The AM Forum

I finally got all the bugs out of my 20 meter system both transmit and receive and am now about to abandon 40 for 20.

In spite of the obvious improvement of 40 by the vacating of the lower end by commercial BCST'ers, the unintended consequences have made that part of the band so crowded that it is no longer fun.

20 meters on the other hand, is 200 kc of wide open phone land with QSO's scattered over the whole band with lots of empty space.  Sure, they are almost all slop buckets but believe it or not, some of them are really interesting people and many switch to AM without even being asked.

I don't know about late night/early morning but 20 has been active all day and as late as I am willing to stay up.

One really neat thing about 20 is that my Flex display for my SoftRock says "20 Meter Calling Frequency" when I tune to 14.286.  It's official.... we own it and it is fun to tell people this factoid.

So, for the Summer season, when the Noon Time Forum is over, I will be retooling for 14.286 or the nearest clear channel for the rest of the day/nite.


js

14.286 has been the published AM calling frequency on band plans for many years. It's even on the IARU Region 2 band plan. Of course, no one owns a frequency; a "calling frequency" is no exception.

See band plans here:
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/bandplan.html

And here:
http://www.amwindow.org/freq.htm

Interestingly, I have been venturing over the last week on 14.286 and have bagged some really nice QSO's.  Wisconsin, Oregon and California into Louisiana AM is pretty sweet!  All of this was around 10:00 pm local time.  I had to contend with some SSB QRM that suddenly appeared after what was a clear frequency but it wasn't too bad. 

It was very fun putting the DX-60 on 20 meters and stirring up some activity.  One fella fired up his Hallicrafters in delight when he heard me calling CQ.  Fun stuff. 

I had a fun contact on 20M about a week ago.
I called CQ on 14.280 AM. (on the ricebox)   Heard a station on ssb that came back, switched over to USB for convenience.   It was a commercial passenger airliner at 39,000ft.  a KB1CVP - Mike.
Had a nice short chat, he was over the Carolina's and going to the Carribean in an Airbus 318.
Ya' never know who is gonna answer your CQ on 20...

Jim

See my comments here (http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=20098.0).

I have been loading the Globe Champion up on 286 during the day from time to time.  I made alot of contacts in the couple of hours I was on the other day. Most where SSBers wondering why I sounded like I did. Most would come on and try to instruct me how to repair or operate my radio.. But after explaining I was on AM most switched over and we had a nice chat.  This led to guys realizing they had AM rigs and could run 20.. So 30 minutes later I had 4 or 5 guys come in and talk on boat anchors to me..  I logged over 20 contacts in the few hours.

Lots of fun.. I will try again tomorrow after hour mid day 7293 group.

Clark

Fired up on 14.286 at 1700Z and had 4 FB AM QSO's before the cocktail hour.

KW7Y    PAUL IN WA
K4EAY   CARL IN AL
K7MXE   BOB IN WA
WD5JKO  JIM IN TX

Only one had to switch to bucket mode to maintain contact.

When 40 is jammed move up to 20.  Better yet, start on 20.

Be back at 0300Z

js