USE IT OR LOSE IT!!!!

[WBear2GCR]

USE IT OR LOSE IT!!!

I am referring to the paucity of QSOs, here in the NE USA, especially on 75m.

Similarly, the activity on this forum has really reduced substantially from years past, although
that can not be attributed to "band conditions".

Just one example, I hear 30+ stations check into the "Lonely Guys" net, and most are
not heard from after the net or any other time... what's up with that??

Lately, a regularly meeting SSB group has camped at 3875 every evening...
...a decade ago that would have never happened.

The excuse of avoiding certain types of QSO topics, that is thin. Frankly, that is why
we have VFOs... use another frequency, call CQ, make a sked!

Yes, band conditions daytime are pretty pathetic. Not early AM, and not evenings/nights.
AND, the bands will still support relatively local, <100miles, QSOs most days...

Yes, there has been attrition... that still doesn't really explain the lack of verve and
desire to just get on the air. To quote BB King here, "...the thrill is gone..."? Is it really?

Now, right here in this forum, most likely the folks who will post up on this topic, those are
the same folks who are posting in general. (which is fine)  Where are the others, where are the lurkers??

Why aren't they posting?
Why aren't they on the air??

URGE your fellow hams to GET ON THE AIR!!

USE IT OR LOSE IT!!

(...this has been a public service message from WBear2GCR, smAlbany, hippity hippity hop)

[Detroit47]

I quit post8ng I don't feel welcome.

N8QPC

[Sam KS2AM]

I quit post8ng I don't feel welcome.
N8QPC

Gabba gabba, we accept you, we accept you, one of us!

[WBear2GCR]

I quit post8ng I don't feel welcome.

N8QPC

Guess that is up to you... and how you present yourself in writing...

My post was mostly about getting on the air.

[KA3EKH]

Don?t know brother, no shortage of people on 3885 AM around here. And 7290 been popular. Got some friends that we get together on Saturdays on 7296 USB with all of us running old military SSB rigs and have had people come on and complain about us interfering with AM activity, also do old 850 Hz teletype on 7087 and no shortage of people who transmit digital right on top of us. Looking at twenty meters looks like there are groups and nets that have every three KHz staked out as their own domain. Last couple years been on seventeen meters a lot being that?s about the only place where you can go and no one gets offend.
If anything, maybe its not that people don?t want to operate but don?t want to put up with being told that the XYZ Net or what ever is here and go away and don?t interfere with our operation.
Its only my opinion, and that?s all but I always thought of seventy-five-meter AM as being a somewhat ?rough and tumble? place with lots of high-power stations that will often make long drawn-out transmissions as to discourage anyone who is not part of the club from taking part. Done lots of AM on forty and one sixty, lots of SSB and now days vintage wide shift teletype but I just don?t feel 3885 is an inviting place. Oddly have done several low power QSO on 3885 playing around with low power WW2 AM stuff but that?s always during the daytime.
So maybe if its not fun anymore people stop doing it? Maybe the same with posting stuff around here?

[Pete, WA2CWA]

ANYONE KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?

[KD1SH]

  Around here (East Coast) 3873 and 3885 are very active pretty much every evening. I will admit that I don't get on nearly as often as I should, mostly because it always seems that I've got other stuff going on during peak operating hours. The Lonely Guys is a great net, but I haven't made an appearance there for a couple of years, only because my Saturday morning schedule changed when I retired, and I'm usually out running errands at that time. I'm on the AM Carrier net pretty much every Sunday morning.
  I try to post here somewhat often. While I'm certainly not among the more knowledgeable members of the forum, if by asking a question I can initiate some dialogue that might educate or inspire, I'm happy to contribute when I can. I've only been into AM since 2018, but this forum has been a priceless resource.

[kb3ouk]

Apparently activity on 75 meters dries up after 6 pm eastern, because I've gotten on and called cq repeatedly several times here and there over the winter and rarely get a response. And to add, tuning around I've been hearing more activity on 160 and 40 than 75 most evenings. Part of that I almost certainly have to contribute to a particular few 1 and 2-landers that like to go on and on about a particular set of topics over and over and that also start total war against any sideband station that dare wander within 10 khz of them. It tends to drive people away, especially when their own signals wipe out at least 10 khz or more on either side of 3885 or whatever frequency they set up camp on.

[Opcom]

I've been off the air because the dipole wire broke. I would also like to try VHF and UHF with a discone, but someone has to climb the tower and put it up. I am no longer fit for that work. That is why I am not on the air.

I'll try to stop by here more often.

[KA3EKH]

Don't know why my punctuation gets all wonky! Must be something I did, go figure. Tend to write in a word document then cut in past on the composition window in the browser. This was written in the browser directly.
Wanted to try the modify function! and comment that I'm sixty five but still can do some antenna work, think Patrick can too. The best way to get more activity on the bands is to get out there and get on the bands.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Don't know why my punctuation gets all wonky! Must be something I did, go figure. Tend to write in a word document then cut in past on the composition window in the browser. This was written in the browser directly.
Wanted to try the modify function! and comment that I'm sixty five but still can do some antenna work, think Patrick can too. The best way to get more activity on the bands is to get out there and get on the bands.

