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Author Topic: "Field Day"  (Read 13646 times)
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WA3VJB
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« on: June 26, 2011, 02:01:07 PM »

Aren't cognitive abilities part of the test of emergency communications?

If so, 9 out of 10 stations failed in a casual test just now on 40m.

I distinctively called CQ with the specific wording "on AM" , "stations with a carrier"   "looking for a conversation," and at least five stations called me back on an incomplete form of AM that I declined to descend to.

Another three called me back on wholesome AM, but two of them didn't get that I wanted a conversation.  They didn't get their contest contact information after both said no when I asked if they wanted to "hang out and chat a while." The third guy never got his audio sorted out and I moved on.

A 9th station struggled to get his audio sorted out, failed, and disappeared.

The 10th and final contact was a guy with the Buffalo Amateur Repeater Association. Nice chat on a Kenwood, on AM, and he said he was looking forward to finding us at the top of 40 some other time.

Well the afternoon wasn't a total loss, therefore.

Good luck in the contest.





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Pete, WA2CWA
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« Reply #1 on: June 26, 2011, 09:07:07 PM »

Great to hear that you're supporting ARRL functions.
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Pete, WA2CWA - "A Cluttered Desk is a Sign of Genius"
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« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2011, 02:00:17 AM »

 Surprising, maybe not, that a large number of operators don't know about AM or how to adjust their modern radios to work the mode.
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73 from Lane. Columbus,Ohio.
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« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2011, 03:29:00 AM »

Surprising, maybe not, that a large number of operators don't know about AM or how to adjust their modern radios to work the mode.

Many of the current rigs have little to no front panel adjustments pertaining to the AM mode. And, if they don't operate AM on a regular basis, why would they go inside the rig to diddle with any adjustments that might "enhance" their AM experience. I would also suspect that "rig works on AM" is probably not high on the dealer's list of sale-able features.
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Pete, WA2CWA - "A Cluttered Desk is a Sign of Genius"
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« Reply #4 on: June 27, 2011, 06:45:31 AM »

There were supposed to be phone and cw stations operating Field Day but I never heard any radiotelephone stations; I heard some heavily distorted signals I could not copy though. 
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« Reply #5 on: June 27, 2011, 11:41:03 AM »

Quote
Many of the current rigs have little to no front panel adjustments pertaining to the AM mode

WRONG!
Most rigs on the market today, and many older ones with an AM selection, have all the adjustments necessary from the front panel/menus to put an acceptable AM signal on the air.

It's only when you want a de-yellowfied AM siganiganal that you'd need to open the rig.

I know, I've been there!
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Pete, WA2CWA
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« Reply #6 on: June 27, 2011, 01:24:22 PM »

Quote
Many of the current rigs have little to no front panel adjustments pertaining to the AM mode

WRONG!
Most rigs on the market today, and many older ones with an AM selection, have all the adjustments necessary from the front panel/menus to put an acceptable AM signal on the air.

It's only when you want a de-yellowfied AM siganiganal that you'd need to open the rig.

I know, I've been there!

"Many of the current rigs have little to no front panel adjustments pertaining to the AM mode." Most multi-mode rigs today drop the carrier level/RF power to an acceptable value when switching from one mode to the AM mode so that's not a necessary adjustment for most rigs in the AM mode unless the rig is driving an amplifier.  Other then some possibly minor tweaking of the mike gain control, what other front panel controls are available to enhance the AM transmitted signal, ignoring the possibly some of the high end rigs may have speech "equalizers", but that would be common to all phone modes? Note, I wasn't referring to many older ones with AM selection which, in many cases, were dogs out of the box for AM operation.
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Pete, WA2CWA - "A Cluttered Desk is a Sign of Genius"
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« Reply #7 on: June 28, 2011, 11:00:47 AM »

I have qso'd with many many SSBers who pushed the AM button for the first time. ON EVERY OCCATION I was able to talk them thru fundamental adjustments to put a respectable AM signal on the air. Not one of them had to open the rig. Rigs from Icoms to Yeasu.  718s, 756 Pros, 1000MPs ect all have the adjustment capability from the front/menu to put a respectable signal out.
Some of the very newer rigs have EQ settings in the menu. So there are sufficient adjustments.
Now ifn you want to talk about full bodied plate modulated style audio that's a different story.

But I stand by my statement backed by ON AIR EXPERIENCES!

There are sufficient adjustments on today's rigs to put a respectable AM signal on the air.
Get over it!
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k4kyv
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« Reply #8 on: June 28, 2011, 11:32:36 AM »

I would also suspect that "rig works on AM" is probably not high on the dealer's list of sale-able features.

The amateur radio appliance market is highly competitive, and dealers' profit margin is slim. The manufacturers would not add to their production costs by putting the AM feature on their products and therefore drive up their prices relative to the competition if they didn't think there was a customer demand for it.

Take TenTec for example.  At one time they were vehemently anti-AM, even to the point of sending out a newsletter to all their customers explaining why TenTec rigs would never include AM capability. After they were unpleasantly surprised by the reaction, they published a retraction, and soon afterwards, AM capability began to appear on their transceivers. We can thank Hank, W2IQ/4 (SK) who was personally acquainted with some of their engineers, for encouraging them to include the AM feature and helping them by testing prototypes on the air from his station.
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Don, K4KYV                                       AMI#5
Licensed since 1959 and not happy to be back on AM...    Never got off AM in the first place.

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Pete, WA2CWA
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« Reply #9 on: June 28, 2011, 01:32:26 PM »

I would also suspect that "rig works on AM" is probably not high on the dealer's list of sale-able features.

The amateur radio appliance market is highly competitive, and dealers' profit margin is slim. The manufacturers would not add to their production costs by putting the AM feature on their products and therefore drive up their prices relative to the competition if they didn't think there was a customer demand for it.


Actually, most of the rigs from the big three have always included the AM mode on their rigs or as an optional board add-on. Kenwood, went for several years when they introduced their HF hybrid series, TS-520, 820, 830 series, and removed the AM mode from the rigs. For the non-US market, they did offer a TS-830M, that did include the AM mode. So, I doubt putting in the AM feature was really a production cost issue for most of their models. However, as a list of saleable features that sales people would use to push a product, having an AM mode wasn't high on their list. With the introduction of software integration into the rigs, along with LSI and DSP type processors, adding additional features like AM became even less of an issue. Besides many of the earlier Ten-Tec rigs, Elecraft's first rig, K2 Transceiver (which is still being sold) is an CW/SSB only rig.
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Pete, WA2CWA - "A Cluttered Desk is a Sign of Genius"
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« Reply #10 on: June 29, 2011, 05:08:49 PM »

At one time at least, just about every ham at Ten Tec was primarily a CW op.  Which explained a lot, like for example that their rigs were all great on CW.   Lack of interest in AM may have partly been because leaving it out let them get away with light duty circuits in some areas.   Even now, running one of their SSB CW rigs on CW gets the power supply and PA heat sinks a lot hotter than I care for.  Of course some of the JA rigs just have internal heatsinks with fans on them so I may be makng too much of this.   

Interestingly they now bill themselves as "The SSB Company."   I guess someone decided CW was a dead end market.
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"Not taking crap or giving it is a pretty good lifestyle."--Frank
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