Where is everyone?

[k4kyv]

I have listened on 160/80/40 the past few nights, and operated a little 80 and 40 (160m tuner is temporarily dismantled).  After about 10 PM the bands were almost completely devoid of activity, even though those were weekend nights and the QRN was practically non-existent. A few signals, some of them quite strong, but nothing but atmospheric background hiss in between. In recent weeks, I have operated in the Ghetto region on 75, and the roundtables remained small, with few "breakers", almost like 3700 kc/s and vicinity.

A few years ago, this would have been absolutely unheard of. The phone bands would have stayed crowded up through the wee hours of the morning to the point that you would have to search for a vacant spot to fire up and not always be guaranteed to find one.  The CW bands would have been buzzing with activity too. Even on weekday nights there was always ample activity to well past midnight.

I would say there is less on-the-air activity on the MF/HF bands right now than there has been at any time since our bands were fully restored after WW2.

At least, that ought to debunk all the anti-AM "bandwidth" whining.

[K1JJ]

Last night between ~ 3-10PM there was a huge gang coming and going on 3885 here in the NE. Buddly from OH joined in for a few hours too. Almost like the old days.   I don't care if it's 3885 or 3705, if there's action, that's good enuff for me.

BTW, [sigh] I even managed to blow up my e-Rig for the forth time in a week now - replaced some parts and got back in there. The PDM modulator appears to be hanging in after adding some better low pass filtering in two supplies. My own created layout issues, I'm sure.

T

[flintstone mop]

I have noticed the same thing Don. I guess I have to get out of listening mode and start Txing.
160M short qso's and gone by 8PM and SSB on 1885.
Everybody out of practice since we change the time back. I know your favorite time to switch the clocks.

Fred

[WD8BIL]

Yup! You were thundering in here, Tom, right up till you signed to give the Yaz a well needed break!

I think I'm gonna like this new dipole. The ears perked up noticably over the old one!!

Problem is, Don, until the wx gets really bad there's lots to do before winter. By 10PM I ready for the sack! That'll change as the honey do projects get done.

[k4kyv]

Historically, I have noticed over the years that some of the best band conditions on 75 and 160 occur in November.  By mid-December, or between Xma$ and New Years, the band sometimes goes into the doldrums and stays that way through the rest of the winter.  The QRN may be low, but the signals can be fluttery and anaemic as well.

[WA3VJB]

Don, have you noticed there is MORE AM-related activity in the early evenings?

I have, when it comes to 4-8PM on 80m, weekdays and weekends.

Much more than years ago.

[W2PFY]

The really old buzzards are not on late nights anymore, just about everyone on the air in the N.E. area are pushing sixty or older. Most are in bed by ten PM or doing something else. I think youthful enthusiasm has dissipated from the ranks.

[K1JJ]

The really old buzzards are not on late nights anymore, just about everyone on the air in the N.E. area are pushing sixty or older. Most are in bed by ten PM or doing something else. I think youthful enthusiasm has dissipated from the ranks.

Probably some truth to that.  Staying up late requires a tougher payment the next day - than 20 years ago...

Remember the days back in the 70's when the 75M NE AM gangsters were on almost every night til 1AM?


I'll stay up late if there is a good reason. For example, working coast-to-coast on 75M AM requires one to be active from about 11 - 1AM EST, depending on time of year and cornditions.

Also, the 75M DX window on ssb - The Euros and Russians start getting out of bed at around 11PM EST.  Call CQ during their sunrise and the pile ups can become intense.

Other than that, I will rarely stay up after 11PM just to rag chew with the locals. Cornditions are better earlier on anyway.

T

[w1vtp]

I gave up 'cause after trying to check into a QSO and not being heard I decided that  a nice TV show was more interesting.  Maybe after I get some more "fire."

CQ's for a 100 watt station is a waste of time in my experience

Oh yeah, I'm 73+ but have to go to bed 'cause I still work and keep adding to that FICA   

Al

[K5UJ]

my guess is those lucky enough to have jobs are busy trying to hang on to them.