Long winded paragraphs and sentences can get boring and readers lose interest.
Your second sentence is 4 lines long.

Don?t know brother, no shortage of people on 3885 AM around here. And 7290 been popular. Got some friends that we get together on Saturdays on 7296 USB with all of us running old military SSB rigs and have had people come on and complain about us interfering with AM activity, also do old 850 Hz teletype on 7087 and no shortage of people who transmit digital right on top of us. Looking at twenty meters looks like there are groups and nets that have every three KHz staked out as their own domain. Last couple years been on seventeen meters a lot being that?s about the only place where you can go and no one gets offend.
If anything, maybe its not that people don?t want to operate but don?t want to put up with being told that the XYZ Net or what ever is here and go away and don?t interfere with our operation.
Its only my opinion, and that?s all but I always thought of seventy-five-meter AM as being a somewhat ?rough and tumble? place with lots of high-power stations that will often make long drawn-out transmissions as to discourage anyone who is not part of the club from taking part. Done lots of AM on forty and one sixty, lots of SSB and now days vintage wide shift teletype but I just don?t feel 3885 is an inviting place. Oddly have done several low power QSO on 3885 playing around with low power WW2 AM stuff but that?s always during the daytime.
So maybe if its not fun anymore people stop doing it? Maybe the same with posting stuff around here?

EXAMPLE - didn't correct some of the grammar. For many, the sentence breakup into similar paragraphs can make it easier to read and more interesting.

Don't know brother, no shortage of people on 3885 AM around here. And 7290 been popular. Got some friends that we get together on Saturdays on 7296 USB with all of us running old military SSB rigs and have had people come on and complain about us interfering with AM activity. Also do old 850 Hz teletype on 7087 and no shortage of people who transmit digital right on top of us.

Looking at twenty meters looks like there are groups and nets that have every three KHz staked out as their own domain. Last couple years been on seventeen meters a lot being that's about the only place where you can go and no one gets offended.

If anything, maybe its not that people don't want to operate but don't want to put up with being told that the XYZ Net or what ever is here and go away and don't interfere with our operation.

Its only my opinion, and that's all but I always thought of seventy-five-meter AM as being a somewhat "rough and tumble" place with lots of high-power stations that will often make long drawn-out transmissions as to discourage anyone who is not part of the club from taking part.

Done lots of AM on forty and one sixty, lots of SSB and now days vintage wide shift teletype but I just don't feel 3885 is an inviting place. Oddly have done several low power QSO on 3885 playing around with low power WW2 AM stuff but that's always during the daytime.

So maybe if its not fun anymore people stop doing it. Maybe the same with posting stuff around here.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

In Bear's initial post, all of his points stand out due to the way he structured the text. Easy to read, easy to follow, and no points are lost in the delivery.


A quote from an unknown source: "rambling text sucks, difficult to follow, long rambling paragraphs also suck, if you lose your reading spot for whatever reason, you generally have to go back and start at the beginning"

[w8khk]

In Bear's initial post, all of his points stand out due to the way he structured the text. Easy to read, easy to follow, and no points are lost in the delivery.


A quote from an unknown source: "rambling text sucks, difficult to follow, long rambling paragraphs also suck, if you lose your reading spot for whatever reason, you generally have to go back and start at the beginning"

Those are very good points, Pete, and that simple attention to detail makes  the forum much more pleasurable and valuable to all members.  It is so much easier to locate something you read previously if the post is organized in a few paragraphs. 

And as my English professor said quite often, "run-on sentences often accidentally result in "dangling participles", which are in bad form indeed.  One should never be seen with his participle dangling out. 

Is it remotely possible that the inability to modify is caused because the modifier is in search of a word to modify?  Maybe the Grammar Police AI is lurking behind the scenes on AMfone.  Just thinking out loud....

[KD1SH]

A Roman Centurion walks up to the bar and says, "I'll have a martinus."
"Martinus?" the bartender asks, "Don't you mean martini?"
The Centurion replies, "If I'd wanted more than one, I would have ordered more than one!"
(Latin grammar joke)

In Bear's initial post, all of his points stand out due to the way he structured the text. Easy to read, easy to follow, and no points are lost in the delivery.


A quote from an unknown source: "rambling text sucks, difficult to follow, long rambling paragraphs also suck, if you lose your reading spot for whatever reason, you generally have to go back and start at the beginning"

Those are very good points, Pete, and that simple attention to detail makes  the forum much more pleasurable and valuable to all members.  It is so much easier to locate something you read previously if the post is organized in a few paragraphs. 

And as my English professor said quite often, "run-on sentences often accidentally result in "dangling participles", which are in bad form indeed.  One should never be seen with his participle dangling out. 

Is it remotely possible that the inability to modify is caused because the modifier is in search of a word to modify?  Maybe the Grammar Police AI is lurking behind the scenes on AMfone.  Just thinking out loud....

