AM here I come

[kd2awj]

Hi All,

So after a few years of inactivity and/or screwing around on SSB I've decided its time to dive into AM (as believe it or not thats one of the main reasons I got into this hobby).

I have also moved which is allowing me to better setup for AM.  I have a DX60 I am working to get on the air as well as just my regular HF rig which does AM.

I was able to get an antenna which tunes up almost dead accurate on on 7290.  

I have been doing more monitoring than TX as I generally will just be able to pull some voices out of the mud.  Is there a good time for me to be listening out here on Long Island for some AM activity?  I'd love to get on and chew the rag.

Hope to be talking with all of you east coast AMers soon.

73

[KA0HCP]

Welcome!
Sounds like you are getting well set for the Fall AM season.

Activity:  40m is most active from afternoons thru the nite into morning.  80m is active from around sunset to sunrise.  There is strong East Coast and Northeast activity around the 80m AM window downward.  Attached is my personal frequency sheet of a.m. activity.

Do you need any tips on preparing your transmitter?

73, bill

[kd2awj]

Hi Bill,

Thanks I will be sure to do some more listening. I do hear the 80/75 guys here but I'm not happy with the match so I don't want to transmit until I get an antenna that will work down there. To be honest I probably will need help in some form or another with getting the transmitter up and running. I started getting it setup before I moved but then the move happened and it's just sat there packed in a box for months.   Any tips you could pass my way would be greatly appreciated.  

73

Dan

[N2DTS]

There is a lot of activity around 7290 day and night, more on weekends.
I heard people on last night and was doing some testing myself.

A DX60 is not going to put out much of a signal.
It will be ok on 40 when its open/low noise, not going to do much on 80 at night.

I tend to operate on weekends in the winter on 40, from 8 am till maybe 2:30 when the broadcast starts.
Often there are three groups from 7275 to 7290 KHz.

Unlike modern stuff, the DX 60 does not mind some swr.

[kd2awj]

Yeah.  I figured it wouldn't do much for me on 75/80 was hoping to make use of it on 40 mainly.  I will do more listening.  I have my normal Yaesu rig for AM for now.  But something about using that when i have the DX60 sitting right next to me just feels wrong. 

I have heard that about the DX60 and the SWR.  I am just a little afraid to push it with the SWR until I know I have the radio fully operational, and can get back some reports on if I am even making it out.

I will keep an ear out for you on 40.  Once the colder weather gets here I should have some more time to play around and be on air. 

[KC2TAU]

Yeah.  I figured it wouldn't do much for me on 75/80 was hoping to make use of it on 40 mainly.  I will do more listening.  I have my normal Yaesu rig for AM for now.  But something about using that when i have the DX60 sitting right next to me just feels wrong. 

I have heard that about the DX60 and the SWR.  I am just a little afraid to push it with the SWR until I know I have the radio fully operational, and can get back some reports on if I am even making it out.

I will keep an ear out for you on 40.  Once the colder weather gets here I should have some more time to play around and be on air. 

If you are able to have an antenna that resonates well on 75/80m don't hesitate saying hello with the DX60 there. I've had some great times on 75m AM with just 25-35W of carrier.

[kd2awj]

If I can get an antenna to resonate there I will definitely give it a shot.  I also find myself being hesitant to break in and say hello sometimes.  I know i shouldn't.  But years of repeater bullies getting mad at break ins or not wanting to allow others on has made me hesitant.  I need to kick that.

[WD8BIL]

Yes Dan, you need to kick that!

 The only time I won't let breakers in is when conditions don't support it. I'll do everything I can to pull weak ones out but there times when it just ain't gonna work. In those instances I'll let the weaker know what's happening and let him down easy with a sincere 73's!
 

[kd2awj]

I know I need to kick it.  And I promise I will.  I totally understand if conditions don't allow it.  No sense in straining your ears to listen to someone to barely get 25% of what they are saying.

