The AM Forum

Just to test that it could be done.

I called CQ on 3855, which was open and clear at the time - around 10 AM Sat morning - for about 30 seconds. Went to make some oatmeal and tea. Got a call about 15 secs later by KN2DZY followed by W2DGB who came in as I was doing the tea!   ;D ;D ;D ;D

While I was somewhat surprised to get a response, I think it shows that sticking to the 3885 frequency is not necessary at all!

So, youze guyz can look for me to be calling CQ down the band more frequently.

Fwiw, I didn't even have to redip the finals... your rig may be higher Q, or not.

Hope if you are reading this, it will inspire you to VENTURE FORTH!!

                    _-_-bear

         

I have been making a point of calling CQ on about 3705 in the evening, but apparently most AM'ers have already gone to bed when I make the calls.  I get responses maybe 40% of the time. And it is not that late when I usually call, right after I finish the evening meal - just an hour or so after dusk.  But I suppose Daylight Shifting Time has people going to bed about the same time the chickens go to roost.

I'll listen down there Don!

Of course only Advanced and Extras can go there...

           _-_-bear

You would have received more calls if you were making oatmeal.

It's good to spread out. Gotta spin that receiver knob once in a while.\

well sure.....

plus there's the "am carrier net" on 3835 (or 3853) on sunday mornings at 830a.


Most nights there's activity on 3705, 3725, 3733(what's for dinner 'net', at 5p)

There are am stations on in other places than 3885.....
But I assume that most folks don't want to waste any precious radio time, rutuning, calling cq in different areas of the band, when they can *usually* call cq one time or two on 3885, and get an answer........



Don, over last week, I tried calling you on 3705, must have been the wrong time 'o day....\

I'll try again sometime.....

All the cool guys hang on 3733.

Waste of time to call CQ??

Say what?

It is never a waste of time to call CQ.
Hope you were kidding?   :o ::)

Anyhow, I'd never have met and talked to those two FB OMs, if I hadn't called CQ.

So VENTURE FORTH!!

I'll be calling CQ down the band, look for me, I'll look for you!!  ;D :D ;D :D

             _-_-bear

No, I wasn't kidding......not at all!

There's a lot of people who just don't have much time at all to play radio......
Let's say, between jobs, kids, wife....whatever... you have one hour every other day or so  to get on the radio.....

Are you going to use up all that time, or even 1/4 to 1/2 of it searching for a clear spot, tuning, calling CQ in a part of a band that finding another station is questionable...??

I'm not....

If I have a lot of time to play, or the "usual" frequencies are busy with sideband, or a qso I'm not interested in.....sure.... then I'd go somewhere else.....


I am a great supporter of calling CQ to find a contact....Even though I was told several times, in no uncertain terms that "calling CQ on 75 meters is frowned upon..."
Of course, even then, I knew that was BS....


Anyhow, I am not in any way discouraging people from doing just that....yes, spread out... by all means.....
My comment was just a note of possibility as to WHY more folks aren't somewhere other than the ghetto....

That is all....

Don,

I've heard you a number of times down around 3705 & 3710.  One night you were having a good QSO with Jack, K9ACT. I tired calling you, and breaking into your QSO with Jack, with no luck.  It's the PW thing (of course like all Murphy's Law things, after I end my transmitter search, Skip, K7YOO lists a Viking 1 with the audio mods for sale, on the Midwest Classic Net at a great price this morning <sigh!>), and antenna issues I seem to be having lately on 75m.  It looks like my VF-1, VFO has been modded, and I'll have to undo the mods (the keying line seems to be disabled, and for some reason the guy who owned it before me, wired the Standby switch position to ON - dumb!), just to mute the VFO during receive.  I'm not looking forward to it, since the tuning dial it a major pain, to get engaged properly with the tuning knob.  Oh well, it has to be done. Besides, I have a big noise source in the vicinity of 3885, that's driving me nuts.  Below 3730, things are a bit quieter for me.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

Bruce,

I understand the issues your mentioned.
But I still disagree with your approach and perspective.

