3890 right now, calling in and answering AM only at the moment.

Pencil and Paper!!! LOVE IT!!! Pete has no sense of nostalgia ;)

Jack:   Glad to see you will be on AM for field day.  Originally had the idea to take the AF-68/PMR-8/M-1070 PS out to our site.  Let's face it; it was a mobile rig in the day.  Unfortunately, it fell that I'm working a full tour today.  Would have been good to talk to you from the other diagonal corner of the state.  We have the mobile EOC trailer out for field day down here.  True, we have a portable tower, but it's a homebrew powered 'crank-up' that we tow behind a car or truck.  And when I went by the site on the way back to the station a little while ago, there was a lot of wire in the air.

no pencils or paper but I'm not logging. guy next to me is. on 4th beer already. 15 is hot. lots of contacts. over

Go for it!
Don't forget to use the proper facilities (a few good trees) for reverse osmosis.  ;D

I made 7 of my contacts on 75, 2 on 40, 2 on 20, and 1 on 15. All SSB, i called in AM on 75 and 40, had Bud,  WD8BIL come back on 40 but he was so weak I couldn't hear anything else.

Folks:

Peter W1ZZZ brought his Heath DX60 transmitter, HG10 VFO and Johnson Matchbox to our radio club's Field Day Saturday. However, last week in preparation for the event, I fired up my Collins 75S1 and there is some problem with the front-end...no signals, so I tried my HRO-5. Tuned up all the four coil sets and discovered the BFO died in the process, so we used my Icom R75. Really wanted a total vintage setup at the Wellesley Amateur Radio Society W1TKZ FD site in Needham, MA, but did not feel like lugging my HRO-60.

The best part was when we ran the whole setup off a solar panel and worked a CW station on the beach in Markham, Ontario! First time I experience the slow chirp of an HG-10.

After a tasty rib dinner with all the fixin's, Peter and I worked a few AM'ers on 75m. More fun than using the club's FT847.

See photo.

73,
Dan
W1DAN

Got on early this morning on 40 meter slop bucket for 1.5 hours or so. Made 231 contacts, 39 states (including Alaska) and 8 provinces. In the middle of all the mess, VK7ZE calls in. He was as loud as the stateside stations!

Did mostly 15 and 20 meters for about 3.5 hours Saturday afternoon with roughly about 425 contacts. Went back for the 2 to 6 AM shift Sunday morning and worked mostly 40 and 20, and a little 80. Don't know what the count was for that but the logger was steaming. Used a FT-2000 on Saturday and a Icom IC-9100 on Sunday. Nice 100 watt class rigs. Inverted vees for 80 and 40 and 3 element unnamed tri-bander for 10, 15, and 20 on a 30 foot aluminum tower.

I must not be a serious contester then, because I was on almost 3 hours and made a total of 12 contacts.

I worked Jack W9GT on Saturday on 3885--he was running the John Meck 6V6 rig getting around 35 watts with it from the Ft. Wayne QTH signing W9E I think, and he had quite a few AM stations to work.   That pre-1950 John Meck rig sure sounded good.  Also surprisingly strong signal.  I listened to him work Norm W7IUC and others.

What turned me against field day (and most other corntests) (besides the rude operating) was a club that I used to belong to. They were really big on (winning) field day.

The last time I operated with them they pissed me off beyond words! ! ! !
We were set up in a local state park with phone stations for 40m (24 hr) 80 / 20m (20 day, 80 night) 15 / 10m, and all vhf combined. and 2 CW stations one on 40, and 1 on 80 / 20m.

Myself and my buddy Rick worked the 80 20m phone station for 20 of the 24 hours non stop!. After 20 hours of calling CQ, no sleep, and little food for 2 days, both of our voices sounded like bags of broken glass and rocks! We were both piss-beat and spent! I reached over and killed the rig at around 11:00 AM. We just couldn't go on any more.

.......

I'm very sorry to hear (see) this posting becoming a debate on the pros and cons of Field Day!  Anyway, we had a wonderful time this weekend running W9TE from the IPFW Campus grounds in Fort Wayne.  We made lots of contacts in spite of the so-so conditions on many bands. 

The vintage station was a big hit and we had a blast!  Worked about 65 contacts or so with that rig...no big total, but largely a laid-back style of operating and just a fun time.  One of the guys checked into an AM net with the rig on Sunday and worked about 10 stations. 

The overall operation was really great with the leading contact producer being 40 M SSB, with 934 contacts.  We even had a weather balloon up 100+ feet for 160 M.

I will add some pics of the vintage station in a following post.

73,  Jack, W9GT

Pictures of Vintage AM Station at W9TE  Field Day  2012:

More Pictures of Vintage AM Station at W9TE  Field Day  2012:

More Pictures of Vintage AM Station at W9TE  Field Day  2012:

More Pictures of W9TE  Field Day  (IPFW Campus - Fort Wayne, IN) 2012:

More Pictures of W9TE  Field Day  2012.  In case you were wondering....the VW was just a gag.  The truck in the background was actually used to raise the tower  ;D

MP3 of the vintage station courtesy of Dave, W9AD (I was using my call before the FD event started).

Great fun Dan!  Yes, the DX-60 was my first real transmitter.  Its a shame you had problems with the National gear but I am sure you will be all set to have it operational should you do it again next year.  I have found if you leave the HG-10 in the spot position while transmitting the note is very clean.  I never remember mine chirping in any position when I used it in 1966. 

