The AM Forum

The annual Heavy Metal Rally will be held this year on Saturday, December 30.

As in years past, this is not a traditional Ham radio call sign echo. Although the Heavy Metal Rally was originally intended to include only big tube-type equipment, now it is a night for friendly AM QSOs, and is open to anyone using restored broadcast, military, homebrew, any commercial ham gear meeting the requirements, i.e. Johnson Invader 2000, Viking Desk KW, Globe King 500, Collins KW-1, etc. and big solid state Class-E equipment. This includes using a solid-state exciter as long as the PA is Heavy Metal, such as a 300 pound Henry 8K! I want as much participation in the rally as possible. Obviously, we would all like to work as much tube-type Heavy Metal as possible, and a point advantage is given to tube equipment.

Suggested Frequencies: 1885 Kc east of Mississippi, 1915 Kc West; 3830 Kc, 3870-3890 Kc, nationwide, 7290 Kc.

The rules for this year’s Heavy Metal Rally are nearly same as in years past.

Scoring: You get 1 point per contact on each different band. If you work the same station on both 80 and 160 it counts for two points. You get 1 additional point per contact if you are using all tube-type heavy metal. 1 point for each different state worked. 1 point for each letter or email received from Hams or SWLs with positive comments about a station’s signal or sound quality. So, if someone works 20 stations in 10 different states with a tube rig, the score is: 20 contacts + 10 states + 20 tube points = 40.

If two emails are received complaining that “KØXYZ” broke their S-meters but sounded darn good doing it, that’s 32 points total.

The winner should be running a rig weighing 250 pounds or running at least 250 watts. This includes big homebrew, military, and vintage commercial Ham gear, and Class E solid state rigs as long as they meet the qualifications. For example, some vintage Navy rigs weighed in at over 300 pounds, but only produced 100 watts of carrier—that’s still Heavy Metal! (The “or” statement is intended as an illustration, and should not be misread as an intent to keep someone out.)

You can’t win unless you’re running a Heavy Metal rig—NO exceptions!

This is Heavy Metal night! Everyone is welcome to participate with smaller rigs, but the winner needs to be using Heavy Metal.

Completed logs should be sent by email to Ray@ERmag.com or by US mail to the Electric Radio address printed inside the rear cover. Please have your point totals calculated when you send in your log, and be sure to mention the equipment used during the rally.

The winning top scorer this year will receive the Heavy Metal trophy, a donation by Gary Halverson (K6GLH). The Electric Radio 2006 Heavy Metal Rally trophy is a handsome oak plaque with a cosmetically perfect RCA 833A mounted with porcelain E.F. Johnson 833 filament mount, while matching heat-dissipating plate terminal leads secure the top. This exquisite piece was custom made by the late Vern Dawson, K6RRC. An engraved plate with name and callsign will be affixed to plaque to complete this beautiful addition to the lucky winner’s ham shack.

DAMN! I wish I had the RCA broadblast rig up and running for that one.Does 1000 pounds and 750 watt carrier qualify?   ;D I have been running a bit low on time to move it to 80m like I had hoped to do before now.  :'(  Oh well there is always next year.

Hopefully, I can have my dipole finished before the 30th.  I won't be running Heavy Metal, just my Apache and DX-100.  Maybe if I stack em together?   No?  Oh well.    :'(

The antenna is back up after the big wind storm here took it down.   The Class E is warmed up.   OK, OK, it doesn't get warm.  But at least the big lights on it glow.  I put the modulation monitor on top so it weighs more.   I'm ready to go.

Jon

Ed stated:
Fear not Ed, I believe the demarcation line is that if it can give you a hernia while lifting, it qualifies for Heavy Metal ;)

Okay, either I'm missing something or this scoring is very....creative? 20+10+20 = 40 + 2 = 32? eh?

Well, it's funny any way you look at it. :) I'm not really interested in a competition as much as hearing all of those BIG signals on the air with nice audio, and finally getting to take part after years of listening in.

Is there a start time, or is it just miidnight to midnight Dec 30th? I'll be there, fo-two-fittys a-glow.

Todd and All,

        According to the November issue (209) of ER the rally starts at 5:00 PM EST 12/30/06 with no end time or date. I just sent an email to ray for the ending details. I expect an answer soon and will post here as soon as possible.

        Did you get the air checks I sent and did they play ok? Had to shrink them from 23-28 MB .wav files to compressed .mp3. Had no choice to email. Check your gmail account.

Mike
W8BAC

This Just In 12/29/06 1:44PM EST

Hi Mike
Yes, everyone is sure looking forward to the Rally! I had planned on operating at W5CZ (and use his 30K-1), but the severe winter weather we are having will probably prevent that. The weather guessers are predicting between 30 and 50 inches out of the latest storm.
 