If you want to just stay on 3885, then by all means do so.
The point of my post was to encourage, not discourage nor to come up with reasons to stay parked in a narrow set of frequencies.

If you read Don's post about the IARU "bandplan" it would become all the more evident why it is a very very good idea to spread out, as soon as possible.

But in general, I still disagree with your perspective on it, beyond these points.

As a novice, dunno about you, I was rock bound and called CQ in CW, and scanned the band for a response. IF you never move your reciever, you never hear the rest of the band!! How long does it take to scan 100khz.?? Seconds. If everyone was scanning, the amount of time it takes to make a contact would be about the same.

So I disagree, and believe that making excuses or rationalizing why we as a group of operators should not or might not or are not willing to change or improve operating habits or use other frequencies is bad for AM, and short sighted.

My 2 cents worth. (hey where did the "cents" key go!!)  ;)

         _-_-WBear2GCR

You got no cents ?

Here I will toss you a few.

(save them for a rainy day)

And there's always the option of calling CQ on 3885 making contact and then moving off to a different frequency. That way, you get the best of both worlds - less waiting for a reply and you get to "move on up" out of the ghetto.

You know Steve,  that's a good idea.  In VHF/UHF weak signal, QRP, etc. freqs. like 3885 are used as calling freqs.  In other words, make the contact, and then QSY.  It's done all of the time on 144.2 MHz, for weak signal ragchews. 

73,
Ellen - AF9J

Well, I guess re-reading my posts, I can see where you got the idea that I was trying to " come up with reasons to stay parked in a narrow set of frequencies."

Not the case.........

The comments I made were just one possible reason that a lot of  people are still clinging close to 3.885 .....

Wasn't trying to say that it was good practice, or otherwise......


Oh well, it wouldn't be the first time I've been misunderstood...  :-)


(And, wouldn't be the first time I wasn't misunderstood, and just plain wrong!)



And Steve,

>"...And there's always the option of calling CQ on 3885 making contact and then moving off to a different frequency..."<


You know, I'm actually suprised that there isn't a "calling frequency cop" out there to make sure that happens......

If you try to hold a conversation on say 146.520, there's  people just WAITING to tell you how wrong you are...

Just another way HF and VHF are different.

Nothing new. There's been published AM Calling Frequencies listed for years on a number of band plans.
Here's one: http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/bandplan.html (http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/bandplan.html)

I have been making a point of calling CQ on about 3705 in the evening

Are you 'often' calling CQ on 3705????
Last weeks totaly nothing from USA on 3705.....
Sometimes I receive AM on 3885, but very, very weak!!!!

During the weekend we (pe1mph and others) are talking with
Fortunato 9H1ES (Island Malta) on 3705.
But conditions are poor.... we can qso-ing, but is goes with up & downs!

Greetings and hope full I receive next AM from USA on 3705,

Henk, pe1mph ;)

Bear,
You also might try next time, to turn your mic gain waaay up,
Eat the oatmeal so we can hear the spoon scrape the cereal bowl,
Call "CQ America listening for that little voice in the wilderness"
and please don't forget the chimes....

Didn't hear any activity down below last night (Thursday), so took a listen up in the Ghetto, and heard a rather large group in QSO on 3885 discussing link-coupled antenna tuners.  At first I answered KA5RHK on 3880 and we talked one-on-one for a while. The antenna tuner topic had perked up my interest so I QSY'ed up 5 and joined in, and the QSO lasted from before 0200 GMT until past 0500.  No long-winded old buzzard transmissions, and the antenna tuner topic dominated the conversation for the whole evening. 

Sometime about 0330 GMT some slopbuckets evidently wanted the frequency and began dropping short bursts of noise on the frequency.  They didn't disrupt anything, and everyone in the QSO kept their cool by ignoring them and not acknowledging their existence.

WA1HLR abruptly signed out when Marcy came in and let him know she had a different agenda for the rest of the evening.  That started the ball rolling and most of the others on the east coast signed out, leaving Jack K9ACT and myself, so the conversation topic turned to Jack's homebrew 8000 project.

