AM Rally is rocking!

[K3FEF]

W1AW is on 1945 KHz and the ladies are on 3885 KHz.  Lots of fun here!

[N1BCG]

Ladies Night is on W1AW 3885!

[WA2SQQ]

Looking forward to day 2. 20m AM was rocking, even worked some DX! Even more surprising, in the slope bucketeers on 20 weren’t complaining.

[K4EMF]

I've heard several AM stations but none were strong enough for an exchange let alone a conversation.   I've called CQ on 80m and 40m with no replies.  I'm beginning to wonder if I'm doing something wrong.

[kb3ouk]

I've heard it mentioned a couple times on the air this weekend, and I've run into it myself several times, but there seems to be a few stations that are all mouth and no ears, they're booming in but seem to be having receive issues. Not to mention that the band is in really poor shape, especially 40 for local work, long distance regional coverage is much better, i was hearing far south 4 land calls great, but anything within a couple hundred miles isnt there.

[K1JJ]

I've heard several AM stations but none were strong enough for an exchange let alone a conversation.   I've called CQ on 80m and 40m with no replies.  I'm beginning to wonder if I'm doing something wrong.

When things quiet down, tell us what you are running for a rig and we can go into details on improvements if you like.

I've found that during active "contest" conditions, stations in general are at least 10-15 DB more deaf than usual, mainly due to the congestion of combined noise and more stations. I've seen it down in the "DX Window" on 75M which is very similar to the "AM Window" in action.  We all like to cluster together and this is the result. The solution is to spread out but I heard little 75M rally activity outside of 3870 to 3890 the last two days.

We genally see the 75M so called "AM Window" change character as the conditions change. Earlier in the day stations are spaced about 10 KHz and mellow. Then later 7 KHz spacing. Then 5KHz at 3870, 3875, 3880 and 3885 with difficulty hearing at times.  Finally, the band opens up and there is bedlam as the skip opens with no spacing at all... :-)  At this time I just take a break and let it all work out until it quiets down again.

After thinking about this, I have decided to do my part to manage my own bandwidth and later help others to do the same. I plan to build up THREE four-pole lowpass (low level) audio filters for my transmitters. I won't go into much detail now, but 4.5 KHZ, 5.70 KHz and 7.5 KHz will be the LP filter bandwidths.  (That's 4.5 KHz per sideband or 9KHz overall) Each filter gets switched in at the appropriate time based on band congestion.

The 4.5 KHz filter will allow for 5 KHz station spacing, the 5.7 KHz for general use and the 7.5 KHZ for quiet band conditions or 10 KHz spacing.  Frank/GFZ has a design and board he is working on and I will post a thread on this as we get closer to a final design. I tested a similar design last week and it rolled off like it hit a brick wall at the design freq.  :-)

DYNAMIC AM bandwidth management  based on exisiting conditions is what it's all about. You will hear me running 4.5KHz more often in the future when things get congested with 5 KHz spacing (like this weekend) and 5.7KHz most of the time.

* All of the above assumes the transmitter is inherently clean, passing various tone tests -  with low intermodulation distortion (IMD) and the negative peaks limited to ~ -95%, etc...

** BTW, I would call the AM Rally a tremendous success! MANY, many new stations on AM. Very little ssb complaining. The ARRL sanction and on-air presence was excellent. Thanks to all behind the scenes and stations that participated. Consider sending an email to the ARRL brass telling them we appreciate their support and that we will continue to support them via membership. (or plan to join)   Money talks.

Tom, K1JJ

[n4joy]

I've heard it mentioned a couple times on the air this weekend, and I've run into it myself several times, but there seems to be a few stations that are all mouth and no ears, they're booming in but seem to be having receive issues. Not to mention that the band is in really poor shape, especially 40 for local work, long distance regional coverage is much better, i was hearing far south 4 land calls great, but anything within a couple hundred miles isnt there.

That has been my observation as well.  Some stations ought to be working on their receiver rather than their legal limit amps putting out hundreds of watts of carrier.  Nevertheless, I have done well today with my 25-30 watt carrier.  Six meters is, as always, absolutely dead.  I heard a beacon on six and called CQ for almost an hour via my three element beam and 40 watts but no response.

[AJ1G]

BRAVO ZULU (Navy shorthand for WELL DONE) to all of the gang up at W1AW for an outstanding effort in promoting AM operation this weekend during the AM rally!  The pileups were incredible but you all did a great job of digging folks out of the cacophony!  

And a special thank you for pulling out my PW AJ1G/Mobile signal.  I have been regularly working into Europe from the mobile down in the 3790-3800 KHz SSB window lately, and have even worked Peter, VK6APZ in Western Australia there on both short and long path a few times in the last few weeks.  However, my hardest to complete mobile QSO ever was trying to get through to W1AW this weekend!  I tried for up to an hour at a time several times between yesterday and today.  There appeared to be a persistent propagation black hole between Newington and SE CT all weekend, the band sounded long the whole time in the mobile, W1AW was weak and full of selective fading the whole time, I must have been to close in. Murphy even got involved at one point when I finally was heard, only to have the QSO blown away when wife Diane called my cell phone and the incoming call dumped the 7100 receive audio being fed into the vehicle stereo system! Recommend that next time, calls for mobiles and QRP stations only be put out once in a while, perhaps on the Qs, quarter after and quarter of the hour (Q for QRP).  