[DMOD]

Oh yeah, I'm 73+ but have to go to bed 'cause I still work and keep adding to that FICA  

Same here Al except I am 10.5 years younger. I have to mostly operate before 10:00 PM and all I hear are SSB'ers and continuous heterodyning over most of the 80m band.

I run a minimum of 350 Watts AM on 20 meters, 40 meters, and 80m with a new vertical and an Inverted-L but few people seem to answer an AM CQ on 20 and 40m.

And the so-called AM window is simply a crappy place to attempt to operate with what sounds like a number of new Good-Ole-Boy nets moving into that slot. And the noise of late above the Mason-Dixon line has been terrible.

Phil - AC0OB

[KB2WIG]

" And the so-called AM window is simply a crappy place to attempt to operate with what sounds like a number of new Good-Ole-Boy nets moving into that slot. And the noise of late above the Mason-Dixon line has been terrible. "

It's a good idea to use several spots on '75' to operate on. Its also a good idea to use 3885 as a calling frequency whenever possible. As far as gud o boy nets; the more AM activity on 3885, the less apealing the frequency is fer them. Wobulation may hep.   

yer milleage may very,
KLC

[W2PFY]

CQ's for a 100 watt station is a waste of time in my experience

You also have a soft speaking manner there Al, Ya need to get some big loud processing going on for night time but, on the other hand a soft voice on a Sunday afternoon is relaxing too

[ke7trp]

Its still early into the winter months. The bands are wide open late at night.  Midnight to 1am where most of you guys are.  I think by next month, This will roll back to a more reasonable time around 8pm to 9pm for you guys.


C

[k4kyv]

I called CQ on 3885 about 0400Z and ended up having a 2-hour QSO with 4 stations in all.  We all called it quits about 0600Z (midnight my local time).

I heard some activity earlier in the evening.  Many stations but most were weak and some were QRMing each other, probably multiple QSOs on the same frequency.  Didn't hear any AM activity below 3800 this evening.

Usually, I eventually get a response to my CQs. Since the sync detector tends to wander randomly unless there is a carrier to lock onto, I usually listen in envelope detector mode until I hear a station responding to my call.

[W2PFY]

The hang out here in the NY, NJ & NE area, evenings is on or about 3.872. Last night they were on 3.875 from about 6 PM till 10:30. sometimes they operate longer. I heard KC2UFU, K1KBW. W2JBL and about 3-4 others. For the guys that can hear the east cost, we have an outlaw net on 3.910 LSB, The Macaroni Net on or about 3.842 since those bad guys on AM on 3.872 sent Fearless Fred packing.  

[W1UJR]

Good question Don, I've noted that same thing.

Speaking only for myself, aside from a very early morning net, I'm now on air only on weekends and early to late afternoons. Otherwise I am in the listening mode, mostly on the short wave broadcast bands. Much more YL friendly when Nancy is in the shack, and frankly often more stimulating. So many of the interesting old buzzards are gone, or as one fellow already pointed out - in bed early. The thing which really makes radio interesting to me is the personalities on the bands, and many of those voices have fallen silent in recent years.

A few years back I started to avoid the 75 meter AM Ghetto like the plague during the evenings, no more tolerance for the QRM, foul language and the other nonsense which has now been accepted as commonplace. Sadly even 160 meters is starting to suffer from that. I do know that many of the fellows are grouping down frequency, but have not explored that. Paul VJB has a good tagline, ""Enjoying wholesome AM on shortwave hobby radio.", that is really my focus in the evenings.

I'd encourage everyone to check out the band on early to late afternoons, conditions are normally stellar! Even 5PM until 7PM or so works pretty well. I had a great QSO last Saturday with a number of stations on 3.885 afternoon, even PW or low power more than does the job here.
Fine QSO, no QRM, low power stations did not have to contend with static, I love afternoon conditions.