When we were signing out, a new station called in (I forget his call) with a good signal. He said he had been monitoring all evening and noticed the slopbucket attempts at jamming, so he decided to "hold" the frequency a little longer for AM. Dean, WA1KNX in Tucson called in, and we continued the three-way for a while longer.

I hadn't noticed anything except carriers tuning up on top of us (the same thing had happened earlier during my QSO on 3880 with Ken), and the bursts of noise on 3885, but just as I was signing out, and while Dean was transmitting, some slopbucket zero'ed on the frequency and made a remark, something about "letting my amplifier cool down".  I happened to understand it because Dean's carrier demodulated the SSB well enough.

Apparently some slopbuckets wanted the frequency real bad, but I didn't hear any activity after we had all signed out.

Gee, I miss that.
Ah, the good ole days...

And while you're at it be sure to insult someone by denigrating their parents, slander Jews, relish the death of 3000 people killed by terrorists, and read from racist rags whilst "casting abroad."

This will make it much more authentic.

You don't need the radio for that.  Just visit the "Ragchew" forum at QRZ.com.

Joe WA2PJP, Dave K2DK, and myself were on 3710 sometime after 22:30 until around midnight, Don. You must've already moved up to the ghetto by then? We had a great chat with the occasional static crash and minor fades being the only issues.



Same thing happened to me last evening down below 3800. If you don't get a frequency occupied by a group with some scrote, they'll just come in, zero-beat your carrier, and start talking. Happened to me with some VE3s last night on 3710 around 18:30, then 3715 and 25 when I called CQ there. Dead air or otherwise, if there's no one to talk to, the frequency becomes theirs.

If you have a QSO going and at least one of the stations has some scrote, when that happens, it's time for the old Timtron "exit stage left" tactic.

I must have just missed you guys Todd. I called CQ on 3725 at around 2130 ET. Got a call from KB4CWR running AM on his TS-850 for the first time. We had a nice QSO for about a half hour with no interference or jamming.

And not by much. I was on the phone witj Joe at that time, once we bailed he went down to his station to have a listen, I joined later after calling Jen. 22:30-22:45 timeframe.

Joe was on the Junkston 500, sounding great. Not sure what Dave was running from VA, DX-100 I think. Coming in great. You'd have been wall-to-wall, treetop tall, and whirlwide!

I think some of the hassle time a fellow Ham might have changing freqs is moving the TX to another freq (possible tuning) and retuning the aerial/tuner for the new freq. For me, the extra care needed tuning a linear, there's about 10 minutes from my hour messing around just to call CQ.
I need a real push and motivation to wake up early and be on the Pre-sun rise QSO.
I'm gonna give it a real effort come hell or high water

Fred

Agree with KYV

Exeunt

I can't believe my eyes. Radio operators complaining about tuning a rig or Antenna tuner to move ??!! ???

I tuned into a QSO this evening on 75 ("THE AM WINDOW"  ::)).

(attachment below)

I don't get it !

Gar.., I put the Ipod overlay sepia on that muzak but didn't come up with a title.

... but we did stay at the Holiday Inn last night on 3725.
INR, HUZ, 2GCR, 8BIL, 1VD, PJP, KAQ.. and other stellar glitterati, even "no op mois."

What was the line de noir?
"How do they spend one hour on 3885 complaining about having to spend 3 minutes retuning.  Suffer the poor fools on 85 when they could spend an unmolested 57 minutes in the vast oasis?"

Will try again tonight and hope for 'good luck in the contest.''. . .they're probably still on.

...and also AHE, 2XR, 2BK...  and George, 2XL sorry I missed you.  yeah, just a little pw 32V.
Rick

Ellen,
      I second that for 52.525 FM simplex, 50.125 USB, etc etc. Within a minute or two of establishing contact, there's usually someone (a calling frequency cop) requesting you move up or down the band. Not only on 6M, but also on 2M and 432.110, etc etc.