[KA0HCP]

"Jump in, the water's fine!" 

[kd2awj]

Well I spent some time in the shack trying to get on air.  I have been rearranging the shack and trying to get everything into a position that makes the most sense.  Unfortunately I am discovering at my new house I have an extremely high noise level which I am currently trying to track down the source of. I have an idea of what is causing some noise the challenge becomes how can I avoid it. 

I fired up the DX60 last night for the first time in months.  Unfortunately I may need to open it up and see what happened.  I wasn't seeing any movement in the meter when trying to tune up the rig so i shut it down.  I do know that the rig was working earlier this year before the move so I am hoping nothing happened in the move.  But I personally packed the heck out of the box and carried it myself every where it went so I don't think that is what caused it but hey you never know.


 

[KC2TAU]

I would suggest using a shortwave radio, tune it to the frequency where the offending noise is at its peak, go to your circuit breaker, take the entire house off the grid and then start turning breakers on one by one until you hear the noise come back. This is easier if a friend is able to help you. What sort of noise are you hearing?

[kd2awj]

Well I believe I have pin pointed the main issue.  Hopefully rectifying this situation will give me a significant drop in noise.  Now the problem becomes how do i do it.  Apparently there was at one point a light in the back yard right near the window to my shack.  The light was removed when new siding was put on the house years ago.  But they never cut the hole to put the new light up.  So there has been an electrical box exposed under my siding right where the antenna feed lines are running up to the antennas on the roof that i had no idea about.  So now I have to figure out what to do about it.  Ideally I would love to just cap the box and move the feed lines but don't know how feasible that would be for me to do as i don't have many places i can run the cables out of the shack.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

It's odd you'd be getting noise from a box that isn't connected unless it's re-radiating noise from somewhere else along the same line/circuit. You could start by tracing the line backward either to the junction box where it connects to other wires or to the breaker box if it's on its own circuit. I'd suspect the former though, in which case you'll probably still have a noise problem even after the unused box line is disconnected.

BTW, don't attempt any of the electrical work yourself if you're not familiar with the requirements and dangers involved.

[N9axl]

hmmm.  You have an interesting possibility here in that you have conduit (presumably) and an electrical box that are running through the wall of your house -- and presumably are just under the siding.  If you had that line disconnected and had an access panel installed in the siding at the box location you might have a very handy location to run coax, ground cables, etc.  into your house and it would solve your electrical noise issue also. I have no idea what that would cost, but it doesn't sound like a huge project.  

[kd2awj]

I know the basics but am much more experienced with DC circuitry and don't like to get into anything too involved other than installing a light fixture, doing some work with older radios or something along those lines.  My brother is an electrician.  But he is also extremely lazy and never wants to help out so its most likely going to fall on me to make a decision.  I found out the wires are connected to a switch in the garage (its funny it had been driving me crazy to find out what the switch was for).  Its looking like my best option for getting anything done in a timely manner is going to be trying to move the feed lines.

I'd be happy if I could just get the noise level down slightly.  Especially on 40 since that is what the antenna is tuned for.  The last few days that i have been trying to listen I have had almost an S7 noise level.  But last night was terrible had a 20 over S9 noise level.

I'm thinking of just climbing up on the roof later today/tonight after work and trying to figure out a new place to bring the feed cables up.  The roof is not all that high and I can get up and down with little to no effort.

It looks like I still have a lot of work ahead of me.

As I was posting i just saw the comments from N9AXL...... Not a bad idea.  I may have to look into that as well

[KA3VID]

I know the basics but am much more experienced with DC circuitry and don't like to get into anything too involved other than installing a light fixture, doing some work with older radios or something along those lines.  My brother is an electrician.  But he is also extremely lazy and never wants to help out so its most likely going to fall on me to make a decision.  I found out the wires are connected to a switch in the garage (its funny it had been driving me crazy to find out what the switch was for).  Its looking like my best option for getting anything done in a timely manner is going to be trying to move the feed lines.

