The AM Forum

Hello Everyone,

 I haven't been listening to 10 meter lately, i'm getting a few things in order here for 10, and i was wondering Who is Active..

The Southern and Canadian illegal banders in in here strong at 11:30 CDT.  Southern OK.

Jack,

I get on 10 AM occasionally.  I haven't heard any AM activity lately.  I can usually hear some SSB activity showing that the band is open to somewhere.

I am 11 miles south of Allentown PA.   We may be close enough to work each other.

Jack, I'm on 10 meters any time I'm in the shack. I keep a solid state receiver on 29.0 squelched as well as an FM rig on 29.6. If I hear any openings I fire up the AM transmitter.
 
Havn't heard any openings in the last 2 weeks. Did work a couple mobiles on the Gulf Coast on 29.6 a couple weeks ago.

Anxious for the sunspot cycle to come up as 10 is my favorite band.

later
Mike K8SWL

Well that's great fellas, i finished up the Lafayette HA-410 here as soon as i finish up the beam i will be on :D , and will be looking forward to some contacts.

I like 10 to Lotsa Elbow room..hi..

I think you have at least two years to go before it rounds the minimum and starts heading back up.

I'll listen for you drifting by.
I generally listen on 6 meters first; if the band opens here, then I take swing down on 10. Even when 6 opens "good", the 10 meter AM section generally is quiet.

I usually am on 29.039 AM at 4PM Sunday afternoons with a few locals for about 1/2 hour. Saturday night the same group here gets on 50.4 for a bit.
We are about 15 miles south of Boston and only have modest antennas.
A few years ago when we first started doing this occaisonaly a station hundreds of miles away would join us but in the last 6 months it has just been us locals.

Well I'm glad to hear it boys, Remember awhile back i talked about modifing a Johnson Whiteface, well i did, and i wasn't happy with the outpoot, so i picked up this Lafayette and cleaned it up a little and i've been puttering around building a three element for ten so we'll get it done here and put it on the air and see what transpires...

I have a 410 and a 460. Check all the coupling caps. After 40 years, all those things should be replaced. They're prone to leaking, shorting, blowing apart, especially the two coupling into the grids of the audio output/modulator tubes. The 410 and 460 work great with a D-104 or a CB-type power mike.

We had a 460 at my HS radio club.  That was my second introduction to 6AM after FD 1975 where we had some Clegg monsters on the air.

I remember checking into the Coffeepot Net on 6 AM quite a few mornings.  That was fun.  

I think the 460 was 10w oout and we had a four ele yagi up on the roof of the school.  Fun times.

Use 11 meters as a propagation beacon for 10. Keep a memory button on your ricebox set for 27.185.  If there's a loud heterodyne, swearing, beeping, hispanic voices with echo, etc. you know the "skip" is in and the band's open, and good chance 10 is open as well.

The assumption here you have a CB set or a ricebox to start with and you have the patience to listen to all the squawk trash on the channel. Also, sometimes the MUF may not go above 28MHz or "E" skip or tropo may not get below 29 or 28 MHz. A better way is to use one or more of these frequencies:
http://www.ten-ten.org/beacons.html

It's kind of a Bummer we're falling into the bottom of the trough, ah well better days are coming... :D

Even the most hard-core AMers (the ones with "AM" tattoos) own a ricebox or two. They do come in handy from time to time.  :D

Nice link, Pete - thanks. Printed it out as suggested. Should be handy over the coming months.



I have a pair of crapped out 2 meter CBs and an old 02AT HT with dead batteries. That's it for sandbox stuff. With so much cool old stuff out there, why bother?  :D

~ KAQ