AM International ?

[WA3VJB]

Does anyone know what has happened to AM International ?

Not only is it missing as an update with monthly or semi-monthly appearances in Electric Radio, but there's no mention of it anywhere on here or elsewhere.

The only place I hear a reference to it regularly is W4AMI, the flagship station of the Southeastern AM Radio Club.  The club call sign, received by SAMRC founder Andy, WA4KCY, is used by the anchor station for the SE AM Swap Net on the Tuesday of the month, 3880.

But even then, there is no discussion of SE Division AMI activities.

What gives ?

AMI Board of Directors

http://hamgate.sunyerie.edu/~buffaloam/ami_board_of_directors.htm

Possible west coast reference:

    Check into the West Coast AM International Net  on 3870 KHz, Wednesday nights at 9:00PM, Pacific Time. Don't have a boatanchor? No problem! Just put your rice box into the AM mode and join the nicest crowd on the ham bands! Your crusty but huggable host is Ken, K6CJA.


 

[WB2CAU]

Paul, other than providing a nice certificate with a number, what exactly does AMI do?  I'm not aware of any issues that AMI actively addresses, nor is there a newsletter, a website, or even a scheduled net. 

I recall when Floyd Dunlop, WA5TWF (SK) took over SPAM and breathed new life into that organization.

Eric - WB2CAU - AMI #70 (I think)

[k4kyv]

I recall when Floyd Dunlop, WA5TWF (SK) took over SPAM and breathed new life into that organization.

Too bad Floyd went SK.  Remember how the guy in CA (can't recall his c/s or name now) took off running with it, but turned out to be a flash in the pan.  After just a few months of excellent performance,  he literally vanished off the face of the earth and no-one ever heard from him or SPAM again.

I suspect this website and the AM Reflector, as well as the mainstream ham radio websites, have taken over much of the function of SPAM and AMI.  The problem used to be that it was so difficult to spread the word whenever there was a threat to AM, regulatory or otherwise, due to the publication delay in the ham radio paper rags.  With the present-day internet, news of AM-related issues spreads rapidly, and usually appears even on the ARRL website and other non-AM oriented sites such as QRZ.com.  Those who don't have internet access quickly hear about it over the air if they are active at all.

Remember the ARRL LETTER?  It used to be a bi-weekly (or was it weekly?) paper newsletter that ARRL members paid extra for in order to get rapid access to ham radio news.  Ham Radio magazine also published a similar newsletter, and there was the W5YI Report.  All have now ceased publication, except for ARRL LETTER, which is accessible free online to anyone, ARRL member or not. 

The AM Press/Exchange went the same way of the other paper newsletters, but we still have Electric Radio, although it has always been shy about getting highly involved in the politics of AM or ham radio, or any issue that might be interpreted as overly controversial.

The internet also killed the ham radio classified advertisers.  Even the Ham-Ads in QST are almost insiginificant compared to a decade or more ago.  The old Ham Trader Yellow Sheets merged with a slick commercial publication called something like Ham Radio Trader, but the whole thing folded a few months later.

The entire FCC comment process has changed as well.  Remember the constant letter-writing campaigns to generate comments to the FCC back in the Docket-of-the-month days of Johhny Johnston?  To-day, the FeeCee's electronic comment filing system has made comment submission far more accessible to everyone.  Citing the anthrax scare, the Feds now actively discourage paper correspondence from the public at all levels of government. But my take is that online comments from the masses have somewhat watered down the process.  Based on the past few major issues, such as the recent restructuring dockets and Morse code proceedings, it appears that the FeeCee pays less attention to the comments, even when they show evidence of a consensus within the amateur community, and pretty much carries out what was on its agenda from the outset, regardless of what the comments said.

So what else is there for AMI to do that isn't duplicating the efforts of others, besides mailing out membership certificates with numbers?  The AMI nets have always been regional in nature, and I believe the one in the southeast has maintained the highest profile.

[Bill, KD0HG]

AMI is much like Tom Joad, Paul.

..

[K1JJ]

Why not just directly axe Dale, KW1I, the president of AMI and an AMfone MEMBER here, what's going on?

He's at:

 KW1I@Earthlink.net

T

[WA3VJB]

Tnx, Tom, I didn't know he was still running it, and the email address is new to me too.

[W2INR]

I think Don has hit the nail on the head.

In the days before the internet we needed a way to have a polling on the  Active AMERS . Spam and then AMI were a great vehicle to have a list of operators if needed for ralling the troops..

I  offer Dale and the AMI managers an AMI section here or space on this server if they want an active site..

[WA3VJB]

I've sent Dale an email asking his status, and conveying Gary's offer for updates in what would be a new section on this site.

[W3LSN]

The AM Press/Exchange went the same way of the other paper newsletters, but we still have Electric Radio, although it has always been shy about getting highly involved in the politics of AM or ham radio, or any issue that might be interpreted as overly controversial.

The internet also killed the ham radio classified advertisers. 

Don, in what year did you cease publication of the AMPX? I still have a collection of them that I thumb through from time to time. I also have some copies of the old Press Exchange published by Howie Jack W2NRM (SK) who lived not far from me in NNJ.  Sometimes I like to refresh my memory, or find the callsign of an AM-er not heard from in years. Admittedly the internet and Google are superior in digging up such information, but many websites disappear overnight while the old paper magazines continue to sit on the shelf for years. I discovered Electric Radio about a year ago and enjoy it every month.

I was involved in AM in the late-1970's and fell out of the hobby altogether around 1983 except for some occassional SWL-ing. When my interest rekindled a few years ago, I found that most of the rags I used to read had dried up and blown away or were shadows of their old selves. I for one sorely missed the Ham Trader Yellow Sheets until I discovered sites such as QTH.com. I'm still getting used to this marriage of computers, internet, and ham radio.

73, Jim
WA2AJM/3

[KL7OF]

The west coast AMI net is still being held on wednesday eves 9 pm Pacific time on 3870...Stations are mostly in Calif but there are checkins from WA, OR, ID, MT, NV, AZ, UT as well as VE5 VE6 and VE7..... There are some SSB CBer's in 5 land that delight in zero beating the net and turning up their amplifiers that have been making it very difficult the past few years but nobody seems to want to move freq...There is also some trouble finding a net control lately...I really enjoy hearing all the boatanchors, homebrews, and BC rigs and there are some interesting personalities on as well, but I have been losing interest .......

[k4kyv]

Don, in what year did you cease publication of the AMPX? I still have a collection of them that I thumb through from time to time. I also have some copies of the old Press Exchange published by Howie Jack W2NRM (SK) who lived not far from me in NNJ.  Sometimes I like to refresh my memory, or find the callsign of an AM-er not heard from in years. Admittedly the internet and Google are superior in digging up such information, but many websites disappear overnight while the old paper magazines continue to sit on the shelf for years. I discovered Electric Radio about a year ago and enjoy it every month.

As I recall it was sometime in the late 1990's.  I would have to look up some of the old issues to say exactly what year and month..