Thanks for sharing the FB pictures.

Joe, W3GMS

Jack,

Glad you had a great time and many thanks for the great pictures of your vintage FD operation.  I sure have not seen many transmitters like you were using.  Even though you did not mention CW, I am curious if you plugged a key into the old rig and worked some CW. 

Don't concern yourself with some of comments that others have made over FD.  I understood from your original post that you were not taking a survey over FD. 

73,
Joe W3GMS 

Nice pictures, Jack.

Love the 160 M verticle.  May have to suggest that down here next year.

Nice pictures and in my opinion a great way to share AM.
Lincolns saying about pleasing all of the people all the time really fits in this hobby.  There appears to be a large group of very vocal very negative people. I figure they're just miserable people and they have to live with themselves which is their own worse punishment. 

Its a big hobby, big enough for everyone. Like field day, don't like field day OK what ever floats your boat.

73

Eric

Field Day and many other contests, are about the transmitted/received "exchange" (for Field Day:class and section). There's generally no other discussion. I find it fun to see how many contacts I can make in some defined period of time. If you can grab a frequency, you let the contacts come to you.

Field Day club activities are always fun because it can bring out seasoned and newly minted club members to work together. The newly minted may have never experienced the operating in the wild, running on generator power, throwing up multiple antennas in record time, the stress and the utter chaos that prevails on many of the ham bands over the weekend with most only running 100 watts or less.

Obviously, if you're a laid-back kind of amateur or have to ponder every word or phase before you utter it, contesting in any form is probably not for you. And the 60, 30, 17, and 12 meter bands are always contest free for those who want to get away from it all.

I tried the "sit on one frequency and call my head off and let the contacts come to me" aproach, it didn't work. Between what seemed like crappy band conditions here and antenna issues on 40, 20, and 15 meters (randomwire that seemed to favor southern stations, when most of what i could hear was west of here), I did the best I could. I honestly think if I do field day again next year, I'm gonna get a special event call just to speed up the exchange a little, I can't remember how many times I had to repeat my call because somebody would screw up on it, even with phoenetics. I actually had the most luck on 75 meters, even though there was hardly anyone on there.

This is the only reason I changed my call from KD7QDU, it was tough to understand even under the best of times. I have a lot less problems with my new call

73
Eric

A few more pics.  Thanks everyone for the great comments and support. Maybe we will do this again next year.

73,  Jack, W9GT

Great photos and audio Jack! Makes me want to set up a portable station for next year. Thanks for sharing.

Jack: Thanks loads for the field day pictures, just looking at them has made my morning, so far it has not been a very good one.

John W9BFO

What a cool setup.  Its to bad we cant do Field day in AZ where I live.  I always think of taking a trip for field day.  Maybe next year.

C

Jack,

That the first time I heard a John Meck T-60-1 and the audio sounds pretty darn good.  Is that stock audio on the Meck?

Joe, GMS

Thanks Joe.  Well, the only thing not stock in the audio are some coupling caps that were increased in value when I re-capped the rig.  Otherwise, it is stock.  A pair of 6L6s modulated by a pair of 6L6s.  The only other thing that I should mention is that I replaced the stock 6V6 oscillator tube with a 6AG7 with minor wiring changes.  The 6AG7 seems to work much better and it is a "no-holes" mod.  The most interesting thing about this rig (other than the front panel feed-thru antenna insulators) is the fact that it has completely separate power supplies for the modulator and RF sections with dual power transformers.  It seems to put out an amazing signal with plenty of plate-modulated audio.  It uses B&W plug-in coils.  Neat little rig for its day.  Seems to be pretty rare now.  I've only seen a few.

73,  Jack, W9GT

Jack,

Very good on the "gentle" audio mods you did.  I think its right on the mark.  It certainly was not scratchy and it was not loaded with a bunch of booming base.   Just a pleasing sound from a nice vintage piece.  The 6AG7 is a great xtal osc stage and very time proven.  That is also interesting that they use 2 completely separate supplies for the modulators and final.  I found the original Ad for the rig in a 40's QST.  It was a big ad and I am sure they paid a healthy sum to run an ad that size.  I will look for an online schematic and maybe try to duplicate it the best I can.  Your real lucky to have one since they seem not to be all that common.

Thinking historically about the company, they must have not stayed in the Amateur Radio business to long.  I will try and do some research and see what I can find out about them.  The closest thing period wise that I have to your rig is a WRL Globe Trotter.  Moving up to the early 50's I have a Lettine 240 and a Harvey Wells TBS-50.  Notice the model number similarity between the Meck and the Knight Kit T-60!  That is certainly where the similarity stops!         

73,
Joe, W3GMS     

Schematic: http://www.ko4bb.com/Manuals/11%29_Stuff_Not_Sorted/MECK/T60/PAGES/MECK_T60_7.GIF

Thanks Pete....
Joe

I'm glad to see that field day was enjoyed and good ol' equipment was used here and there. It must be nice to do it outdoors! The Irving TX club used to meet under a pavilion but it's too hot, the ladies and some of the guys don't care much for 24+ hours in the Texas summers so  lately we have used a civic building and run the coax and balanced lines out a window or door. Battery power is used even though we are in an air conditioned space. We consider it a way to test impromptu setups.