The AM Forum

Sure, its the bottom of the solar cycle, but I'm talking in terms of local ragchewing, etc. Its perfect for that, the gear is out there... Vintage gear, modern rigs, conversion of tube and even solid state cb's, conversion of old commercial stuff.

Tiny antenna = mobile!!!!

Theres NO sidebanders on 29.0 mc... heck, there doesnt seem to be any on the whole band!

Actually, there doesnt seem to be ANYBODY on the band presently.

Ok, check this video out... Granted, you have to put up with about 5 minutes of a really boring contemporary interview in the beginning, but then they cut to this AWESOME (ok, actually its very 1950's hokey, but still..) 1959 movie... narrated by Edward R. Murrow! Check out the GEAR and the CARS!!!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2943570522939177086&hl=en

Tell me this doesnt make you want to dig an early 50's car out of a field, stick a dynamotor in the trunk, some tube gear under the dash, and a stainless whip on the roof!

10m AM used to be what two meters used to be, now its totally unused. Sure, nothing is like 75m, by why not use a backup as well?

I think its a good idea, and I'm hoping the idea catches on. Got a radio on 29.0, (ok, its actually ss, but the frequency choice comes from 7.25 rock double-doubled) and calling cq as often as I can. Haven't talked to anybody yet, but I'm also hoping that'll change. Once I've gotten the gear straightened out to my liking, and making sure the neighbors cant hear me through their coffee maker, I'm going to try and start a weekly net here in the Los Angeles area, and see if the idea cant be pushed further along.

Whattya think? Who's with me?

-Jason kf6pqt

HI,
Actually every Sunday afternoon at 4PM here south of Boston a group of locals gets on 29.039 AM
We have been doing this for about 4 years now. Once about 3 years ago we had a guy from the Carribean join us.
We start on 29.039 but usually migrate to other bands just to help keep the bands active.
Last week we even went down to 28.450 USB to welcome the techs with their new privileges. Well we had a party anyway even though nobody came!

Regards
Q
W1QWT

Get a bunch of cheap Good Buddy Rigs (AM Only) and modify them for the upper 10m band and give them to your ham friends. Shouldn't be too hard to bump the PLL up a few megs. They'll be channelized, but oh well. And believe it or not CB's are easy as hell to modify for Super High Fidelity! The Receivers are also easy to open up for wide band AM. Even though listening to Ch.19 you'd never know it. :D

I had a cheap Cobra 29Plus modified for high fidelity AM on CB. At Full Bore audio it sounded great on a decent communications receiver, but it was so w-i-d-e I had to use a Yellafier (EQ) so the good buddy's could hear me in their narrow band CB receivers.

If the goal is to get as many people on there as possible to promote activity on 10m, better yet on 10m AM it's a cheap way to do it even to your ham friends who don't have or can't afford a fancy rice box..

Unfortunately I really don't have a "local group," (other than finding people in the greater county-wide are in specific-interest email lists) I tried finding "them" on 2m, but thats dead too!

I've got one 23-channel cb I'm scrounging an xtal for, I have some johnson messenger commercial radios that'll need a pair of custom xtals... and holding out for tube CB's that have channelized xmit, but VFO rx... those'll be the good ones. In the meantime I'm using stuff with LCD displays, they sound nice, but it aint the same!

So I'm primarily trying to get the word out first, drum up the enthusiasm. There's a couple people around me that read here, so maybe the ball will get rolling.

-Jason kf6pqt

Summer time "E" season should give some stimulation to the band, but QRP and "ground wave" will really limit your contacts. It's been awhile that the MUF rose anywhere near 28 MHz.

10M AM will get active once the band opens up.   Years ago I built up a 10M FM transceiver from the surplus CB boards that were available at the time.   Also put in a digital repeater offset for the PLL and built a 50W transistor amp.    That worked well mobile with a trimmed CB magmount antenna.    Back in my early days as a ham, 10M AM was the local band in the Philadelphia area.

I know you are just musing here, but what is the more efficient/less problematic method of powering tube gear while mobile, a decent clean power inverter (or is such a thing hard to come by?) or a dynamotor?

I'm not at all an expert, but I see NOS dynamotors for cheap at swapmeets all the time, and have been given several!

