The AM Forum

Although we haven't reached the equinox, the signs of Springs arrival are everywhere here in south Louisiana.  The clovers in the yard have exploded over the last 5 days.  The birds flocking and landing in the few trees I have and raising quite a din with chirping, the crispness of the air giving way to a warmer more pleasant temperature.

I'll be monitoring 7.290 AM most of this day. 

I am on 7293 now.  I run this most of the day when I am in the home office and not traveling.

C

Anyone game for 7160?

I may give 7.160 a looksee.

   I have been meaning to write about what happened to the 40 meter interest
we had a while back.  The 3880 + & - stuff did not work well here.  Will monitor
7.160 in the evenings. The Valiant II likes it there.

                                     Ed WA4NJY
                                     Bradenton, Fl

You'll need to take a pro-active posture on 7.160.  If you simply "monitor" you will surely hear a LOT of ssb.  When the frequency is open, you SHOULD call CQ AM.  We really need to jump into the 40 meter spectrum at night or it QUICKLY is FILLED with SSB, both domestic and DX.

I did have a nice QSO with a few stations there this afternoon and within 5 minutes of an hour long AM QSO, the ssb'ers invaded.  Strangely, not a lot of frequencies up or down were being used but they sure took over 7.160.

I worked 9 stations on 40 AM today.  I called CQ alot.  The band was short but if you keep calling, you will get QSos

C

For some reason, slopbucketeers tend flock to frequencies wherever there are AM signals, like flies to a pile of dog crap.  This is true even when the band is lightly occupied. And then, they proceed to gripe and whine about heterodynes from the carrier and splatter from the sidebands even though the band may be clear for 15 kHz or more on either side of the AM signal.

Strap softly and turn up the wick.

Yes.  I think I have a theory. 

Ever pulled into a large parking lot such as a home depot.  You park way out back in an empty lot for two reasons. One, You dont want some A hole to bang his door into your car, and two, you could use the exercise. 

When you come out, You find that other drivers have flanked BOTH sides of your car and in front of you with NO other cars for 10 spaces each way.

Its the same with Am and SSB.. We can sit there on 7293 with NOBODY on the that section of the band, We start talking and bingo.. There are SSBers right on 90! then some on 95! 


C

Plus, usually way in the background, there is the tuner-upper who keeps dumping a carrier about 500 Hz away from the AM carriers throughout the entire QSO, but never ID's or attempts to join in.  This is even more prevalent on 75 than on 40.

Thats upset Slopbucket operators.  We have them on 40 am that will run carriers just off Freq for and hour. On this old gear, Its hard to get rid of them and they dont have a notch filter.

C

For a group of guys whos average age is well over 50 they sure act like a bunch of kids!

I wish 7.290 was monitored more often pre-dawn.  The BC stations are no longer heard a few hours before sun up and I am being heard VERY WELL on distant Global Tuners..... But alas, no one around to play radio with.

I dont have a life..  :)  What time?   You think you can reach to AZ?

C

Hey Clark,

I'll be off of work overnight Monday night/Tuesday Morning.  When 7.290 clears up it's usually after 3 am here, making it 1 am there..... dunno if that's a reasonable time for you.  8)

I could stay up late one night! 

C

I'll post back here on Monday night and we'll take it from there Clark.

Off work tonight,  Found 7.270 mhz free from BC's at the moment.   Calling some CQ's in AM mode.

John

Nice QSO with Kevin, WB2EMS... although pretty rough copy, it seems to be building...

Flex SDR1000 --> TenTec Titan sounds nice.

BC Station growing louder, moving down to 7.276.5 and monitoring with occasional CQ's.

Thanks for the 40 meter AM qso John. Your station sounded good, getting through the east coast BC interference pretty well with some judicious use of the flex filtering. I was glad to be able to test out my new 40 meter dipole, and to get a chance to respond in real time to one of the posts on here of an operating opportunity. Mostly I see them the next day!  ;D

Did you snag that W7 mobile? I heard you call him a couple of times.

73

It was fun Kevin!  No he was strong when he first called for me then just disappeared.  Might have been on SSB and when he heard me say AM abandoned the QSO.  They do that sometimes.  I don't think they realize I can copy SSB and they can copy AM.  I don't mind cross mode QSO's although I still prefer AM to AM.  ;D

Too bad, working mobiles is fun. I always appreciate it when I'm mobile when someone takes the trouble to listen for me through all the noise and stuff. 40 can be a good band for mobile operations, I've had a lot of fun on 40 mobile, AM and other modesf.

