The AM Forum

All weekend the 10 metre band was showing signs of life.

All from the South though. Many southeastern beacons were heard.
I was able to work KI4VVV and W5JO on AM. Jim chimed in while I was talking to W8JMF 40 miles east of me.

There's hope for 10 yet !!

FINALLY!

Reading your posting Bud, along with reports from others on the AM Reflector is a good sign of things to come. It'll be great to work folks like Jim who are usually competing with the noise floor on 75/80m most nights. Of course, you'll probably shatter windows here when conditions are that good.

As it should be !  ;D

It appears as if we are in a low or no sunspot cycle.  That makes things good on the lower bands but does not give reliable contacts on the upper bands for long distance communitcations. 

The fun of this is listening for stations on the upper bands when E skip kicks in or grey line is in play.  Thus far I have heard different stations every time I turn the rig on.  Conditions are particularly good when a weather change is 100 to 200 miles NW of me.

Keep making noise about sunset.

Maybe some hope for weekly net now on 29.0 at 8PM EDST Saturdays.  Usually only get 1-2 locals if I'm lucky.  If it gets real busy may have to change frequency!  Anyone hear any sign of Sunday Collins 10M AM yet?  Was a little late last week, watch battery was dieing.

W8JMF, club trustee

I want to fix my antenna for 10 and get on am on 10. Good indication of how good 10 is for am is to listen for distant stations on 11 meters.
shelby KB3OUK

I just finished having a nice half hour QSO (after calling CQ) with Tom, W0TDH.  Tom is at 4000 feet, in the mountians above Asheville, NC.  I was using the FT-301SD, and Tom was using a Collins 32V2 or 3, at 80W, with a 75A2 receiver.  Tom heard me calling CQ, and decided to have a chat.  Great fun, and a nice QSO.

BTW, can some of you experts answer this question for me?  Does the FT-301SD run full DSB AM, or is it AME (SSB with a carrier)?  The reason I ask this, is because the FT-301 series is an oddball, compared to other solid state rigs.   AM is on a separate board from SSB & CW, and the signal chain is NOT routed through the balanced modulator.  It routs from the mic input, to the AM board, which has a different audio amp section, than the SSB & CW board.  The output off of the AM board seems to feed directly into the driver or finals (which explains why I'm not having power output problems on AM, whereas I have issues outputwise on SSB & CW).  I also suspect that it may already have an AM filter installed in it, since the receive audio isn't pinched sounding like the typical SSB rigs, I've used to listen to AM with.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

Just out in the shack and noticed that I am hearing some 3 stations on 29.000 or there abouts.  Skip must be in place tonight.  The problem with the stations I am hearing is they are SSB and it sort of sounds like some kind of net.