-Jason kf6pqt

       I would like to see more 10M activity around here. Once in a while a bunch of locals get on, but its not on a regular basis. We used to convert 10-4 boxes to 10 FM and had a great time. The ones that we started with use the PLL-02A chip in the synth. AKA Cybernet boards. Some Hy-Gain cb's and the Tiger-23 and Tiger 40 boxes have it.  You only need to change one crystal, and if you add a toggle switch you can get 80 channels out of the things. The same idea can be used with other rigs. If you have an old 10-4 box kicking around, figure out what the pll chip is and do a web search for the number and the brand and model number and you will come with cb mod sites with all the info. Those guys put them above and/or below the normal cb band.
       As far as using inverters to power up tube rigs, most of the modern inverters make mucho hash noise and are mostly useless in my experience, but better luck might be had with a decent one or with a computer UPS unit. I have a couple, but never tested them for RFI. I will add that to my list of things to do. Heathkit had at least one model of inverter that did not use the type of switching circuits that they use now. It is model MP-10, good for 175 watts. I have 2 of them and they do make some RFI, but its nowhere as bad as the new cheapos. Maybe a simple filter would clean up the output. They show up at hamfesters sometimes.
..........Larry

10m AM was quite active during the last sunspot peak. Right now it appears dead. I usually tune in to the good buddy channel (27.025) and if I hear heterodynes, I know 10M is open.

Local ham Dave, WD4PLI/6, gave me this Heathkit CB-1 converted for use on 10 meters. Single channel crystal control with regen receiver, this little "lunchbox" puts out about 2 watts of RF and uses a 6AQ5 modulating a 6AU8 final. True plate modulation is achieved and nice warm BA audio produced by the vintage Argonne AR57 crystal mike.

(http://www.qsl.net/wb1gfh/images/cb1.JPG)

     I also have one of those Heathkit boxes Joe, but it is the actual 10M version. Also have 2 HA-410's. Thats the Lafayette 10M only rig, similar to the 6M HA-460. Hey Bob, WB1AIJ, are you reading this? Want to get on 10? I think you have a Gonset G-28 over there..............

Halo
I don't want to reduce any interest in 10M fun BUT converting a 10-4 good buddy box to a HAM frequency makes it a non-FCC compliant radio. (True or False?) That was an eye opener when I used my Kenwood to talk to a fellow employee on his CB channel. It was just a surprise piece of info from a fellow Ham who overheard us talking about the contact in the shop.
Fred

"BUT converting a 10-4 good buddy box to a HAM frequency makes it a non-FCC compliant radio. (True or False?) "  True... but it dont matta no how........


Opperating a FCC type accepted rig outside its design paramaters will most likely cause the rig to be "illegal'. Operating your non compliant ham rig in the CB Service, ( God I hate saying that) Public Safety, etc., is a violation. Operating any of these types of equipment in the ham bands is OK, as you, as a ham, don't need a type accepted rig in the amateur service. As with most things in life, there is more to it than the above, but, thats really all we need to know...  In quiring minds can check out "Thomas'  for all their needs   (the CFR has the FCC regs in it....)           klc

Consider giving away free beer or candy.

Links to FCC Part 97.

 FCC Part 97  (http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_00/47cfr97_00.html)

Emissions requirements must still be met on transmitting equiptment built or modified for amateur use. (see 97.307)

Amplifier certification must be had for commercial made amps and,although rarely enforced, more than one amp per calender year as speced in 97.315.

I was thinking about using the poster girl from the slop bucket thread, but will heed G's suggestion about large tubes and bandwidth.  :o

But I bet she'd get people interested! 

Once conditions improve, there will start a mass migration to the higher bands, and 10m will once again come alive. I'll be waiting to work you, Jason.

I can’t too excited about 10 meter AM at this time. Summer “E’s” can tickle the interest, but opening are sporadic and at least two people have to be there to catch the opening, or at least know the propagation signs, to make a contact. 3 watt QRP output into a vertical generally sucks for long haul stuff and may only provide very local contacts, if any via ground wave. Many of the “regular” or consistent 10 meter operators during the active sun, run horizontal polarization, so there is another issue if you just throw up a vertical. Active sun can make 10 meters a fun place to operate but we’re probably looking at least two years before activity will really start to pick up.

However, if you want real summer fun, get yourself a 6 meter rig. When that band opens up, it’s wall to wall signals with numerous stations operating AM anywhere between 50.2 and 50.5 MHz. AM calling frequency generally is 50.4 MHz. Of course, if you have a Swan rig, just set the dial anywhere, and in time, they will all drift by.

I have a Gonset G50 for 50.4!