Mixed mode QSO's are fine. I used to do mixed cw and ssb on vhf all the time when voice wasn't quite cutting it. I prefer AM, but I'm not religious about it - if someone wants to talk to me I'm willing to meet them halfway.

Indeed, I like working mobiles too.  Well looks like 7.285 is a good frequency this hour. 

7.290 is no longer busy, working WA2ONK, Chuck with a class E.  Some QSB but he sounds great!

Monitoring and calling cq on 7.242  able to use 15khz wide filter and the noise is finally down.  12:30 am central time.

Tuning up GK500 on 7293 right now.

C

Missed you Clark.  I did have a nice run of contacts on 40 meters overnight last night.  Quite a bit of fun really! 

Maybe tonight?   Just let me know..  Email me when you are on. I check my email all the time here in the shack

Clark at clarkturner dot com

Last night was my night off.    I'm at work and will rinse and repeat two more times until Friday morning.   The weekend however!  We'll try then Clark.

I put out a CQ on 7160 about 1700Z.  Had a station in eastern KY come back.  He said it was his first time on AM.  Using one of the FT-101 series.  We talked for about 20 min.  When we signed, I  didn't hear anyone else calling, so called it quits.  No SSB QRM the whole time.  No AM on 7290/95.

Yesterday around 5pm local, I had a nice QSO with K9KK on 7.295 AM.  I had worked him a couple months ago on his ricebox and alpha amp.  That was the first time he worked AM since the 1950's.  It really piqued his interest and yesterday he was on a DX-60 driving the Alpha.  Very nice audio and strong signal.  Something happened momentarily to the Henry, it wasn't keying... it was in the T/R switch... So I worked him with 12 watts carrier and he surprisingly said I was armchair at 20db over 9.   8)

Today just before 5 pm I called CQ again and got a response from Jim in New Mexico, I can't quite recall his callsign as I'm at work, I think it ended in IAN.  He was on 7.293 AM and we had a nice brief QSO.  Some sideband QRM started up a couple kc's up from us.  After I concluded the QSO, I went listen and it was on 7.296 LSB, it was a net.  The guy was talking about how he moved to 7.296 instead of 7.295 because the "AMer's carrier was tearing everything up".   I don't get why SSB nets fire up in known AM territory.... they must be gluttons for punishment.  The fact is that THEY QRM'ed MY existing QSO.  ......*sigh*.... the Henry was working well so 200 watts carrier was getting through.

It's hit and miss on 40 meters but I do tend to get some AMers come back to me especially up near 7.300.  I'll be calling and more often and stirring up some activity.

73

That was Jim, K3IAN. Real nice guy. We talk on 93 daily around 11 to 12.

C

40m AM activity should pick up as the QRN level increases making 160 and 75 less pleasant to operate.  Later in the evening the slopbucket subsides below 7200 but I hear a few scattered loud signals from N. America. I have already explored 40 a few times because it was too noisy on the lower frequency bands.

But if everyone just listens and no-one transmits the band will sound dead. I still run my automatic CQ caller.

I am calling CQ on 7.290 to 7.295 AM over and over at the present time.

I'll soon have to leave bbl to continue calling.

John

Okay, nice qso with KC5RGH for a few minutes on 7.292.... QRM getting a little heavy, time to run errands anyway.... I'll be back on after dark, we'll see how things go on 7.29X and 7.160 ish.

73

I'll give you a call if I can get the VF-1 interfaced with the Bandmaster and running nicely this evening. That is, if you can hear my PW 20 watt signal.

73, Phil

My station is down.  My T368 is oscilating on 75 all of the sudden. I need to rip it apart.  The GK 500 lost the blower motor..  I am going to work this evening and get at least one of these damn Transmitters up and running.. Or I will pull the 500 out service and put the Globe 300 Champion inline. 

C

As usually the case on the weekend, there is a freaking CORNTEST and every nook and cranny of 40 meter phone is filled useless contestants on slopbucket.

Hello.
For Europe 7290 is not free/clean.
Mostly better around 7360 but....
Like now.... many ssb: Contest :'(

Greetings,

PE1MPH

Hello Henk, I just a very nice QSO with n0bd, Dave on a homebrew 813 based tx.  This was on 7.290 despite the contest.  But alas a broadcast station was slowly building underneath us, it being midnight here local time.  Also, the contest participants would fire up without any regard right on us with their "CQ Contest, You're 59..." heh!

So you guys can actually work up above 7.300Mhz?  Our 40 meter phone is from 7.125 to 7.300 here.

