40 Meter Sunday Fun

After a couple weeks away from the re-discovered fun of AM, I decided to devote Sunday morning/early afternoon to some AMing, figuring I'd be lucky to get a couple hours out of it if the band cooperated. Imagine my surprise to work the band from late morning (10:30/11AM) until 5PM !

There were some lulls in activity, which lead me to believe that the band had gone out. But no Foreign BC stations to be found. Decided, what the heck - I'll call CQ. As soon as I did, someone in 8-Land answered. After hearing so many people over the years talking about this on 10 or 15 meters ("throw out your call, you never know"), I experienced it firsthand. Several times when I was thinking of throwing the switch, someone called CQ and it was off to the races.

One of the odd features noticed was a slooow rise/fade rate on the closer-in signals that was more like large waves cresting and falling, than the more typical fading or rapid flutter. Still, 40 pulled some of its usual stunts. One minute Larry NE1S and Bruce were both coming in like gangbusters, the next they were gone. Certainly not the band you can trust for those buzzardly transmissions.

Got to work Ashtabula Bill for the first time, also ran into his brother KC8LII who was looking for him up the band. Worked Bruce and a few other 1-landers for the better part of an hour before the band shifted.

One station I worked apparently isn't an AMer but really enjoys the audio and is going to make an effort to be on more often. Len KB3IHY in Pa was running a Kenwood TS-570(?) with some of the best stock ricebox audio I've ever heard, which was amazing. And it's great that more folks are using their ricebox radio for AM: the more, the merrier.

One of the final two contacts was with Bill, K8DBN in Ohio, running a very nice sounding ART-13. He mentioned that it was indeed stock, the only difference being a dynamic mic he was using instead of the stock carbon. Dave, W9AD joined in and we finally closed things out at 5:01 with RCI spitting about 10 kcs up the band at us from below.

Only 4 zorches total for the day, not too bad! There's obviously room for improvement in the transmitter and antenna system.

I'm curious, though: it's been a long time since I operated 40 meters and I don't recall the band ever staying in so long before. Is this just a regular occurance as summer approaches? Daylight Savings Time considered, the band should have folded 2-3 hours earlier.

~ Todd, KA1KAQ