I apologize for missing the ending time of the Rally. Generally, it runs all night for as long as guys care to operate. Let's say that it ends 6:00 AM, EST. If you could post the time on AM fone I would appreciate it.
 
Happy New Year, and I hope to work you in the Rally!
 
73,
Ray, NØDMS
Electric Radio Magazine


SO, 5:00 PM EST 12/30/06 to 6:00AM EST 12/31/06

3880Kc, the first 15 minutes.  Sure lit things up.

W8MAQ Jim,  Collins 300-G  1400 lbs, 250 W

N1NKM Willie, homebrew rig

WD8BIIL Bud, Viking Bud into pair of 8874

KA8WTK, Bill 350 watts, 300 lbs homebrew

WB3HUZ, Steve, Eico 720/730 into pr. 3-500

W2ZM, Bob, McMartin 2K  3000 lbs

W9AD Dave, SDR1000 9 lbs

K3JRR Larry, homebrew, 1000 lbs

W2ICQ, Bob, Collins 310B into homebrew 800 lb transmitter, pr 4-250 mod by pr 810s

K8R  Dave  Valiant at 140 watts all tube

W8BAC Mike

Things are rockin'! Worked 23 stations in the first hour and never changed frequency. Looks like a fun night.

Would be nice if I weren't bombarded with gawd damn slopbucket! I hear a few in there on 75 but not many make it through.

Heard: 3880

W2ZM - Throwing Flames!
KB2AM - Rich s9
Huzzy - Steve s5
WB4WCK - s9
K1KBW - Ass Blastin'
NE1S - Larry s5
WD8BIL s9
N8KXA - s2

That's about it for now.

Only wish I could join the mayhem! Oh well..

1885 is at critical mass. W3GMS at the control rods

    Somebody needs to get a photo of the 80M band display. With all these carriers, I'll bet quite a few slopbucketeers have that 'deer caught in the headlights' look. Plastic radio's- BEWARE!

Geoff, W5OMR, kindly sent along this recording made in Colorado of his station as he transmitted from his home in San Antonio.  Sorry I didn't get to work you Geoff, wow, what a signal. I think your Dad would be quite proud to hear the results of your craftsmanship.


Since I was raised around Ham Radio (my Dad was W5OMR (Floyd R. "Ed" Edmonson - b. 1920, d. 1988)), I knew of all those old rigs, and even got a chance to operate some of them. In fact, my current station consists of an HT-37, driving a pair of 250TH's in push-pull, link-coupled in a Homebrewed final.

(http://www.qrz.com/hampix/r/m/w5omr.1072130546.jpg)

W5CZ(ed) is 'Rod' (as I came to find out) who lives and was
transmitting
fron Indian Hills, Colorado.

Sorry I missed it.  The 30th is our anniversary, and we took in a movie and had a champagne toast afterwards.  I did check the bands sometime after midnight, but didn't hear that much activity, and loads of QRN, so didn't try to fire up.

I worked 15 stations after midnight on 160 and 75 meters. Things were still hopping when I called it quits at 3 AM. What a night!

Sigh...    :'(   Like an idjit, I negelected to check what frequencies were in use, so I hung around 3725ish all night.     :(   Bah! What a cretin I am!    (Need an emoticon fer kickin' myself in the ass!)

Where'd you get -that- info, Paul?  Man, that's -gotta- be at LEAST 8 or 9 years old...

Let's put things into perspective, Paul...
#1) Information on QRZ.com isn't always up to date
#2) I've had that QSL.net website for a number of years and I've moved since then. (a couple of times)

So, here's the latest skinny:
Rig is a still the same.
The Final is a pair of 250TH's in push-pull, link-coupled, balanced tank circuit.
The modulator is a pair of 250TH's in Class B (what else?)
The Exciter is a Johnson Viking II
Audio chain starts with a Sure SM-7, a 31-band graphic EQ, A highly modified Bogen PA pulling duty as the speech-amp, a solid-state audio driver (ala WA5BXO) to driectly drive (no transformers, ergo no hysteresis loss) the grids of the 250TH modulators.

The receiver used is an RCA AR-88.  I've got it, and *3* SX-73 (R-274) Hallicrafter receivers on a coax-switch to toggle between 'em.

The HT-37's (I have 3 of those) are fixing to be history around here.


While that's true, the recording (as I said in my email to you) came from Brian/W5AMI in Northern Arkansas.

--
73 = Best RegardS,
-Geoff/W5OMR

Thanks for the update Geoff.
Why not block-copy it over to your website for others to enjoy when they look you up?
I thought it was great that you've grabbed the callsign of your late father and continue to use it among us.
Only wish condx and time frame had allowed us to visit on the radio.