Like I said, I know 10m is a dog during this trough of the sun cycle. The idea is to get people to use 10m AM like they did in the old days... as a surrogate 2 meters/ cell phone /whatever. Not as a replacement for 75m, nor 6m, just using it because its there, because of the history, and because der aint none a dem slawwwbuggids!

Getting a discarded piece of junk to put a (nice, amplitude modulated) signal on the air, and using the thing to talk to other Hams. Or some scratch built work of art and/or engineering marvel, either way. That pretty much sums up for ME what Ham Radio is all about!

Maybe I'm just trying to remake Ham Radio into what I'd prefer it to be... but enough people have made enthusiastic noises in response to the idea for me to keep at it. So get away from the dang compooter and call cq on 29.0, or wherever around there you think someone may be listening. ;)

-Jason kf6pqt

If you have some guys in the local area who you can get on 10 meters, I'd say go for it. I think it would be fun. I wanted to get something like that going when I lived in Baltimore, since there were 6-8 AMers in the local area. Talked to the DeRB several times on 10 but not much else materialized.

I still think offering free beer would help. ;D

   I have a Radio Shack 10 meter all mode rig and a homebrew 100 watt amp going into a sloping dipole. I know its not an old buzzard rig but I have got good reports on slopbucket and AM.When the band starts opening more, people will get interested in 10 meter AM.I do like Steve's idea about the free beer!

I'd be interested in 10M AM. This would be ideal for mobile operation. All I'd need to do is swap out my 2m rig/antenna with a 10 M rig/antenna. I usually commute @ 11 PM inbound and 9 AM home bound.

The best way to kindle up some real interest in 10m AM would be to find a willing Native American who could possibly do a "sunspot Dance" ;) ;)

 For my why not - I would love to be able to readily lay my hands on proven mods to the better quality good-buddy rigs.
 So that I can make maximum use of the few hours a week I get to spend in the shack.
I have put in too much time at my work as an RF techo.

That sure would make it easy for me to get on 10M AM.
Its just getting hard to find an AM Ham rig now and we have almost no heavy iron or surplus gear here downunder.
You would then hear a few more Aussies on air.

How bout it can any one supply such mods they have developed?

Old xtal control CB rigs: just replace the crystals with 10M frequencies. Receivers can be adjusted upward using the alignment coil slugs. Me and local ham WD4PLI did just this, he with a Hallicrafters CB-3 and me with a Heathkit CB-1. Stock audio, but fun.

I would like to get my fathers Johnson (whiteface) to play on 10m. Where can I find the correct xtals?

HC-6/U xtals...

http://www.zerobeat.net/drakelist/crystals.html (http://www.zerobeat.net/drakelist/crystals.html)

Very good. Thanks. :)

Oh my, Ed, that is just too much information!! :o :o

Unfortunately, a lot of the good buddy rigs come already equipped for 10M these days.... :-\

http://www.copper.com/cgi-bin/checkitout/checkitout.cgi?catalogSTORE:CKIE:RADIOS-10%20METER++++CATEGORY (http://www.copper.com/cgi-bin/checkitout/checkitout.cgi?catalogSTORE:CKIE:RADIOS-10%20METER++++CATEGORY)

But here is the mod info you seek:

http://www.qsl.net/wj5o/cb2bcn.htm (http://www.qsl.net/wj5o/cb2bcn.htm)

   ;D I guess I should read as I type........ :)

Yeah, But unfortunately most 'Good Buddy' 10m rigs still sound like Good Buddy radios!
Over modulated and drifty.. I used to have a few of them at one time. You can make some mods to them tho to get them to sound nice on AM. They usually do have high outpoot modulation built in and some have 50w RF outpoot. It's just a matter of a little tweaking. As long as you get one that's got a REAL VFO and Freq counter. Many only read the PLL and display the frequency they are 'supposed' to be on and not the true frequency. Get one of the good ones and you'll never know the difference.

10-4 on the driftyness. But, IMO, you want decent comm quality audio rather than sooper dooper hi-fi, unless you are using the good buddy radio as an exciter for an amplifier...and I wouldn't recommend this on the grounds that the typical 4 watt good buddy radio is woefully underdesigned  when it comes to suppression of spurs. Broadcast quality audio is great in the strapper world, but when operating with a PW 4 watt signal on 29 mHz, it can often make copy difficult.  The exception to this is during sunspot cycle peaks when 10 is wide open. I used to have daily skeds with Pat W9GKZ in Wisconsin. We experimented with various power levels, and found that we could have "full quieting" AM QSO's with 3 watts each. Of course, Mother Nature was doing all the heavy lifting.