AWA AM QSO Party, so how ?

[WA3VJB]

So how did you find the bands Saturday night into Sunday.

One 75m by 0230 GMT I could barely hear Bob W2ZM and the AWA flagship station W2AN, yet the stations they were working were quite strong, predominantly 9-land, with a few 4s.

Scranton's noisemaker fired up on top of both operators for a while, testing, blowing into the microphone, etc.

160m by contrast was quite good, with Fran W3SCC at Hagerstown, Joe N3IBX, Terry N4RQ and a few others quite strong.

Nothing heard on 40m from 0200 - 0330 when I closed down.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

On 75M, ZM was weak into this location most of the evening/early morning. EGC was in there but also very weak. 9' and Ø's were much stronger. Think I only heard a single 1 land station. 4's were in there but also not strong. Heard no activity on 40M. 160M definitely had better conditions to the Northeast and Middle Atlantic stations.

[KL7OF]

20 M was good from east to west and north to south..Starting at 0000Z (4PM local) I worked/heard the East coast, Jim at the James Millen Flagship station was in there as well as Calif/Ariz and worked W1LYD Brian in Carcross Yukon.  The 20 M activity was over shortly after the sun went down.75 M after supper was spotty for AM until around 0400 Z and then the East started to come in..as well as all our midwest favorites and Calif..  I gave it up early around 10 PM local...I will be on 20 This morning-afternoon with the HB 100TH rig looking for stations....

    A side note to the Sat 20M activity......I worked 5 stations on 20 M AM that were guys with rice boxes that heard the AM activity and punched the AM button and got on.........3 of them had NEVER worked AM before and one was an old timer that fondly remembered the AM days and said he was going to get the boat anchor out of the basement..  Fun stuff..

[KR4WI]

Very Good conditions here, I heard ZM Bob, good and I also heard w2an good, I heard they may had problems though. I heard scranton also, I heard him on ssb in the window the other nite also. I would say Bob W2ZM had a very good time, he was working everybody, even me on ranger ll. Matthew KR4WI

[Herb K2VH]

I guess I was on at dfifferent times from most of you.  I got on 3885 from 0100 till 0200 this morning, and  worked coast to coast and everything in between. including W1HRX, Flagship station in Arizona.

Then at 0830, I got into the AM Carrier Net, and worked a bunch of east coast guys there on 3835.

That was followed by getting on 40, and running up and down between 7295 and 7280.  Lots of guys there, including W2AN on the rejuvenated BC-610E--the other flagship station.  Also, WA4IAM--Gary, in N. Ca.

This afternoon I spent about an hour on 14.286, working Brian in the Yukon. Steve in Tum Tum, and lots of midwesterners: generally coast to coast again.  Sort of like 75 at 0100.

Closer in, Tim Tron was busy up at Monticello, and Pies for You was running KC2IFR's station.  Bob, W2ZM was everywhere!  I'll be back on at 1600 to call into the AWA SUnday PM AM Net, hosted by W2AN at the AWA.  Used the homebrew 250TL and the BC-610E.  Great fun!

As they say, Good Luck in the Contest -- Hi Hi -- Fine Business -- Pse QSL.

vH

[WA3VJB]

40M Sunday was great from 1700-1900 GMT.
I was up at 7295 (egad ! that is so high !) having a casual chat, and by the time we finished I had worked 6 check-ins looking for AWA contacts. I heard but did not have the good fortune to work Gary WA4IAM who was down around 7285. He deserves kudos for excellent promotion and organization of the AM QSO Party.

One special kick -- worked K1DC,  a guy on a 1939 Collins 30FX at about 20 watts on 40 meters. Grid modulated, sounded great, excellent signal !




Looking forward to next year.

Checking now into the AWA PM AM net ... Herb can you hear me over over

5:04PM

[Herb K2VH]

Negatory, Paul.  I don't hear you.  Would you believe that I shut down at exactly 1704??!!  By that time the official net was over, and just a few stragglers were picking up a few points.  Did you know that the net starts now at 1600, rather than 1630?  Maybe you got in there for the straglers.  Oh well.  I'll QSL you for this contact if you like 

vH

[Gary - WA4IAM]

Wow, what a show! Saturday night I stood in line at the start of the QSO Party to finally work W2AN on 75m, at the same time listening to 20m on my FT-920 and hearing Jim running W1HRX right before that band died. I spent the rest of the evening hanging out around 3875 kHz or so with Joe W3GMS and working all the stations his big signal attracted to the frequency. Lots of fun! After roaming around the band after midnight ET I happened upon Bob W2ZM running the midwest and west coast stations. I heard all of them, but most of them couldn't hear the 30 watts from my Millen xmiter. Right in the middle of it what does Bob do? He goes off frequency to work a few Europeans on a 75 meter split! Ya gotta love it. With Bob's help I did manage to work W1HRX on 75 meters, a bit of a coup for the 30 watter and a 160 loop only 25 feet off the ground! After that I called it a night (1am ET).

