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Author Topic: 5-11-14 Mothers Day Big Band Opening 50.4 AM DX!!  (Read 8356 times)
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W8ASI
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« on: May 14, 2014, 03:52:40 AM »

On mothers day, 5-11-14 the band opened up big time around 12pm EST and made about 30 SSB contacts. I am in EN82 (Detroit Michigan suburbs) I heard everything from florida to California and Chile and Argentina (9000 KM away).  It was the biggest band opening I can remember in years. I CQ'ed atleast over 100 times on 50.400 AM throughout the day with no response, as the rest of the band was fully LIT UP!!  Then around 8pm I was sitting listening to 50.400AM on my RCI 5054-DX100 and all of a sudden I heard some AM DX signals magically come in! I heard (the loudest) W5VB and W4KVW (using SR-46) coming in along with some others. I made contact with them and it was a RUSH!  Afterwards, I also logged onto the KD8UZJ 50.400 AM Echolink Node and worked these same stations using my smartphone! The AM DX sounded clean and clear through my phone using the echolink node station antenna setup, thought that was really cool to work real live rare AM DX on my phone which was different.

Hope we get more band openings this year like we had on mothers day! That was the funnest day of radio I have had in many years!!!


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Ed WA4NJY
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« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2014, 06:16:04 AM »


 That was a fun day on 6 AM.  I called you several times but you must have heard stronger signals.

There was a guy running less than 2 watts with a Heathkit Sixer that for a while was over S9 here.

Running an ICOM 746PRO and Moxon at 25 feet here.  Not the best AM transmitter, but will do until something better comes available.  Any suggestions?

Ed WA4NJY
Bradenton, Fl
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W8ASI
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« Reply #2 on: May 21, 2014, 12:19:05 PM »

I had a pileup of heterodyne signals coming in that day and most of the signals were low, at the noise level or so. The other problem is many peoples modulation was too low and not enough to be heard at or over the noise level. If they ran a D104 or such then we would have been in business but I heard nothing but low level style modulation with no punch whatsoever. Mostly everyone was on a Icom/Kenwood/Yaesu radio however I did hear a Sr46 but it sounded pretty bland on the air, probably using stock mic. I was told by others that I was heard loud and clear but I could not hear everyone coming back to me as they were all jumbled up together. 

Keep listening and patience is key! It seems this year might be a good year for 6M AM, as previous years were terrible on this end.  I work the SSB freqs as well and bring people up and over to finish the QSO over and out on 50.4 AM to see how that propagates.

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Pete, WA2CWA
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« Reply #3 on: May 21, 2014, 02:23:24 PM »

I had a pileup of heterodyne signals coming in that day and most of the signals were low, at the noise level or so. The other problem is many peoples modulation was too low and not enough to be heard at or over the noise level. If they ran a D104 or such then we would have been in business but I heard nothing but low level style modulation with no punch whatsoever. Mostly everyone was on a Icom/Kenwood/Yaesu radio however I did hear a Sr46 but it sounded pretty bland on the air, probably using stock mic. I was told by others that I was heard loud and clear but I could not hear everyone coming back to me as they were all jumbled up together. 

Keep listening and patience is key! It seems this year might be a good year for 6M AM, as previous years were terrible on this end.  I work the SSB freqs as well and bring people up and over to finish the QSO over and out on 50.4 AM to see how that propagates.

Obviously, that's the problem when everyone tries to operate on one frequency. I very rarely, when the band is open, call CQ on 50.4. I generally move up or down 10, 20, or 30 KHz either side of 50.4 and sometimes even more. I've even caught some good AM QSO's on or around 50.2. Everyone sitting and operating on 50.4 generally become counterproductive when the band is open.
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Pete, WA2CWA - "A Cluttered Desk is a Sign of Genius"
W8ASI
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« Reply #4 on: May 22, 2014, 07:19:49 AM »

I agree with you peter.   However I only CQ when the channel is clear, if there is activity I try to make direct contact for quick contact if that's the case or move up 20-50khz to have sustained QSO, which usually draws people out of the woodwork.  That good band opening day, the pileup appeared literally out of nowhere. One minute the frequency was dead and the next I had probably 20-25 signals with low modulation all bunched together.  If they all didn't have the same signal and  such low modulation I would have been able to discern some of the signals over each other. 
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