I'd be happy if I could just get the noise level down slightly.  Especially on 40 since that is what the antenna is tuned for.  The last few days that i have been trying to listen I have had almost an S7 noise level.  But last night was terrible had a 20 over S9 noise level.

I'm thinking of just climbing up on the roof later today/tonight after work and trying to figure out a new place to bring the feed cables up.  The roof is not all that high and I can get up and down with little to no effort.

It looks like I still have a lot of work ahead of me.

As I was posting i just saw the comments from N9AXL...... Not a bad idea.  I may have to look into that as well

I know your situation fer sure. Got a lame assed brother that promises to come up and help me remove the insert from my fireplace to clean my chimney and firebox etc. Can't even bribe him with beer anymore LOL......also have a flatscreen TV that kills my recieve on from 10 meters on down so anytime I wanna get on HF I have to either shut the TV off or deal with the hash and trash emmited from it.

[kd2awj]

Yeah my family in general has no desire to help me with anything radio related. They all just think it's a waste of time.

I will get to the bottom of this. With my man power and the smarts of the people around here I feel like I can get this done.

[Opcom]

No one in my family has the slightest interest in AM let alone any sort of electronics. It has never stopped me from doing what I want with AM.

[w1vtp]

Yeah my family in general has no desire to help me with anything radio related. They all just think it's a waste of time.

I will get to the bottom of this. With my man power and the smarts of the people around here I feel like I can get this done.

I have been a ham for 63 years.  Although my dad wasn't personally interested in HR, he supported me in my interest.  When I interviewed for my most lasting job at Raytheon, I was hired solely because I said I had a ham ticket.  50 years later, I retired as an engineer at Raytheon at an excellent salary and am enjoying an excellent pension.

Waste of time?  NOT FOR ME it wasn't.  It was my main means of supporting my family and I'm enjoying an excellent retirement.

Those people who think HR is a waste of time are very misinformed.  Go to an interviewer and tell him (her) that you are on Facebook Twitter and all the other social media and see how far that will get you.  Pursue you HR interest with gusto.  Not only will it be fun but it may open up wonderful opportunities in life

GL, Al

[kd2awj]

Yeah my family in general has no desire to help me with anything radio related. They all just think it's a waste of time.

I will get to the bottom of this. With my man power and the smarts of the people around here I feel like I can get this done.

I have been a ham for 63 years.  Although my dad wasn't personally interested in HR, he supported me in my interest.  When I interviewed for my most lasting job at Raytheon, I was hired solely because I said I had a ham ticket.  50 years later, I retired as an engineer at Raytheon at an excellent salary and am enjoying an excellent pension.

Waste of time?  NOT FOR ME it wasn't.  It was my main means of supporting my family and I'm enjoying an excellent retirement.

Those people who think HR is a waste of time are very misinformed.  Go to an interviewer and tell him (her) that you are on Facebook Twitter and all the other social media and see how far that will get you.  Pursue you HR interest with gusto.  Not only will it be fun but it may open up wonderful opportunities in life

GL, Al

Oh I love it.  And the fact that I had that on my resume has helped me climb the ladder here signifigantly.  I started at my company as a kid on a loading dock.  Now I am overseeing all warehousing, manufacturing and engineering for the company.  When I say my family I should exclude my father from that.  He is a ham (hes just been a tech for years) but we had a falling out and havent spoken in some time and I lost the only support I had for "playing with these radios" in my family.

Now that I have found the spark for radio again.  I don't plan on letting others get in my way.  I just need to get on the air and get all this noise nonsense taken care of.

I don't consider it a waste of time.  I just sometimes wish I was able to explain my interest in it better to some people. 

[kd2awj]

Hoping to make some significant progress on this today.  Working in the shack and on the antennas listening to 7290 all day.  Hope to finally be able hear some of you.