The AM Forum

Good conditions last night on 3880 last night. Several West Coast stations were contacted, including KA7WOC, K6KBE and KE7TRP.

A little later Jaakko, OH1TX from Finland checked with a big 10-15 over-9 signal.  He transmitted on 3770 kHz and listened for USA stations on 3880 kHz. Several stations worked Jaakko, including those in the sound files below - W4BVT, WD8BIL and KC2UFU.

Great fun!

As Kerri said, "That's really cool!"

Over time more of us will get set up for split and listen for when the Euros appear. I think it was getting close to Jaakko's Finland sunrise for these contacts.

Jaakko had a sound like he was very far away, but still easy copy. Classics.

Good catch, Steve.

T

Cool.. YOu guys sounded good here.. Sorry I could not hang out. I had company over and we where working on the station.  Then, Later on I came back in and had a horrible high static level right around 3880 to 3890. 

I am tuned up now if you guys are going to be on! 

C

Here's how I was hearing you around midnight ET. Good signal.

Sweet.  Never heard the T368 before.  Getting lots of compliments though.  Wish I had a little more high end out of this box. Need an EQ!

C

Everyone is really 7 by 9 plus-plus !

Thanks for clips Steve. Everyone sounded real good. What a blast!

Clark, did you take the excess bypassing capacity out of the tank? thats where your highs are going.


http://www.w1ujr.net/wa1hl_mods.htm

if you didnt do this, you can eq all you want but nothings gonna get through.

Naw.. Not needed.  I put the Audio gen into the Transmitter. Its with in 2 DB from 80 to 7K.  It does not fall off hard until 10K.  Your not hearing 10K

C

Sorry I couldn't work Kerri.  She was in there, but just not enough above my noise level.  All the other 'usual suspects' were quite strong here on Whidbey Island. 
bob

bob,

went and looked up yer QTH, seems like a pretty cool joint.

If you have not already, nose around cormac's site  w7jhs.com  I appear in some of the shack photos.  Yes I operate out of a true shack.  Hope to work you some time.

Thanks for including me in the fun Tom.  I will eventually get the hang of Dxing.   Then look out 20 and 40 meters!  I until then I will have a plethora of 7x9 reports to give!

Kerri... You were 6x8 into Kansas City ;D ;D ;D

6x8?  What does that even mean?  lol

John...You had to be listening friday night :o Kerri was whirl wide!!! so was all the other stations on the air.  
          

 By the way... Can't wait to hear the Henry on the air  ;)

Always glad to help, Kerri.

You're making fast progress now.  Get that rig set up for 3795 ssb or 7150 ssb and join Steve / HUZ and me in the DX window for a few evenings. Can you operate there with your license? We hold court down there and have the Europeans calling in for quick chats.  We'll give you a fast course in ruling the pileups with an iron fist... ;D 

Let's do it soon before the spring static starts and you'll be a pro in no time. We'll teach you the tricks of pulling out the weak ones and you will hone your listening skills at the same time. It's really an acquired art, having good ears. You'll be a sensation down there.  Afterwards, handling west coast AM or Europe AM will be easy for you in comparison.

T

Ewww !!

Don't make her !
She's too nice for that.


You're right, John, absolutely.
And you will be fortunate when you meet up with Kerri on the air.

We instantly hit it off as part of the delegation to W2A, an AM Expedition to the Maj. Armstrong Tower Site in Alpine, NJ.

Here she is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuueqTl0fDo

Hey Mike, nahhhh this is a work weekend for me so I missed all the night action.  I only get post sun-up and pre sun-down of radio time on my work days (nights) since I work 7pm to 7am.  I require 8 hours of sleep so 8:30am to 4:30pm IF I'M LUCKY!  I'm rarely that lucky though.

I am using the DX-60 --> Henry for about 175 to 300 watts (depending on the mood of all the stuff and how she loads up) of carrier out.  Sometimes my voice peaks are hitting 1000w+ PEP so the Henry is definitely an upgrade from the SB-200.  For grins I checked the TS-570 at 25 watts of carrier and the Henry gives back 350!! ~ 3200v @ 110 ma.  The hum is tame enough to use but I'm a perfectionist!  I ordered a bifilar wound filament choke and I will replace the stock torroid one and that might just do the trick!  I'm off tonight! WHOOHOO!!! I'll be excersizing my rights and privelages on 80/75 meters no doubt.  

Kerri sounds great on the air from the HUZzes airchecks!  I've yet to HEAR a live YL on AM.  YL's sound so weird on sideband due to their higher voice frequencies... ya gotta detune a bit and that still never reproduces them correctly.  But on AM of course they sound correct and that is one experience I have to look forward too.  


P.S.  I still don't know what 6x8 means!  ::)
73 John

John -- Kerri has pioneered a new quantitative signal report system, designed as a fresh assessment of reception. The Q numbers go beyond 5.

Like these two guys would both be 7 by 9 or greater in the UFU Reporting System (UFURS)

"Your UFUR is 7 by 9 old man, over over!"

Listening on 75 last night I heard kc2ufu fb here on Whidbey Island (between bouts of ssb).  Not the conditions of the previous friday.  carry on.

I read an article in a mid 30's ham radio magazine claiming that the present RST 599 system kept the 5 for readability and 9 for the rest because, when the RST system was first being proposed, ARRL didn't want the possibility of reports to contain "R9".  The reason for the objection was that they reportedly feared "perfect readability" would become associated with a competing publication, R/9 magazine.

The previous system used Q for readability, and R for signal strength. You still hear the expression "Q5" used for perfect readability to-day.

I think this comes from the Q signals QRK (readability) and QSA (signal strength).