And I need to apologize for my poor audio during my W1AW QSO from the home station
Sunday morning, and those I worked for about an hour afterwards on 3865 with the Central Electronics 20A exciter and 600L amplifier.  Eventually, WB2RON called me and asked me where my upper side band was.  A very embarrassing operator error that must admit I have made more than once with the 20A, I zero beat the station to be worked, cranked up the carrier level, but forgot to put the mode switch in AM after a previous session of SSB ops, so I was subjecting everyone to what the military called AME, for AM Equivalent.  Single sideband with injected carrier, it is in fact far from equivalent!  Mea culpa!  I’ll be sure to send in a QSL card to you at the lab Bob, WB1GCM, I have been thinking of making up some new cards with this picture of the mobile taken a few weeks ago down on Stonington Point

73 de Chris, AJ1G Stonington CT

[N1BCG]

Scenes of the AM Rally at the ARRL Laboratory in Newington, CT

(Attached below)

[steve_qix]

I operated W1AW on Saturday afternoon for a while, and operated from my home station as well.

What happens (particularly from W1AW) is that literally 20 stations will all call at once, and so only the strongest (or most strategic) stations get heard.  I picked out a LOT of lower power stations and from far away because they would wait for the pile up to subside, and THEN throw their calls in.

[N1BCG]

More!

1) "Ladies Night at W1AW" with the expected bedazzled op pileups. Kerri KC2UFU, Stephanie WX3K, Tanya W3TKP, and Lisa KB3WFV/YL with the Gates BC1T and Flex 6500 receiver.

2) Bob Allison, ARRL Asst. Lab Manager operates a K7DYY AM transmitter and classic Collins 75A4 receiver on 40M.

We have TONS of pics and videos, including a tour of the ARRL Laboratory, RF-proof product testing screen room, and an incredible radio museum, but it's going to take a bit to sort through everything... STAND BY!

And, a H-U-G-E THANK YOU to our host Bob Allison WB1GCM and the ARRL for hosting us yet AGAIN (and encouraging the ladies to take over on Saturday night)! So much fun!

[W1DAN]

Folks:

Due to having to work this weekend, I was only able to listen for about 5-minutes Friday evening. VERY active!

A BIG thank you to Bob Allison for making W1AW so prominent, and leading the pileups. Thanks to all who took the time to warm up their filaments.

Good to hear such activity on AM!!

73,
Dan
W1DAN

[WA1LGQ]

And not to forget that the lab operation on 160M was with the Joe Walsh donated NC-303 and Valiant combination. The 6M and 20M operations were on a ICOM 756PRO3, 2M AM on a ICOM 746Pro. A very fun event, thanks to all for the AM mode promotion. Many "first time on AM" comments were heard and dusting off of dormant old rigs comments heard. And a wide variety of rigs on the air. I worked Mark, KI0PF on 40, he was using an HP8640 signal generator driving an amplifier as a transmitter!
Bigger and better next year!.......Larry

[KD1SH]

Hey, Larry, sorry I missed you guys on 2m AM!  If I'd have known there was 2m operation I'd have been there.  The AM Rally home-page only says HF -6 meters.  Steve?  Clark?  If we're doing 2m AM, I'll be there next time.  Anyone for 432mhz AM?

And not to forget that the lab operation on 160M was with the Joe Walsh donated NC-303 and Valiant combination. The 6M and 20M operations were on a ICOM 756PRO3, 2M AM on a ICOM 746Pro. A very fun event, thanks to all for the AM mode promotion. Many "first time on AM" comments were heard and dusting off of dormant old rigs comments heard. And a wide variety of rigs on the air. I worked Mark, KI0PF on 40, he was using an HP8640 signal generator driving an amplifier as a transmitter!
Bigger and better next year!.......Larry

[AG5UM]

Just chiming in on how great the AM Rally 2020 was! Tubes,Tubes and more Tubes!
Hearing all the Heathkits,Johnsons,Gates, collins, Military,etc. etc. West Coast to the East coast, it was fantastic.
160,75 and 40 meters were great. and looking up some of the operators on QRZ, what collections and
Vintage Tube stations some of these people have, and what a privilege it was to hear them On-The-Air,
Thank You!!! to everyone that put an AM Tube signal on the air!!
73's
AG5UM
PS.. there are more Vintage AM Radios/Listeners,collectors, AM SWL's, than Hams, When We put out an AM signal,
       we are providing something to hear on a vintage set for those that don't have a transmit license.
        Thanks to all, Keep hittin the Ether with those Tube AM radio beams..