The AM Forum

Greetings everyone,

W3BNY Ren here.  Some of you may or may not have heard of me so we'll go with NOT.  QTH is Southern Maryland (Lexington Park) and was approved for the boards yesterday.

short bio:

Been a ham almost 10 years (this october) Retired Navy (since 02) and originally from down in 5-land (San Antonio).  How I ended up in Maryland...sigh...long story.  Anyhoo I am here and nothing much I can do about it now.  Member of local amateur radio club (SMCARA) and assist in teaching extra class currently.

Ever since I got on the air and just listening around on the low bands I heard that wonderful AM sound and was hooked.  Yeah my Yaesu and Kenwood have that mode but it wasnt even close to how a lot of you guys sound.  Well last month, a friend of mine put out on the club reflector that he had a DX-100B that he wanted to part with...and a working one at that!  Might have some minor issues but it was for the most part working.  I threw my money at him and lugged that beast home within the hour he posted it (Sorry for taking that money of of savings love...)  I have some things to learn about it and decided to join the group to read up and learn about the venerable mode and these beautiful old rigs.

So please bear with me and hopefully will be putting out that I will be doing an on-air test of the rig soon.

73!

Ren. 

Ren,

Well welcome to the world of AM boat anchors and AMfone! 

The DX-100 is a great transmitter.  Now you need to find a nice B.A. receiver to go with it. 

40 meters during the day sometimes has some AM activity.  Maybe you have already discovered that.  Tune around 7.290 to hear the various QSO's. 

80 meters has lots of AM on it as well.  One of my favorite spots for AM on 80 is around 3.705.  You will also hear lots of AM activity up around 3.885. 

I host a Sunday AM net on 75 meters.  It is on 3.840 at 7PM and is sponsored by the Antique Wireless Association.  Naturally you do not have to be an AWA member to check in and everyone is welcome. 

73,
Joe, W3GMS   

And, a lot of AM'ers play AM on 10, 15, and 20 meters too. !0 meters: 29.0 to 29.2 MHz is a haven for lots of AM activity when conditions and motivation are up. 15 meters: anywhere between 21.400 - 21.450 you can find AM activity again when conditions and motivation are up. 20 meters: A lot more crowded but 14.286 is AM calling frequency and you can also find some AM activity around 14.330. There's even an AM net that meets Monday evenings around 14.330. Calling CQ is still a great method to making AM contacts.

Welcome aboard Ren, I'll echo what others have said: great beginner's transmitter for AM, plenty of guys out there have used the DX-100 transmitters for decades as daily drivers. Plenty of info, help, and parts available. Don't feel that you need to sound like a broadcast station from the start, but by all means - pursue the sound you prefer.

Aside from the outdated notion that AM is only found on a few frequencies, there are numerous places up and down the bands where AM is found today. Give a listen and as Pete says - when all else fails, call CQ. It never ceases to amaze me how many people are listening out there when I toss out a CQ. Don't be shy or wait for someone else to start the party, dive in with both feet. ;)

Most of all, have fun.

Hey Ren!

You found the great spot with great radio guys!

Bill
KB4QAA

...And where else can you find a mode receivable with one longish piece of wire, a couple or so shorter ones, a diode and a headphone. Might want to put in a ground rod too. Granted the headphone should be a high impedance type and granted that you'll probably hear several stations simultaneously.

With the miracle of a tuning capacitor and a coil added you'll be able to separate some stations. Adding a few coil taps to the antenna (that longish wire) and to the diode will increase the signal strength and help selectivity. 

Sky's the limit after that.

Welcome aboard.

Hey Bill, I didnt know you hung out here.  Anyway glad to see a SOMD guy here too. 

Ren,

Help me out with some of your abbreviations!  Maybe you operate a lot of CW like me, but a few I am not familiar with.   

n00b ?

SOMD ?  That may be Southern Maryland???

73,
Joe, W3GMS

Noob:  Not Otherwise Obsessed with Bandwidth

SOMD:  SOmeplace in Maryland

:)

Soon we will need a definition of terms  :) 

I think it was a zero and not an "O"  :)

I guess if I was into "texting" I would know all of this. 

Joe, GMS

Hint: Every one of us was a noob in the beginning, no exceptions....  ;D


Ren:   Welcome.  Do the DX-100 audio mods and will sound like a million bux..


T

Welcome aboard. Hope to hear that DX-100 on the air soon.

Ah, Google helped me out!  

noob
noun
informal
noun: noob; plural noun: noobs

    a person who is inexperienced in a particular sphere or activity, especially computing or the use of the Internet.

Origin

But still could not find it with two zero's ;-)

And yet another slant on it:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Noob

Joe, GMS

n00b  Internet lingo for newbee  With the "0"s is that 7337 5p3ak thing from a few clock pulses ago.

SOMD  that one is easy.  SOuthern MarylanD aka Pax river nas/ lexington park.

the un-official plan is to first build that monitor box that is on the east coast sound page (parts on the way from le mouser).  put it on the bench and warm it back up.  look at the output and see whats going on cw wise.  Hook a d-104 up to it and hear what it sounds like.  scratch head a bit.  do the input mods if need be.  listen again.  scratch some more.  hunt down a dow-key or build one with an octal relay I got and try it on the air and take in the suggestions.

Only the second AM transmitter i owned was the DX100. I loved it. I listen to 3880-3890 almost
every day and night. Nothing i have in the shack transmits at the moment. Homebrewing a
 2x2 807 transmitter right now but's only half finished. Parts are few and far between in the country.
I know you will enjoy it as much as i did mine. We will leave the light on at the red river if
you decide to come home, hi hi.

Ah, we meet again, Le Rabbit.  ;D

Welcome to the board, Ren.  A great bunch here, and plenty of info. ;)

Greetings Ren.
Good folk here.

Hangin' with the SMIBs.  ;D


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITzkY5Hkl-0