40 Meter AM activity

[k4kyv]

After everyone else signed out, Fran W3SCC called.  We had a nice contact.  The broadcast station on 7165 fired up as usual, but no jammer to-night, so BC QRM didn't bother us very much.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Was good working you tonight, Don. Apparently the rig slipped out a resonance just enough to boil the oil in that condenser I replaced, when the smoke cleared and I got it out of the cabinet, that was the culprit. No major detonation like before, but it oozed a bit inside the back. Has me wondering if there's a short in the choke or HV tranny that only shows itself on long transmissions as things heat up.

Had a nice contact earlier with WA5TEV up in the General Class portion at 7186 or so. The racket up there made me appreciate being at least an Advanced. Worked Steve on 7240 last week with no problems at all, though.

[W1AEX]

Wednesday....08-05-09:  Calling CQ, Calling CQ, Calling CQ on 7290 until around 10:30 AM east coast time. Very quiet there today! Nobody around?

Rob W1AEX

Addendum:  It was a great morning up on the top end of the band. Worked K1GUP (Jerry) AM mobile in Maine, K4YBC (Jack) running a Viking II in NC, W3FJJ (Chuck) running his FT-1000D, WA1HLR (Tim) running an assortment of antennas, WA3JBT (Frank) on his FT-101 and AL-82 combination, and KA3STN (Pete) was joining in as I was on my way out at 11:30. At one point there were 3 QSO's going on from 7295 - 7280. Although deep fades were evident, signals were rolling in at +30dB over at times.

[k4kyv]

I didn't even light up the receiver Tuesday night, as a storm front spent the whole evening passing through.

And the rain just keeps on coming!

[AF9J]

We cold use some of your rain up here Don.  The ground's waaayyy to dry!

[K9ACT]

03:00Z and very quiet on 7160 so I ran my robot for a bit and chatted with an AM station in AZ and then a bucket broke in also from AZ.  He checked out and I continued with Randy who slowly faded away as I notice a tiny carrier on my SDR display.  I listened closely and eventually picked out KYV in QSO with a 1 station.  Could barely hear Don but called a few times anyway and gave up.

40 sure is strange.

js

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Glad to hear that the few are still carrying the torch on 40. Been wrasslin' with a summer cold here that I must've picked up along with the other great deals at Berryville. And since the 32V is on the skids again, the Heathkit Injuns will probably get hauled out to the bench at some point soon for duty on 40. They won't sound as good as Russ 'FAU's green station because they're stone-stock, but it should be interesting.

[WA3VJB]

Saturday night into Sunday, 0230-0330Z, had a nice, 15-20+ S9 QSO with a couple stations, 7156Kc

During the day Saturday Russ WB3FAU was on, 7290Kc, with the old reliable T-368 for the first time in many months.

[K9ACT]

Saturday night into Sunday, 0230-0330Z, had a nice, 15-20+ S9 QSO with a couple stations, 7156Kc

I listened for a while but with static high and sigs low and long buzzards and rare ID, I never did figure out your calls.

 I went  to 7160 and ran the robot and had a great cross mode round table.   Don't have the call signs handy but there was one other AMer and a bucket with good copy all around.

Forty is fun.

js

[k4kyv]

The wx map in the local newspaper has shown t-storms covering the entire N. American continent every day for more than a week now.

It rained nearly every day in April, May and July.  June and August were fairly dry, close to normal. But looks like this is going to be another unusually wet month.  We had a few soggy days scattered out over the earlier part of the month, but it set in a couple of days ago and the long term forecast, FWIW, calls for a high probability of rain every single day for the next week.  So far to-day, the steady drizzle hasn't let up even for a minute.

I noticed that even during the brief dry periods we had here, parts of New England were still getting constantly drenched.

QRN levels were moderately low last night on 75.

[k4kyv]

Looks like not much outdoor work here will get done for a while.

http://www.midsouth.net/my-bin/weather.cgi

[WA3VJB]

Anyone around ? 

9:30AM EDT will power up and call a few seek-yous 7285kc or so.

[KX5JT]

Calling CQ on 7.161 AM... anyone wanna play before the band gets too crowded?  It's 4:45 pm Central time presently.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

I'll go fire up the rigs for a few, John. We might be too close at this time for band conditions, but we'll see...

[KX5JT]

Well thanks for playing and splashing around a bit Todd.... it's a start!
Kinda rough noise but enough copy for a bit of AM.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Yep, it was tough at first but not too bad at the end. Your signal came up nicely once the 'adjacent channel interference' departed. Dave '9AD was pounding in here from Barrington Hills. Too bad no one else was on, sounds like the band is filling up quickly with SSB groups and DX.

Hope your cold improves. No fun this time of year (then again - is it ever fun being sick?).

Until next time.....

[k4kyv]

I called CQ about sundown this evening on 7160.  Snagged some guy in VA with a ricebox switched to AM.  His audio had no highs and zero sibilance making him a little hard to understand, and he had CB oozing out of every pore, but we carried on an AM QSO for 15 minutes or so.  Never had another AM station to break in, and after we signed out I had to get back to what I was doing.

Now that autumn is upon us, we need to be making more regularly-heard AM noise around that frequency before some group of dead-air squatters sets up camp.