The AM Forum

Last year, the AMTR was held on 6-Feb, and it seemed to work out well.  We are still in the long propagation mode of winter, and it doesn't conflict with any other major events. 

This year the weekend of Feb 5, 2011 looks good.

The following weekend would be bad and the one after that, too.  Is this enough time for promotion?  A month should be enough, but who knows!  I think that's what we had last year for notice.

Duration:  Last year's event started at 6:00AM on Saturday and went to 2:00AM Sunday morning.  Several folks have proposed making this a 2 day event.  Should we do that?  It could run from 6:00AM Saturday to some time on Sunday, say 2:00PM or 6:00PM or 11:59PM or whatever.

Thoughts? Comments? We don't want to dilute the event either.  We had unbelievable participation last year, that's for sure.  There were so many special event calls issued, that the League actually called me on the phone and asked what the heck was going on!!!!  Now, THAT'S really something!

I'm assuming AMFONE would like to be listed as the sponser, along with Radio Engineering Associates, but I actually don't know whom to ask  :)


Please comment on the date, duration or anything else!

Would favor a 2-day event (Sat and Sun) if possible.
73
Steve WA2DTW

One problem last year was that the date was set so soon that ER did not have a chance to publish an announcement.  If we don't care if ER mentions it then it is a moot point.  But Ray has a monthly closing date and in addition, there's a few weeks in there for the USPS to completely distribute the magazine.  I think the closing date for Feb. is probably very near, but even if the announcement got in there, most subscribers would not rx their issue untl after Feb. 5.

I am not criticising -- it is easy to stand by and complain and I applaud you Steve for getting the ball rolling.   I know tabulating the results is a time consuming job and you probably had other things like building a rig that you would have rather been doing so I appreciate your work and initiative.   BTW, If anyone wants to get a special call sign like last year, I don't know how much time they need to file an application and get a 1X1 call before the event. 

Rob

Two days in Feb, Sat and Sun would be fine.....

 I need more than 2 weeks to get the time off at work ........


klc

I also favor a two day event.  Feb 5/6 would be fine, or any other weekend in Feb EXCEPT Feb 12/13, which would conflict with the Orlando Hamcation.

Yes, I'm also in favor of a two day event.  Let's face it, any date/time that you pick will conflict with something or someone's schedule.  It would be good to have more than a month to prepare and get the word out, but ya gotta start somewhere and just move ahead.

73,  Jack, W9GT  alias W9T

I agree with the 2-day event.  I work 24-hour shifts [0800-0800], so kind of cuts into the operating time.  Not particular on dates.  Will probably be working 1 of 2 days.  Of course I could get lucky and it could be in the 4 day off period. 

I'm all for a 2 day event.  But this time I'm not logging the number contacts but rather chat instead. I'll keep a log but won't submit it for scoring.  I'd like to see this be more informal than formal ie. contest style and I think that is the intent anyway so that's my approach this year. So anyone who just wants to just chit-chat I'll be on the air.

Or we could have a two-weekend event, like Sweepstakes!

Steve make sure Marlboro is not that weekend

Why not just dub February as "AM Month".

Make those logs look REALLY interesting.

I actually didn't submit a log myself, but probably I should have.  Not to "win", but to support the statistics.  The fact that we had 440+ different stations logged by only 30 log submissions says (at least to me) a LOT about the number of stations on AM.

Imaging if 100 people had submitted logs!  I wonder if we would have topped 1000 stations (ON AM) worked during that 20 hour period!

This year, I am going to create a web form for logging as an alternative to submitting a file, in case someone wants to use it.  Just type it in and click submit.  The log is all done!!  Might write a java script applet or may just use a simple form - depends on how much time I have.

My comment is any women (or girls) participating should be required to use a negative pitch shifter to make things fair.


Waaaaaah.

