The AM Forum

Caught Don, K4KYV calling CQ tonight just before 10 PM ET with a nice signal. Gave him a call and a nice group ensued.

K4KYV, Don, Woodlawn,TN:  59+30
W9JUG, Jim, Tilton, IL:  59+20
WB4CAB, Ted, Marietta, GA:  59+10
WA9UEUW, Barn, Dixon, IL:  59
KC3OL, Ted, Nr Kansas City:  59+10

Hear Don strapping in!

I'm hearing Don, K4KYC.  Also, isn't Steve, WA1QIX also in the group?  I thought I heard his call.  Now if I could only get you guys to hear me...........

Ellen - AF9J

E,
go up to .166 and give me a call


klc

Here's Ted, KC3OL.

Here's Jim, W9JUG.

Give me a cople of minutes.  I just read your post like 30 seconds ago.

Ellen - AF9J

No such luck.  There was a group of SSBers on 7167, so I went down to 7155 and called CQ for a while.  No responses to my CQ were heard.  I'm calling it a night.  5 AM comes early.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

Yup !  I was definitely part of the QSO.  I hear the 9 land stations very well at my QTH.  I usually try to get on 40 in the later afternoons and sometimes in the evenings after 10:00.  Very little time in between, however.

I called CQ yesterday afternoon about 4 times - nothing, so I gave up !

Regards,

Steve

There was another nice group again last night.

K4KYV
K7YOO
W0VMC - the channel master at almost 40-over-9!
KC3OL

and maybe a few others I've forgotten. The magic hours seems to be 10-12PM ET.

I had about an S9 noise level yesterday on 7160 from the time I turned the radio on at 6 PM CDT, till the time I called it quits at 10 PM CDT.  I wonder if it's that jammer in Ethiopia Don's been mentioning.

No. The jammer doesn't show up until about midnight ET.

Hmmm, now I am perplexed!  75 was actually quieter than 40.

Depends on propagation.  I have heard 75 or 40 unbearably noisy with QRN, while 160 was quiet as a mouse.  40 may be obliterated by a storm system 3000 miles away. 

VERY true.  I didn't consider that. 

I just got done calling CQ for 10 minutes straight on 7160.  No takers.  I tuned the band too, and didn't hear a peep between 7160 and 7300!  I hope this is just a short propogation lull before nightfall.

Ellen - AF9J

Hmmmm... I've been listening to a couple of STRONG (S9 + 30db) LSB signals on 7.158 and then on 7.160 over the last 3 or 4 hours.  A strong broadcast station is up on 7.285 wiping out 7.290 for all but the best receivers. 

I think the band IS open and it should be a good night if we can find an open frequency.  Whether 7.160 will be available to us remains to be seen.

This is near the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana and it is now less than an hour to sunset.

If we get a group going later, I'll certainly post and wait for you to respond Ellen, then maybe someone (me?) will have the group pause to listen for you if we know you are trying to come aboard.

There are a lot of static crashes from storms in Texas though.. we'll see.....

Thanks John.  :)   I just checked 7160 a couple of minutes go, and I didn't hear anything, but I did hear a couple of strong SSB signals on 7153, and 7165.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

And so it begins... had a brief QSO with W9JUG in Illinois on 7.160 a minute ago.  My noise floor is S9 with higher crashes  >:( ... making it a difficult night for me.  Ellen you might be able to jump in and do better than me if your noise is down.   Jim W9JUG is working someone else now but I can't copy the other station very well.. very bassy audio isn't good in the static... but Jim is working with a DX-100 and has good penetrating audio.

Good luck, I'll monitor for a while.

I am on 7160 with the "not so scratchy apache" and hear nothing but some slop...


Tom - AB3FL

W3JN just joined.

I'll try guys, but I have a ton of noise.  I do hear a QSO in progress, but the voices I've heard, are just about at my noise floor.  If it doesn't work, I'm going to call it a night.  Thanks for the info John.

Ellen - AF9J

I hear some people now.....8s and 9s

Ashtabula Bill and the Timtron have joined.

Hi Ellen,
Got the 40 meter e-rig fired up and a nice group on...Hearing Ashtabula Bill and Tim WA1HLR, Rick W3RSW and others.

Brent W1IA

Now we have Don K4KYV and Robert W0VMC joining in.

       I can hear most everyone on right now quite a crowd. Brent is hardest to hear, Timmy second. Bill straps. Band is long. No one copied me, can't compete with the long skip and hi power and noise....maybe try later........Larry

Calling CQ 7.155 Mhz (jamming on 7.160) worked w7ijn nice signal!

Jamming stopped ( 5:00 utc) moved to 7.160

Hmmmmm, it sounds like condx. were better after 10:30 PM my time.  But, it looks like the T-storms that we're supposed to have today, were giving me high noise last night.

Ellen - AF9J

Long distance propagation was not so good last night.  The BC carriers on 7165/75 and R. Ethiopia on 7110 all had a lot of QSB and were weaker than usual.  But the jamming signal was still strong enough to wipe out a 15 kHz swath of band, centred round 7165, and was about the strongest thing on the band.

The jammer didn't QSY off 7175 to 7165 until almost 0404 last night.  Usually he QSY's just as soon as the BC station moves to '65, within a minute or two of the top of the hour.

I can't understand why they play that QSY game every night, when they both QSY in exactly the same sequence night after night, so each one knows exactly where the other is going and the jammer ends up on top of the BC station in any case.

They don't shut down at 0500; it's 8 AM in East Africa and they fade out because propagation has gone into daytime mode.  Back in late March they were audible until almost 0700 before they faded.

I wish they would carry their operation to somewhere in 7100-7125, since that is wasted space (http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=19539.0) here in the U.S. anyway.