The problem is with HF, particularly 75M 'Fone, is most of the time there is nowhere within the band to QSY to. You'll find a QSO every 3KC or so in the General portion of the band(s). At 10:30AM that's a bit different. It seems that there IS a place to QSY to. The band isn't as populated as it is during the evening hours.

There is a cure for that!!  ;) ;)

There is plenty of "spaces" below 3800. Same goes for 160 meters.

People are gonna do what people do, and people are gonna operate where and how they want...

But, FYI, I've made a lot of contacts OFF the 3885 center frequency since my first post.

Some have been CQs, some not, and many have been with people on AM that I had not formerly spoken with or heard on AM. Both in the 3800+ area and in the ~3725 area!

Sometimes I have called CQ in an open area and gotten a response almost immediately.
Other times I've not.
Sometimes I've then gone up to the 3885 area and joined in there.
No big deal.

My current ant is coax fed (gasp!) and I do not have an SWR meter on it, I just QSY, dip the plate and talk. It seems to work for me.

I guess if you have ur tuna out in a doghouse, then you are stuck on a freq. Otherwise, maybe the way to go is to mark ur tuna for a few different spots on da band for fast QSY?? I dunno.

But, it's been fun to QSO elsewhere on the band.

Hope to hear you down freq on the 75M band!

                _-_-bear

                     

It's at ALT-155, or ALT-0162  on a PC.

On a non-pc, try U+00A2: in UTF-8 code that's 0xC2A2.

My 2¢.

Bill

Was good to work you again Rick, it's been awhile. Band condx were great when we started out early on, you arrived during the rude-corntester phase of the evening. Was interesting how the band seemed to weave to and fro, different areas coming in strong, then others, then back. Your pw 32V did just fine.

Along towards midnight the band got mushy, W2XR finally got back on the air after months of threatening, but the band was going long by that time. Steve was still strapping in when I lost track of who was still on and signed out. The corn didn't gain the frequency Friday night, at least.

The issue isn't so much where you operate, more a case of keeping your options open. The only real reason for not moving around is that you don't want to. Anything else is doable. Like G and others mentioned, many of us cut our AM teeth on 3885, and still go there when conditions permit. Enjoyed a good chat Saturday with a group on 3870, but it was during the afternoon before the crap started up. 'GFZ got the Viking II CDC on the air, he was booming in up here from Enfield.

And RandallBear: Yes, that National works FB OM. With only 3-4 clipleads on the ant connection, most of the guys close the magic tuning eye nicely. The thing is hot as a firecracker, and the shove/yank audio sounds fab. Needs a good cleaning and a few small issues addressed, but that's why God made winter.  ;D

It used to be that way, but lately I have been hearing many blank spots in the band even on low-noise weekend nights.  In fact, after about 11 PM  local time almost everyone has gone to bed, AM , slopbuckets and all.  On weeknights, the entire extra portion of the band often is lucky to have 2-3 slopbuckets and usually no AM at all.

I think the overall level of activity has dropped of substantially the last few years.  Dropping the code certainly didn't generate the hoped-for hoards of newcomers to HF.

Nice group on 3715 last night up until about 11 PM ET. Spoke with

W2INR
KA1KAQ
W3JN
KB3AHE
KD3CN
WD8BIL
AB3AL
W1IA
VA3DZ
W3PTH
K1JJ (just kidding)

Was anyone on narcotics? Did anyone go bezerk?

Uhm... isn't 160m 'below' 3800kc?

(duckin'!)

;-)

Correction: They all ARE. No going involved.  :D

Got me Jeff. ;)

Yes Joe, Steve is correct.
Going crazy here is a 1 tank trip !! ;D

Buddly,
         Then it sounds like a good time was had by all! I need to upgrade my ticket "lickety-split". I've been studying and taking practice tests so I can run some of my more pissweak oldbuzzardly gear on 80M, and actually be heard by someone.

As Frank, KB3AHE says: "Running a Pissweak transmitter on the 75M AM window during prime time, is like taking a Bowie knife to a gunfight" - Truer words haven't been spoken!

"Dont say nothin, just do it!!"