 GREAT IDEAL A 2 DAY EVENT  ;D THERE SHOULD BE ENOUGH TIME SO ELECTRIC RADIO CAN  PUBLISH THE INFORMATION. EVERY ONE SHOULD SPAM THE AIRWAYS ABOUT THE EVENT.

Yes, I think it should be a two day event but I think it would also be great if a multiplier would be put in there for the most contacts made by anyone over 65 years of age. If your on Geritol one point would be deducted for the same time period. We can't have doped up seniors taking over these contests ;D ;D

I like! Count me in on the old Collins 30K, affectionally known as "Bessie".

2 days are good for me, ideal in fact, reminds me of the old "AMI AM Discovery Weekend" event...now that might wake up a few brain cells.

If you can write up the PR, I'll see that it gets out via the Antique Wireless Association channels.

On the chance I finish the ant., please avoid the third full SAT-SUN combination of any month (i.e. jan 15-16, feb 19-20..) as I have military duty each month.

I been pestering the guys to help me get the last deadman in and just put up the top section with the spar and pulley, and just run up the dipole for now.

I got nothing as nice as a Collins 30K but I can throw a little 100-200W carrier out. Geritol used to have a lot more alcohol IIRC. Can gin be substituted?

2 days in Feb is just right......I like the idea of a standard on-line logging form...and a printable logging form for those of us that prefer to use a pencil....My phone line internet connection won't stay hooked up when the transmitters or on... 

I'm actually writing a stand-alone logging application (a very small windows program) that will facilitate logging - then you just click "upload log" when you're done, and the program uploads your log to the AMTR server - just like that - all formatted and ready to go !  The app will run on Windows 98 and later versions.  A 32 bit app, so this will also run on Windows 7 64 bit, since that OS can run 32 bit native apps.

The only time an Internet connection is required is when you're uploading.  Otherwise, it's completely stand-alone.

Question: can the new version of the Mac O/S (OS/X) run native, simple Windows programs?  I don't have the Mac developers stuff available, and it has been a long time since I've written a Mac application, although I'm sure it would take only a short time to figure it out again.  I was going to write the app in Java, but that has its own complications (like, a lot of people don't have Java on their machines) and some other stuff.

The contest schedule (ARRL and non ARRL) for February 2011 has now be posted on the ARRL web site:
http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Contest%20Corral/2011-02.pdf

Thanks for the info!  Looking at the proposed date of Feb 5th and 6th, there are some QSO parties (there seem to be QSO parties every weekend!) but I didn't see anything that would conflict with our event.

The following weekend is the Classic Exchange - would that conflict?  We could have it on the 12th-13th.  Either looks good from here, although the 5th-6th is consistant with last year.

Please comment - we need to freeze the date SOON.

Mac, WQ8U, is editor CX Newsletter Exchange for the Classic Exchange. He's listed as the contact. See what he thinks.
http://www.classicexchange.org/jan11/jan11ann.html

It might be cool to run them at the same time and get a big exposure for both.

As stated earlier, the Orlando Hamcation  (Biggest annual fest in the south) is scheduled for Feb 11-13.  So most of the folks from FL, GA, AL, etc, would have to choose between the AM rally or the fest.  Thus my vote is for Feb 5th - 6th.  

I would also like to suggest nailing down a date for the third annual 2012 AM Rally well in advance, so that it could be announced in ER, CQ, QST, etc.

For those that do not wish to keep a formal log, I would encourage all to at least submit a list of calls contacted; this data could be included in future announcements to further the interest in AM.  Just my $ .02 worth....

73, Rick W8KHK   alias W8K

Short answer, no. Macs can dual Boot (Boot Camp) or run Windows in a VM.

Since there are already tons of loggin programs out there, you may consider processing there output(s). The most common are ADIF and Cabrillo. Many will also output CSV or other formatted ASCII.

jlog is a pretty nice logging program that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.

That date looks fine to me,I'd love to hear be able to hear so many AM stations on the air. The sideband folks will certainly wonder what's up...

