The AM Forum

This is becoming ridiculous.

Worked a guy in France S9+20 both ways 01:24z.

Had to use that other phone mode so it doesn't count.

So I hear JA's coming in way louder than ever and give 28.305 a try on AM a few minutes later.

Get a small pileup of AM guys coming back but was only able to work JI7NLL/M. 

The rain makes the power line noise go away so thanks to Mother Nature twice.

Not ridiculous, awesome!

Was this yesterday?

No. It was today but tomorrow UTC.

looking at the topic title.. Neither will 11 meters! I happened to tune past and there's a lot of activity, lots of their 'big guns' have been rolled out.

I'm not getting much AM on 10M at my bedside SWL rig, a Scott SLR-M, but the slopbuckets are there, lots of activity. BFO's out on that set unfortunately.

No reason for the band to die; solar numbers have been up consistently providing great conditions. Working DX down in the lower section has been easy even running barefoot. What seems to have died out is the numerous AM stations that prevailed back in the Fall. Same thing happened the previous Fall/Winter and the previous Fall/Winter before that. Some of the "regulars" are still there with an occasional pop up of someone new but not with the consistency of the Fall season.

I think your clock is off by a few hours. Your post was made at 2153Z on 19 March. Have you perfected time travel? No wonder you get all the DX!

Right now:
http://www.dxmaps.com/spots/map.php?Lan=E&Frec=28&ML=M&Map=W2L&DXC=N&HF=S&GL=N

Let's look. Log sez 17:24. 17:24 + 4 = 21:24.

I must have added + 4 twice for the post.

Doh.

Thanks ;D

OK. Gotta check the band around 5:30 PM ET this weekend.

Cool on the pileup.

Those guys must all be running QRP. Today I called briefly after listening for oven an hour. Got a bunch coming back but nobody with enough signal for an exchange.
Anybody know if JA AM on 28.305 is supposed to be low power?
Also heard VK4VN with strong signal but was busy here.

http://www.jl3amk.org/ja/misc/am.htm

http://www.qrz.com/db/JG8TDZ/

Dunno. I think they have 3 or 4 classed of license in Japan. Two of them are limited to something like 10 and 50 watts.

On the dxmaps site, does this run entirely by people who  listen to the bands and enter spots? I mean, if you hear only one side, it's no good, right? Anyway it's amazing that it can be done.

Called tonight at around 2200 and 2300Z on 29000. Nothing

Meanwhile, ZL7AAA and TX6G were loud down the band on slop bucket. Just worked a VK on slop bucket at 2330Z, so the band is still FB to the south Pacific. Where are all those big AM Mauls?

Data is entered by amateurs working the band.

I listened around 6PM EDT. 10 AM portion mainly dead except for two Spanish stations around 29.110. Went down to 28.305, and right at my noise level, heard several stations with their roger-beeps. Went and played on SSB.

I'm thinking some of the JAs are using beeps. Just listened today and heard multiple carriers on/off again at 330 degrees.

You'll hear it fairly often on 10 meters. Those 11/10 meter rigs like the HR2510, RCI or whatever have the beep option. Some must forget to turn it off when the move up in frequency.  ;)

Fantastic AM on TEN!!

Nearly every afternoon AM on Ten and last days I enjoyed only by listening. :)
Often I listen between 29000 to +/- 29100 khz.
And I hear ONLY AM, fantastic to hear those 'antique' mode.

First I thought: 'I need to transmit everyday before the conditions are over....'.
But now I think: 'Enjoy by listening how many AM stations are qrv on Ten'.

For example, a few days ago I heard Chuck K1KW on 29000 khz (S9+5).
He were counting and testing, I heard him mention often '1, 2 and 3'.
I listen... and I mentioned direct after him: '4, 5, 6..... 10!'
Hi, hi.... and we had again a nice qso on Ten in AM!
Not long, only to say friendly 'Hello' to each other...

So please all AM Lovers, enjoy NOW from AM on Ten,

Henk, pe1mph
Dokkum, The Netherlands

Here's the card.

Very cool.

Looks like the guy is parked on top of some snow-capped peak.

Ten now dead?

Last week bad conditions on Ten...
Evenso I did have received not repeater on 29620 (fm)
Hopefull the conditions on Ten come back soon!

I am looking forward,

Henk, pe1mph
Dokkum, The Netherlands

Very little DX today but on a few occasions those who are working the QSO party and are "local" are coming in unusually strong.  A station in Pittsfield MA was 10 over S9 here then suddenly disappeared. Very odd.

Airplane scatter. I knew a contester who claimed the airplane holding patterns in his area made lots of inside skip zone contacts possible.

After I let Yaz out, signals on 75M move up several dB for a few minutes due to ground conductivity.

You just read it on the web so it must be true.

T

Sporadic E skip.  The E layer will also block the F layer, eliminating the longer F2 skip.  Get's more common as we head into summer.  Really low angles will still work though.  I worked VK in the morning on 20M with strong signals both ways, very low angle, and no other signals on the band.  On the high angle antenna position the VK was in the noise!  Also worked a ZS6 long path, same deal on the angles.

Get any antenna as high as you can, even if it's just a dipole, for this stuff!  A ground plane will also work quite well and beat out low yagis.

Worked W1AW/1 in MA around noon today on ground wave; Yaz's ground conductivity worked for me.

The latest numbers show a drop off this week. The A and K were high many days this past week too.

Sunspot numbers for April 3 through 9 were 137, 174, 172, 127, 106,
94, and 95, with a mean of 129.3. 10.7 cm flux was 153, 156.9,
142.1, 140.9, 139.9, 132, and 130.6, with a mean of 142.2. Estimated
planetary A indices were 6, 6, 14, 5, 11, 5, and 5, with a mean of
7.4. Estimated mid-latitude A indices were 7, 5, 11, 3, 10, 4, and
5, with a mean of 6.4.

I had to think about this for a minute. Then I chuckled.   Good one! Yaz has 1/2 wavelength bladder. I'm impressed!!!  :D