NO! :'(
Only to 7200, not higher in freq.
But I have never heard an USA AM station on 7290 khz.
On +/- 7360 I heard a few.... (in AM!)

I had already some qso's with 9H1ES on +/- 7160.
Qso's were in the late evening and early morning.

Good dx,

PE1MPH :)

7360  ?? I'm pretty sure that's out of the 40 meter band for all amateurs everywhere.... that's smack in the 41 meter BC band.

That's what was confusing me.

Monitoring 7.295 AM... clear and free at the moment.  Contestants have moved off.

Europe tried to call you three times. You where rag chewing with a W2.   Sorry I could not key up. Transmitters are still down here.

C

Hey Clark , wow, well yeah I'm talking to Chuck, WA2ONK in NJ.  I hear no Europe at all but that's quite interesting! Are you copying me from  your QTH or only the calling stations?  I understand your tx side is down for now on 40 :*(.

John

what's curious is that the guy complained about the carrier on 7295 and seemed to think the solution was to move 1 KHz up and operate LSB.   ::)

So typical eh?  Last night they were just blasting right on top of our qso, zero beating us.  *sigh*

I could not hear you at all.  I could hear the other station clear in AZ. I think it was a W2 something. I heard the guy in europe calling with a heavy accent.  I was listening on a crapy Icom 756 pro rice box. 

Going to work more on the station tomorrow. With some luck, I will get things fixed.

C

I was planning to fire up Saturday afternoon on 7160, but my automatic CQ'er would not work.  I pulled out the control unit and found a bad solder connection that was making flaky contact,  repaired it, put the unit back in the rack, but by then the whole band was crammed full of QuaRMfesters, several stations deep on every frequency below 7200.  Couldn't find any usable broadcast-free spots above 7200. I gave a listen on 75 and 160, but the static crashes were pinning the meter on both bands, so instead, I worked on a bench project for a while and then called it an early night.

Lighting the filaments now.

Should be up by 11:30EDT.

QRZ ?   QTF, over ?

Darn sorry to have missed you Paul.  Don, K4KYV and I are carrying on presently on 7.160

I wake up late... :)

I am up on 7293.  Stop by. Dont want to retune this rig.

C

for some reason the DT-101 has decided to crAP oUt on 40 meters, I think the crystal went poof, no rx and no tx, all other bands ok.

I'm thinking it might be time for a new rig to pair up with Uncle Ray.

I did stop by and I could hear some weak carriers on 7.293... threw my call out but got no responses... went up a couple kc's and snagged a couple qso's there.

I was talking to K3IAN.  40 over. Band was short. 

C

Here is a strategy worth trying, when there is a QuaRMfest on.  Most QuaRMfests end promptly at 2400 GMT Sunday evening. Just as soon as the Q-test activity shuts down, there is usually a short lull in activity until the non-QuaRMfesters get fired up or the QuaRMfesters take a breather from operating, leaving many open frequencies to choose from. I was still tuned up on 7160 from earlier this afternoon, so promptly at 0000Z I started the automated CQ and snagged an AM station in SC first try. After we ended our QSO another AM station, in Utica, NY, called, and we carried on for a few more minutes.  The frequency was still vacant as I left the shack to take my own break from radio.

I love my little drill press!  Half price from Harbor Freight, they honored an expired coupon from the back of an old Flying magazine.  The supervisor was cool about it.

Yeah Don I heard you in there this evening while working on my coil project,  calling CQ a few minutes after you left.  In fact still monitoring and calling from time to time.  Not sure if this contest is over yet but I like your idea about operating right after it ends.... makes sense that the slopbucketeers might be pooped out.  8)

John

40 seems long this evening - just checked ReverseBeacon.net to see who spotted my CW CQs from the mobile on the way home tonight  - shocked to see a spot by a VK in Perth, Western Australia!  He is spotting quite a few east coast stations around now.

I didn't try 40 Monday evening/Tuesday morning. About 0315Z I ran the automated CQ on 3705 and had a station in Green Bay come back.  He was a broadcast engineer and knows Steve, N9FOY whom I used to talk to on 160 all the time, but this was the first time he had tried his ham rig on AM.  After that, Jean, F6AQK  called me and we talked for about a half hour.

It was early for Jean; I usually don't hear him till about 0500Z, but the sun is rising earlier in Europe and sure enough, by 0430 or so rapid QSB was setting in and his signal was dropping in strength, so we called it quits while we were still ahead.

Jean tells me that France still doesn't have access to 7100-7200 kHz.  Some bureaucrat still hasn't bothered to sign some kind of document required before French licensees can use that segment, even though just about every other European country now  has access.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?