The AM Forum

75 meters starts to fold up at about 5 to 6 PM here at my QTH. Today there was a big group in the "window". Most all folks acknowledged that they knew the band would go long.....but a few stations rambled on for at least 10 minutes before they stopped. By the time they stopped transmitting the band folded up.
PLEASE folks get u head together and limit u transmitter time...........IS THIS SO HARD?

Bill 

For some it is Bill.

Very true. With the way the band changes, it only takes a minute for someone to just disappear, and no one will hear them anyway. Save the old buzzard trnsmissions for when the band is in great shape and you can be heard.
Shelby KB3OUK

What amazes me is that they have nothing to say..........they just go on and on and on.........

And even when the band is in good shape you shouldn't ramble on that long if it is a big group and if you want to keep those in the group's attention. (edited it I put should instead of shouldn't)

exactly...........

Next time move down a little lower and start a new QSO. There were 2 people having a nice QSO there until the hola holas zero beated. Those guys needed a little help from their friends.

I can move down but the folks I want to talk to are on the freq. in question. The band will still fold up when I move down.

Your friends were going to fade out anyway. When the band goes long you can make some new friends in Idaho.

True.......but at least I can talk to my friends before the the band folds.
Tough crowd......... :P

There's always 160.

I always call my friends on the phone. No need to worry about propagation or QRM.

Bill,
That was me and KA1CU on 3873.  I was listening to you guys (QIX, Stu and VTP) on 3880 but the group got too big too fast for my tastes, so I started another qso a little lower.  Checked out around 5;30pm....I don't care much for huge roundtables, reminds me of a rush hour traffic jam....(like the Northway at 5pm)   ;)

By the way Happy Thanksgiving... ;D

This a shot at anyone

What I find interesting is some of the longest AM buzzard transmissions are from 75 mtr stations that espoused break in and cursed "buzzards" in the 60s.
I guess we all change with time ;D
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_i26St2FrDPw/STf3bZZ-T7I/AAAAAAAAACY/i07Kzw0HV1w/S220/buzzard1.jpg)

Has anyone ever heard what they would call the longest old buzzard transmission ever? The average seems to be ten minutes. I remember hearing the Tron around 7300 in the afternoon about 2 years ago and i timed him, it took him 10 minutes to get his point across.

Too bad you never heard W5PYT.  He was the king.

I remember a few years back a guy would get on 40 meters and go at it for 45 minutes straight without coming up for air. I forgot his call but I don't know how he did it ??? ??? One time when he was done I went PHEW! He said thank you ;D ;D

I can imagine his transmitter felt the same way.

These guys go on to become broadcast talk radio hosts.  In Chicago the buzzard kings can be heard on 890 KHz.

Oh yeah, I second this--I'm spending most of my operating time on 1880 and 1885 where I set up my feedpoint tuner and worked Bill KD0HG tonight and he strapped almost as well as Don KYV.

10 minutes ?
I know several people, tron included that have to give their callsigns at least 2 if not 3 times during one transmission.

And Bill , IFR  , if  they are your friends... I'm sure you can tell them next time you talk with them.
Seems a rather pointless thing to complain about on here.


That's MY opinion on that.
 :)

Bob
BTW- Nice sig into CT tonight on 1.885 at 04:45 UTC talking about visiting no  ham relatives for Thanksgiving. Steady S8 on the SDR-IQ with an75 mtr G5RV

I think he went to SSB and moved to 7250 more or less.  Gotta be the same one.

Hey Carl THANX good to know I'm putting any kind of sig. into CT on 160 with my 200 w.!  in ur direction the inv. L has ground clutter--aluminum sided garage and house in the way and worse, ground rising up out of the river valley, so most of the 50 ft. vertical part of the L is looking into the bank of the fox river valley (I'm about 100 feet from the east bank of the river).  I've toyed with the idea of strapping the aluminum siding into the radial ground system.  Got to download and save that plot.