 Sunday morning starting at 8:30am it was full tilt on 40 meters down here with great signals all around. Linked back up with Joe W3GMS and let him draw the QSOs in again. He ran a great list for hours. Managed to hit Texas and Kansas while the band was still long. The pipeline from NC to MI, MN and WI was in evidence all morning. I was really disappointed that I didn't manage to contact you Paul WA3VJB, as I wanted to thank you for all your support for the event. Didn't swing into action on 20 meters until the BC stations started creeping onto 40 meters by mid afternoon. Since I couldn't get the Millen to load up on 20 I used the 25 watts out on my FT-920 and my 5 band Hexbeam. Managed nine QSOs there, the last contact being Jim running W1HRX. I heard faintly Bob W2ZM being the channel master on 20 working everybody (except me, too close) using his Continental transmitter.  About 5:45 pm ET ended the AM QSO Party back on 75 meters running stations again with Joe W3GMS.

All in all conditions were pretty good down here, making for a very enjoyable AM QSO Party for me.

I'd like to again thank Paul WA3VJB for all the support you've given to the event, plus many thanks to Paul K2ORC and Gary W2INR for their support as well. A note of thanks goes to Ray Osterwald N0DMS too for his support in the pages of Electric Radio. Ed Gable K2MP, Dave Payne KA2J and the crew at the AWA Museum station W2AN should be applauded for a job well done, as well as Jim Hanlon W8KGI and "Doc" Khalsa K7SO for running W1HRX from NM. Great job guys!! I also want to thank all those who took the time to participate in the AWA AM QSO Party. YOU are the main reason this AM QSO Party has turned out to be so much fun!

Next year guys WE ADD 160 METERS! Get those converted broadcast transmitters ready! (That includes me!) 

73, Gary - WA4IAM

[ve6pg]

..ABT 8PM LOCAL TIME,(EST),WERKED W2AN,3885,VERY STRONG HERE IN TORONTO...AFTER A BIT,HE FADED,BUT I WAS HEARING MID-WEST STATIONS VERY WELL TO ABT 9:30PM...HERD W9AD VERY STRONG,WAS INTERESTING HEARING ALL THE GUYS CALLING W2AN,BUT NOTHING WIYIN 800 MILES...SK..

[wa9wfa]

That was an incredible experience, definatly one of the high points in ham radio this year!

I started out on 75 meters Saturday evening with the Valiant and NC-300.  I worked a few guys and then got hooked for the next 30-45 minutes trying to work W2AN    I finally snagged them and talked with Dave for a few minutes. That was fun knowing Dave was using Jim Millens homebrew transmitter and personal HRO.  I made some more individual contacts before hooking up with a big roundtable including Gary WA4IAM, Don N9OO, Bob N9HAL, and others.  This group chit chatted for a long while and it was a pleasure to sit in with them. 

Sunday I worked 20 meters with the Valiant and 75A-4 this time.  Once the band got going, it was jammed full of AM signals from 14275 to 14295.  It was fun to hear all that activity.  I worked several individual stations before getting into a roundtable with Bob W2ZM and Herb K2VH.  Bob and Herb were big signals on the band.  Bob said I was pounding his S-meter 60/S9 and was stronger than Herb    I think he said that just to tease Herb. 

I was just saying 73 to a station, and mentioning that I was still hunting for W1HRX, hadn't heard him, running out of time, yada, yada, yada.  When I let up on the PTT, W1HRX started calling me.  Wow, I've never had the rare station calling me!!  It was fun meeting and talking with Jim Hanlon running W1HRX.

I made a few more 20 meter qso's before calling it a day.  I haven't added up my QSO list but I might have made 15-20 QSO's.  It was a wonderful time.

I think the simplified rules and the QSO Party being open to all comers really hotrodded the event and bought out alot of participants!  Everyone I heard was being polite and tolerant as there were alot of overlapping QSO's going on.  Some folks were working the points part of the contest really hard, while others were chit chatting for a bit before finding another QSO.  I enjoyed all the great AM QSO's, running into old friends, meeting new friends. 

Thanks Gary, AWA, Ed and Dave at W2AN, Jim running W1HRX, and the folks helping with the QSO Party.  It was a wonderful time.