[Sam KS2AM]

A Roman Centurion walks up to the bar and says, "I'll have a martinus."
"Martinus?" the bartender asks, "Don't you mean martini?"
The Centurion replies, "If I'd wanted more than one, I would have ordered more than one!"
(Latin grammar joke)

Romanes eunt domus

Romani ite domum

[Pete, WA2CWA]

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Martinus >> Roman god of war &  Martini

[KA3EKH]

Cool, so that?s how it is. Bad Grammar and long winded sentences. Like being back in fifth grade again. Imagine I am somewhere between a C minus or D pulse?

[KD1SH]

   When passing judgment on someone, a lot depends on the aspirations, goals, and possibly pretenses of the person being judged. Consider our experiences here on AM amateur radio: if someone on frequency asks the familiar question, "how's my audio?" and that person is running a stock ART-13, he should be entirely satisfied with a "your audio is communications quality" reply. That stock rig is doing exactly what it was designed to do, and the operator is making no pretense about having high-fidelity audio. On the other hand, if the operator asks that same question after proudly announcing that he's running a converted broadcast transmitter with a rack of expensive studio audio gear, he'll be judged by an entirely different set of standards.
   Grammatical judgments can be like that, too. During a fortunately brief stint in IT, in big office buildings, I had to communicate regularly with executive types via Microsoft Outlook. Now, I'm not a grammar major, just a guy who spends lots of time both reading and writing and has an inordinate love of the English language, yet I was stunned by the grammatical ineptitude of so many of those supposedly "educated" suit-wearing office-dwellers. These guys had Master's Degrees in Business Administration but wrote like grade-school kids! I judged them harshly, and they deserved it; those with less lofty aspirations I will judge less harshly.

Cool, so that?s how it is. Bad Grammar and long winded sentences. Like being back in fifth grade again. Imagine I am somewhere between a C minus or D pulse?

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Cool, so that?s how it is. Bad Grammar and long winded sentences. Like being back in fifth grade again. Imagine I am somewhere between a C minus or D pulse?

From my experience, it's an observation and opinion. How one chooses to convey their thoughts in print is all up to them.

[W3SLK]

WA2CWA said:

ANYONE KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?

Ok, I'll bite. Beef jerky time? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnHBrocELP4

[Steve - K4HX]

Let me get back to the point about 3875, the ack of activity and/or the dreaded evil sidewinders taking "our" frequency. Several decades ago, 3885 was the AM frequency and little or no AM was heard on 3875, with the exception of Uncle Willy on Sunday afternoons. Things change over time. We all have VFOs. There are tons of empty frequencies on 80/75 meters at night. No need to worry about just one.

[KD1SH]

   The bottom line is that Bear's point is a good one: keeping the frequencies active is crucial. As with many hobby activities, it's easy to get caught up in cogitating about the hobby and talking about the hobby and working on all the associated hardware and such, but then neglecting to actually employ all that nifty hardware. The toys themselves become the hobby. I can think of one local who builds some truly outstanding rigs, obviously at considerable expense in time and funds, but is very rarely heard on the air. I'm as guilty as anyone; I find myself expending great amounts of time planning new projects, working on current ones, and acquiring parts for them all, but then when prime operating time comes around, I'm busy doing something else.

Let me get back to the point about 3875, the ack of activity and/or the dreaded evil sidewinders taking "our" frequency. Several decades ago, 3885 was the AM frequency and little or no AM was heard on 3875, with the exception of Uncle Willy on Sunday afternoons. Things change over time. We all have VFOs. There are tons of empty frequencies on 80/75 meters at night. No need to worry about just one.

[KA3EKH]

Get out there and get active Bro! lots of other places to do AM besides 3885, you got 7290, 7160 and 1885 and always people who are happy to talk there. I have been working on a couple SCR-284 radios and tend to keep them on 3885 and last night when I was in the shop there were several stations on. Already stated my feelings about eighty meters so will say again that if it ant fun why do it, holds true for radio and online. But a lot of satisfaction can be gained from doing a QSO over what you spend so much time on.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

From what I remember, there's been a group meeting on 3875 using SSB since the 70's. I recall a nine land amateur who use to drive to a large parking lot, string up an antenna, and participate "fixed mobile" in the 3875 SSB activities.

As far as operating AM on the bands, don't restrict yourself to one defined frequency. You can operate AM (AM is a phone mode) anywhere your license allows you to operate the phone mode. It makes no sense to define one frequency and lock yourself in a pen.

The big knob on the receiver allows you to tune around the band. The big knob on the transmitter or VFO allows you to move your transmitted frequency around.

Although the notation of "calling CQ" in any mode seems to have gone out of vogue in the 21st century, it still works quite well for getting contacts.

I've noticed, especially on 75 meter AM, instead of CQ, that some amateurs now just key the transmitter and randomly engage in mindless rambling for "x" minutes and then drop the carrier to see who they have sucked in.