73 & Happy Tgvg

Rob
K5UJ

   Yes Bob was king. I once tuned him in while doing car work in the garage. This was about 1984, in Texas (yes I know, the NE folks are already yawning). Bob was all fired up and on 3880. I had a engine problem where the car would backfire. I checked my plugs one at a time (V8), then set the timing, test drive. Bob was still talking. Then I changed the carburetor from  carter AVS 4 barrel to a Carter AFB. Had to deal with linkage and choke issues. Bob was still talking. Another test drive, come back. Bob was still talking. I put my tools away. Bob was still talking. I'm getting ready to go in the house, and Bob turns it over to whoever was next, and there was dead air. Nobody was there. Bob must have been going for about 3-4 hours!!

   Another Ham that aggravated BOB was Rick K8MLV. Rick is in the video about W8VYZ on www.amforever.com.
Rick (SK) was famous for PW signals on 7160, and extremely long and uninteresting transmissions. There would be 3-4 big guns standing by in a roundtable with BC-610's..Who would key up every few minutes to fight off invading SSB QRM. Rick would ramble on, signal barely copyable. Bob, W5PYT, would break in and say, "The weaker they are the longer they talk".

I miss hearing BOB.. Brian has a good post of Bob on his website with a audio link to Bob on 20m:

http://www.amforever.com/

Jim
WD5JKO

 

Hi Bill,

That was a good QSO - then the band died.  Oh well, I suppose we could have moved it to 160 meters!

Maybe next time - now that this will become a pattern.

C.U. on 75 today (Turkey Day).

Regards,

Steve

Watt everyone should do is run two independent stations, one on 160 and another on 75 making sure that the exact people who you are talking with are on both bands. Soon as the band goes long you would have a seamless entry onto 160.

Problem solved  ;D ;D ;D

No need for payment, I like thinking up goofy ideas like this :D :D :D

Someone strapped DON???????? Buzzardry is usally reserved for the folks running 25 watts of carrier.
And there should be time out timers on everyone's TX........HA!
80M is taking on the characteristics of 20??? Cant' chat too long there.

Fred

No, stay on both bands, simul-transmission and reception.  It's called diversity  ;D ;D

Fred, read it again--note "almost" in there  :D

OK Rob, you got me on a technicality. I heard you in there too. Not as strapping but workable if it wasn't so busy that night.

FRED KC4MOP

FRED KC4MOP

[/quote]

Did I do that?  Blew your cover?

The upside is that now I can sleep at night knowing who you are.

Thanks Fred

js

Fred, today I added about 400 pF load cap to the amp tank that gets switched in on 160 so I can squeeze a bit more goo out of the rig to make up for antenna and tuner loss.   Before it wasn't adequately loading on 160 and I was limited to about 200 w.  Now running about 250.  A few watts here...a few watts there....and pretty soon ur running some power.

I was on 160 AM last night for the first time this year. I started out with the Viking I talking with Bill, K1BF. Don K4KYV started calling CQ on top of us because he couldn't hear Bill (who was only running 20 watts from Maine). Bill put a couple of 812's on the 'fire' and I lit off the HN-500. Don I guess didn't want to join us and moved up band. Bill KC2IFR came in and was quite strapping. Unfortunately, I had to disengaged to 'husbandly duties' when the XYL came home, (see what you are in for Tim! ;>)

Mikey i'm looking 4wrd to wrking u on 160

rob

Good conditions on TNXgiving night with W2JBL, K1KBW and W1AEX. This was my first contacts on 160 in over 6 months.

Man......I cant believe all the posts......the point I was TRYING to make had nothing to do with old buzzard transmissions buy themselves.......my point was if the person making the old buzzed knows the band is about to fold........keep it short!


Thanks all and Happy Turkey Day.

Bill  

Ok, now I don't feel so bad as I am not the only one that feels this way. That is the reason I haven't been on the air for the better part of a year.

Dont get off, just be more selective.
I wont often jump into a large group with old buzzards talking about everything they did that day (nothing of any intrest) or people who MUST spend 10 minutes saying something that could have been said in 1....but then I might be guilty of that......never mind....

90% of my time is spent listening, the other 10% seems to be some really good, fun, informative qso's.

I find it more interesting asking the other people/person questions about almost anything, their town, their job, their crazy radio lash up...

I doubt they would be very interested to hear me go on for 10 minutes about my household chores or why one cup of coffee was good, but the 2nd was not so good, etc....

