It's the News Stupid!

[K9ACT]

I abandoned my efforts to get something going on 40 at night and am now doing the same thing in the 3700's.  Strangely enough, I am getting the same results.... zilch, or nearly.

With the exception of last night when W9AD checked in from Mexico and we talked for over an hour, the fishing has been very poor.

My semi-automatic CQer runs from 0310z to about 0345z just as I was doing on 40 meters.

Ignoring for the moment, the fact that perhaps nobody likes me, it occurred to me that this is the 10 O'clock news slot and could be where everyone is.... Watching TV instead of entertaining me.

I haven't watched the late news for 20 years and assume no one else does but I can think of no other explanation for the lack of activity.

Any thoughts,

Jack K9ACT

[w3jn]

Group of us on 3705 last night until at least 9PM Eastern when I checked out.  Skip K7YOO in MN was 10 over.

[W2INR]

Jack

Activity on 3725  and there abouts Friday night until 10:00pm , 2:00 am on Saturday night and last night until around 10:00pm.

G

[WD8BIL]

At one point there were AM qsos on 3705, 3715, 3725 and 3733.

[Jim KF2SY]

Jack's right, prolly TV...
I've noticed the last couple of years a marked decrease when certain shows are on.
I'll let you guess which ones, Simon ;-)
Check for yourself...not talking about AM specifically but activity in general.
Kinda makes sense....
Judge for yourself and make your own conclusions.

http://www.nielsenmedia.com/nc/portal/site/Public/menuitem.43afce2fac27e890311ba0a347a062a0/?vgnextoid=9e4df9669fa14010VgnVCM100000880a260aRCRD

[k4kyv]

Maybe you need to add an automated T/R function.  I have had mine running for about a week now, and every single time I have used it, it has resulted in a reply, if not from an AM regular, from a slopbucketeer who is often putting his ricebox on AM for the very first time.  So far, every one of the latter has indicated a positive experience from trying out AM, and several have said they would try AM again.

In one case the guy came back on AM, and asked me why in the world I wanted to work AM.  By the time  the QSO was over,  he was making adjustments to his transceiver and linear for the best sound quality on AM and asking me for audio reports.

I have tried mine on 40m only once, and that was during the day.  I haven't been able to hear you at 0315 GMT.  I think the band is way too long between us by then.  I couldn't even hear you the other night on 75.  Maybe I'll try mine late at night in a gap between BC stations, or between 7125 and 7200 after midnight local time.  The BC stations are thinning out in that region (but not gone) and I regularly hear Europeans on SSB with good signals.  I'm sure AM would do well too.

I have made it clear in my pre-recorded CQ's that I am listening with the receiver in AM mode, and haven't noticed the usual SSB replies to my CQ's transmitted on AM.

[KA1ZGC]

You literally missed us by about 10 minutes.

Just about everybody pulled the plug at once right around 9:45 Eastern, not unlike a hamfest after the prizes are drawn. IIRC, W2INR, WB3HUZ, WD8BIL, KD3CN, I forget Rick's call, and myself were all in there, and pretty much everyone ran out of gas at the same time.

I went back up to the window and listened to "the Brent n' Keith show" for about ten minutes, the flipped back down to 3705 and heard you and Dave. Either Dave had is array pointed away from me, or the band between us was awful, that's about the only time I've ever heard him fail-to-strap.

You weren't as strong as I've heard you in the past, either, so it was probably a combination of the two.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Yep, between finishing up the chores, making dinner, phone calls, and a laaate night before, I bugged out when Gary, Steve, and whoever else was leaving. I think Thom compared us to cockroaches or something along those lines. He's just mad because last night was the first night we could hear him well. 

Get in there sooner Jack, and grab a frequency. Sometimes you get too many in one spot and need to spread out anyhow. Especially when someone wants to work break-in, resulting in the doubling/tripling/everyone at once net. Or as Chris 'JBL put it, "AM in the fast lane - you either go fast or get run over". 