Obviously, since that hamfest is in your area, there's some importance to you, but there are hamfests on February 5-6 in other parts of the country that are probably important to those AM'ers in that area. The decision probably should be made relative to other activities on the ham bands when choosing a date, rather then some group's outside activities.

I agree with this. 

ADIF is nothing more than XML.  But it would sound too simple and humdrum to call it that so they had to come up with more alphabet soup in the vast campaign to make everything as confusing and complex as possible.

Not quite. ADIF is a file format that is extensible and up until recently did not work with/include XML (I'm not sure if the actual decision to include XML has been made yet). XML is much broader as a set of rules for encoding text or makine document machine readable. It is used by tons of other formats/languages like RSS, Atom, MS Office, SOAP, etc.

I installed Aether logger on my mac and exported files from a dos logger in ADIF and opened them in pico and looked at them.  XML (eXtensible markup language).  Maybe XML has a "broader set of rules" so ADIF is a subset.  When I looked at it it looked like a duck, walked like a duck and quacked like a duck so it was a duck.    ;)

It's all Greek to me!

heh heh well it's all geek to me (groan)  ;D

Find a Greek Taylor-hybrid interpreter and you will understand.... ;D

I still vote for the 5th-6th even though April would make for far better temps down here to be out in the unfinished radio room like Terry getting to his cabin. Unfortunately, it would also mean a lot more static to deal with. IIRC, last year's conditions were about perfect on that weekend, band was in nice shape after an afternoon crapout, and static was pretty much non-existent.

Ok, we had good comments all the way around.

Let's go with Feb 5th and 6th.  Let's run it 6:00AM EST Saturday morning to 2:00AM EST Monday morning (really, Sunday night in other parts of the country), giving good time for the West coast to work the East coast both nights.

Sign up for those special event calls now!  Let's see if we can get the League to call again like they did last year!  Whomever is running AM Fone these days, can you possibly PM me - does AM Fone want to be a sponser again this year?  Sure is a great promotional thing for the site!

I have some dirt simple logging software that will upload logs directly to the server - no extra typing or emailing logs or anything like that (if you want to use it).  Good old .CSV or Excel files work fine, too.  Even if you work 10 stations, that's 10 stations.  The participation of so many AM stations last year is a nice statistic.  It would be great if we topped 1000 stations this year  :D

Thanks and Regards,

Steve

Hey!  I spent  19 hours in the seat!  It has nothing to do with voices!  Besides 1/2 of my contacts thought I was a man!  It's not my fault female hams are an endangered species.  You better watch or i'll recruit all the wives! LOL

 I'd like to see the event being longer on a single day, or better yet, expand it to two days. Some of us work overtime on the weekends (me  ;D) and otherwise would not be permitted to get much operating in.

Thanks for your continuing support for the AM mode. I sincerely appreciate your efforts.

Best regards,

Gary, K7EK

Let us remember that the military net comes on at 5 AM Saturday morning and is usually done by 7 AM. They operate on 3.885 on AM.

Good time to pick up some contacts after there done.

Wonder if we will have a solar flare like we did last year, mid-day.  One minute everyone's there, then....gone.  I think the entire AM population who were operating at the time were all running around with their hair on fire checking equipment.  I know I was!

Hopefully no flare this year!  The rally has been announced, by the way - here in this forum (the first post in the QSO section) and in the Announcements section.

There is also a web link to the announcement in HTML:

http://www.classeradio.com/amtr.htm (http://www.classeradio.com/amtr.htm)

19 hours in the seat.....I can't resist....
You are lucky you didn't have a flare..up

You were a trooper last year

the form was easy to find.

There are fields to fill out, so the "Name of Event" is "2011 AM Transmitter Rally" ? looks like.

so it's done "Your request for K5D has been submitted to ARRL".

Sounds good!  Hopefully the band will be in excellent shape that weekend, and we might be able to communicate (via ham radio, that is!).  I should be W1E.  I applied for the call a few days ago, but haven't heard back yet.