And you have to remember, its only ham radio, and that there are some very old buzzards around...

Brett

Break-in type QSO's with more then 3 stations work for me. I also noticed that some amateurs have difficultly actually signing off. It takes, at times, many minutes to actually sign off, after they announce they're signing off. Probably contesting and chasing DX is becoming more popular because you don't have to deal with "old buzzard" and rambling type transmissions.

I once built a 3 minute timer that automatically reset when I keyed up and then cut the PTT line after it timed out. Today, maybe even 3 minutes is too long. It worked and I learned to keep my transmissions much shorter after that. Gawd, I could be  a boring bastard at times 20 years ago from the self-recorded tapes I heard of myself.

Pete, you probably remember an article in QST - I think it was in the late 60's or early 70's. It talked of a survey done by a ham who listened to the content of any QSO he came across on the bands. He found that hams spent a high percentage of their QSO just saying hello and goodbye. I think the percentage was in the mid 70% area.

Of course this would vary depending on if he monitored established groups, CQer's  or contesters, but it was a startling discovery to me.

So, Pete, nice to meet you and hope to catch ya down the log and I'll be looking for you on the bands forever now that I've met you, and... ;D

T

hi Tom, you have a more updated pic of Yaz? that would
be cool to see him now. we lost our pooch a cpl yrs ago.
I usually stay out of old buzzard qsos...

The weaker they are............................The longer they talk...................So very true

How true....how true......

But also if u guys could have heard this qso.......the offending station had nothing to say that was relevant.

Bill

Hi Dino,

So sorry to hear about your buddy there. Maybe it's time to get another?


Well, here's a coupla pics of Yaz III. I got my first Yaz when I was 21 years old and have had one ever since. I just love these guys.


I know you like to kayak. Here's Yaz's "Excellent Sailing Adventure."  You'll get a kick outa this:
http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=21375.0


Maybe catch ya on the air soon.  I plan on some serious activity soon. Been working too hard lately.

T

Here's Yaz's "Excellent Sailing Adventure."  


[/quote] I like the doggie pics; there is no better buddy to "do stuff" with. I always took my dogs in the canoe & just like in your 3rd picture they would periodically look back to make sure I was still there on the back seat. Who did they think was paddling the canoe if I wasn't there???????????? Dogs are like your own personal clowns; they always find a way to make you laugh & then they repeat it over & over & over. Cute in dogs but not in people.

Don't remember the article but I would bet it made some interesting reading. I don't think that generally most contest operators and DX hunters have much problem making the contact, exchanging prevalent information, and then quickly moving on to the next contact. They're on a mission and have goals to achieve. One on one contacts, with reasonably short transmissions work for me and larger groups that operate break-in style are also fine. Groups that use a rotation method generally are the most boring, since many transmissions sometimes tend to become directed to only one or more participants, causing the rest to maybe become bored and disinterested. Then there are those, when its their turn, repeat everything that everyone said in the prior transmissions without ever adding to the conversation. Then there are those who only embrace the "ramble" or "PYT" style of transmission which, if it could be marketed, would be an excellent remedy for insomniacs.

heheheh  - I never thought of that -  maybe they look back at us as a habit taken from the trail walks.  Yaz looks back about every 18-21 steps he makes to be sure I'm still following. He was trained early on that I could sometimes disappear behind a tree.  I made him panic a few times so he wud stick with me... at least within sight all the time.

Another thing that surprises people - did you ever wonder why they like to be the leader on a trail? Nose/sniffing dogs like Yaz, want a non-contaminated trail to sniff. If I get ahead of him, he will quickly run past me, then slow down to sniff as he walks.... ;D

I feel bad I can't take him sailing in the winter. Last year the random thin ice formed last Dec 1st and was our last sail.  I almost got trapped out there when a breeze suddenly froze the surface. I couldn't believe how hard it was to move using a paddle.

Yaz always moves from the back to front of the boat for different views - with my permission first. Once in a while he'll fall off and I'll have to turn around to rescue him. He walks on the thin gunwales... funny stuf.

Bet you enjoyed your canoeing with your buddy too.

T

Wet dogs are having the most fun.

I learn something every day!