Worked an old timer y'day; his first on AM since 1954

[W3RSW]

Called CQ in the low 3700's y'day about 4:30 pm EST after doing some final tuning on the rig.

Heard a sideband reply, kicked on the bfo, some confusion and finally the other ham came back in AM, somewhat muffled. You know the sound, the ssb mike in "sudden" am mode, not too many highs. But I was very pleasantly surprised.

It was old timer W8SF, Paul, Columbus Ohio who said he last worked AM in 1954. He was trying out his IC7800 on AM and wasn't sure he had it set up properly.  Paul was first licensed in 1937, farm boy without much money and worked as ship op. during WWII.  Said it was quite boring listening to 500kc calling freq. for hours on end without a call. He waxed eloquently about the old rigs he had right after WWII while stationed in Puerto Rico, HRO60, etc. He referred me to his pix in QRZ.com.

After almost the entire qso another op. mentioned that Paul was 3kc off my transmit freq.  Never noticed a/c quiet early band conditions, my very wide band receiver n' stuff. Pretty funny.

So there you are -- an over 80 yr. old op, on AM first time in over half a century.

[WA3VJB]

You know how much I love these stories, the old timers coming back to AM, if only for a little while.

Thanks for telling.

It's always interesting to get them going about what rigs they had and used, since they probably haven't thought about PLATE and LOAD controls for a long time.

[KL7OF]

I have had this happen several times this winter....I call "CQ AM phone" on 14286 kcs in the afternoon with 400 fully modulated watts from the HB 100th rig...Comments like " My first AM QSO" or "My first AM QSO in 40 years" or I saw your signal on the display of my(Bamboo radio) and it looks like a broadcast stations signal"...I've had several cross mode SSB/AM contacts because I couldn't convince the OP to push the AM button..Lots of fun

[K3ZS]

I would like to share about a QSO I had earlier this week.   I replied to a CQ on 3880 SSB .  I was listening around on AM but heard this strong SSB station.   It was W3AAA, Herb.   I said that I was an old buzzard going on 50 years as a ham this month.    He told me he was a licensed for 77 years.  Did I feel like a newby.    We talked over an hour and he said that he goes on AM with his ricebox and amplifier but that his balun that he feeds his loop antenna with heats up when on AM.   I told him about a manufacturer web site where he could get AM rated baluns.   He had a lot of interesting stories, being involved with the history and development of ham radio.   He was in the Washington WW2 radio establishment and a former Asst Secretary of Defense.   I hope he becomes more active on AM, he could add a lot to the traditions and history that we enjoy.    After signing off I checked out his QRZ .com bio.   He is also the first 3 land entry in my 1958 Call book, the one that I first appeared in.

[N3DRB The Derb]

very kewl. I find myself thinking how wierd it is that I am eligible for QCWA at age 44, an then I get slapped back by a story like this. 77 years! no vanity call is that. 

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Worked W3ORU back in the 90's on 160. He hadn't been on AM in many years (probably decades, I can't remember for sure). He was very excited about it, as his QSL card shows.

[WA3VJB]

"Dr Steve"
??

I thought that honorific was reserved for the owner of a certain award-winning station.

Well your contact on 160 may have inspired the guy to get on AM.
Just Googled him.

Turns out W3ORU went on in the next few years to work 10M AM during Cycle 23 (VK2BA), and apparently played a role helping another guy (EI9GQ) test a bamboo-based 10M beam up there.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Dr Steve indeed. He's award-winning in so many ways. He's also the Ayatollah of Rock and Rollah, few people realize this.

One of the big benefits of operating the 80m portion is working folks on a regular basis who have either never tried, or not used the AM mode for many years. Worked a fellow a while back who hadn't operated AM since the early 50s, having gotten into the 'new' mode of SSB, got to be his first contact since then. Also work a gentleman in Texas who has been licensed for 67 or 69 years (forgot what the card sez). That's a pretty long time too, no purchased call or false claims of buzzardom needed there!

Congrats, Rick - what better way to break in the new rig. And yes, band conditions were decent well into the evening hours last night. I signed off between 9-9:30, heard Don calling CQ when I came in later to kill the receiver.

[WA3VJB]

Had an enjoyable chat this morning (4A eastern) on 3725Kc with French Canadian VE3RZU who answered my CQ, putting him on AM for the first time in years.

Reflected on experience with the SX-24 and SX-25 and working radios on ships. (Eddystone receivers !  Makay transmitters !) Sounds like our QSO has taken him back in time, certainlement !

Quite interesting, unencumbered QSO for a good 45 mins.

[W3RSW]

Yeah Todd, I'd like to think it's the well modulated, "medium" power that hooks them.    In this case I was received in LSB before the op realized it was AM.  - Takes some smarts or "a leap" to realize that there's a carrier on our sigs.

Looks like one of our challenges is to get the other end to put their receivers in the widest bandwidth available, conditions permitting, of course.  Or at least to try the widest available.
Looks like we'll have to learn operating controls for the latest rigs so we can tell the om's how to run 'em.

I see "official" answers in QST that can be misleading concerning tuning modern rigs for AM.  Guy writes in he is running 40% of his 100% pep allowable for AM and QST writes back it has to be 25%.  -Without asking if the op is in AME (A3H), carrier plus one sideband or realizing the the op's manual might recommend, say, 33% (1/3 of available CW output)for that reason.  General answers get general results, I guess.  Perhaps for virtually all modern rigs capable of AM, 25% (or less if you want some headroom for positive overmod) QST may almost right. Guess not too many TR-7's are sold these days.