[k4kyv]

I think I do a pretty good job of keeping up with the news that's worth keeping up with, using the local daily wipe - oops! I meant our local small town newspaper, the internet and non-commercial radio.  I don't have the patience to fool with the 6 or 10 PM news on TV.  Don't you love it when they entice you to stay tuned with a juicy sounding "coming up next" topic, then you have to sit through 10-15 minutes of commercials and drivel before they actually get to that news story?

[K9ACT]

I hear a lot of AM activity down there. Could the problem be that all the available AMers are already involved in ongoing QSOs down there and none are just listening around to start a new QSO?

Guess I need to clarify a bit.  First of all, if there were QSO's going on, I would join one and not call CQ.  Secondly, I am speaking of that particular time frame (0300Z to whenever) which happens to be a window of opportunity for me.  There is almost never a QSO going on other than in the "window".

>Assuming that the majority of AM hams are 'practicing isolationists' and wish to remain uninformed of the world news doesn't seem a logical presumption on your part.

You misunderstood my reason for not watching the ten O'clock news.  I suspect because I get my news elsewhere, I am far better informed.

js

[KA1ZGC]

I watch al-Jazeera with the sound muted while listening to NPR, I don't know what the f***'s going on.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Jack, I heard you on talking with K4KYV and W9AD remote from XE last night. Conditions were a bit sketchy out to you, but Don and Dave were both coming in well. Band was again mushy, not gone long or short, and not at all stable. Heard Thom 'ZGC in there around midnight just before pulling the switch. Heard what he was saying despite being very light copy with an interesting 'shimmering' fade.

Spoke with Dave earlier along with Donovan VE1BDC in New Brunswick. We decided that since Dave is operating remote from Mexico, but via the Internet connection, his call should be logged as W9AD/XE-I. We're hoping it will qualify as a new DXCC country.

[K9ACT]

Jack, I heard you on talking with K4KYV and W9AD remote from XE last night. Conditions were a bit sketchy out to you, but Don and Dave were both coming in well.

Well, for all practical purposes, from your location, Dave and I are in the same place.  I think he said he was running 150W while I was at about 350 so again.... to quote someone we all know and love and can't seem to get rid of, "it's the antenna stupid".

 >Band was again mushy, not gone long or short, and not at all stable.

Brent and Keith were boiling in on 85 at 0300 but I didn't want to disrupt there august discussion... a relay, I believe.

>Spoke with Dave earlier along with Donovan VE1BDC in New Brunswick. We decided that since Dave is operating remote from Mexico, but via the Internet connection, his call should be logged as W9AD/XE-I. We're hoping it will qualify as a new DXCC country.

That would make him #1 on my DXCC list for AM and probably the only one ever.  Oh, ya Canada but is that really another country?

js

[WD8BIL]

Spoke with Dave earlier along with Donovan VE1BDC in New Brunswick. We decided that since Dave is operating remote from Mexico, but via the Internet connection, his call should be logged as W9AD/XE-I. We're hoping it will qualify as a new DXCC country.

Nope ! Transmitter/receiver are in Chicago. You we're talking to his Station. Where he is doesn't matter. It's where the SIGNAL lands that counts.
 

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

For sure. He just had a very long mic cord!

Spoke with Dave earlier along with Donovan VE1BDC in New Brunswick. We decided that since Dave is operating remote from Mexico, but via the Internet connection, his call should be logged as W9AD/XE-I. We're hoping it will qualify as a new DXCC country.

Nope ! Transmitter/receiver are in Chicago. You we're talking to his Station. Where he is doesn't matter. It's where the SIGNAL lands that counts.
 

[k4kyv]

Wouldn't that internet connection have been great for XER, later XERA and finally XERF, when they ran hundreds of kilowatts of transmitter power in Mexico, with studios in Del Rio, TX?  They, and the rest of the border blasters,  had to rely on phone lines running across the Rio Grande.

[KA1ZGC]

Wouldn't that internet connection have been great for XER, later XERA and finally XERF, when they ran hundreds of kilowatts of transmitter power in Mexico, with studios in Del Rio, TX?  They, and the rest of the border blasters,  had to rely on phone lines running across the Rio Grande.

They were just a bit before their time, is all...

...these days, you can reliably run anything you want across the Rio Grande!

Ba-doom-boom.