[k4kyv]

I just wish more hams would set up their stations for frequency agility.  With the obvious drop-off in activity the past couple of seasons, there are nearly always vacant spots, even on 75 during prime weekend hours while there is a slopbucket QuaRMtest on. But so many ops are bound to one frequency or microscopically narrow segment of the band, and say they can't move (usually because they are deathly afraid of that awful SWR ogre) or simply refuse to move come hell or high water (like the 3892 slopbucket bozos who won't budge a fraction of a kc, preferring to P&M for the entire evening about the AMer who had started up on a nearby frequency an hour or more before they even turned their riceboxes on).

My Gates BC1-T that I use on 160 is about as SWR sensitive as any ricebox, but with a simple L-network between transmitter and feed line it will load up fully on any frequency from 1.8 to 2.0.  The SWR at the extreme ends of the band may approach 3:1, but nothing has ever blown up, and I get just as good signal reports at 1985 as I do near 1885 where the feedline match is nearly perfect.

Typical of many broadcast transmitters, the 1-T was originally designed so that one of the intermediate stages could be tuned only by an internal adjustment that required removing a panel to open the cabinet.  I modified it so there is now a variable capacitor tunable from the front panel and I don't have to adjust the nearly inaccessible slug-tuned coil located inside a shielded module in order to QSY.

[ke7trp]

Don, Did you not realize the SSBers can "own" frequencys?  The FCC started this a while back I guess. I hear it all the time. "get off our Frequency".  "This is our frequency and we are here all the time". 

The other night I set out to have some AM fun. In fact, I heard you 40 DB over 9 into AZ on 3880.  However, We had SSB Groups on 70, 75, 82,86 and 90 and they where all in an uproar over the AM carriers.  I looked over at the icoms band scope and the ENTIRE lower half from 3865 down was empty.  I just shut the rig off and read a book.

C

[W2PFY]

The boys were operating on 3.875 last night and for the first time I heard some SSB'ers under the QSO. HLR was operating his SBE rig and it did really drive them away. They had no idea what he was running Just a lonely 75TL did all that.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

We've had similar attempts of intentional interference below 3800 with minimal impact. 99% of the time the problem children are so pissweak that even the 100w stations can talk over them. The only time I've seen it continue is when someone in the AM group makes mention of them by saying "someone's dumping a carrier in there" or similar. That's all the affirmation they need to continue. Don's advice of turning up the wick and continuing on works far better.

Don, I wonder if the time you get on has a lot to do with it? I don't recall ever working you before 10:30 at night, usually 11 or later. As Rob and others mentioned, many of the AM crowd are still in the workforce and need to get to bed at a reasonable hour in order to get up the next morning. I'd guess there are more old buzzards still left out there who have unfortunately moved into different accommodations in recent years that don't permit operation. On the one hand, there are more AMers now than anytime in recent decades. OTOH, many are younger and have family duties as well as work to deal with.

I'd been on quite a bit down on 80 until another crap out, this one a bit more catastrophic. My own fault for being impatient about getting back on and putting the big rig online before having everything addressed. Prior to that there had been a lot of activity on 3705, 10, 15, 17, 20, 25, 35 and probably other spots. We moved around quite a bit depending on when we got on and what frequencies were open. The last night I was on with WA2PJP, WB4IUY, K7YOO and several others. Most nights I was off before midnight, but a couple times folks were still going strong when I signed out at 1 or 2 AM.

Granted, I have to call CQ 50% of the time to stir something up, but that goes with the territory. No fluffy adjectives needed to stir up interest, merely having a carrier and some fairly strong, intelligible audio seems to do the trick. 

[Ralph W3GL]

    Geez, Todd, what happened to the KW1 this time???

[KL7OF]

I have listened on 160/80/40 the past few nights, and operated a little 80 and 40 (160m tuner is temporarily dismantled).  After about 10 PM the bands were almost completely devoid of activity, even though those were weekend nights and the QRN was practically non-existent.

Don.. I have heard you calling CQ many times...You are loud in the Pacific NW..I have answered your calls and I hear other Pacific NW stations answer your calls....You seldom hear us....I realize you have an East oriented beverage.....Perhaps something pointed out west would help...Good luck   Steve

[k4kyv]

The other night I set out to have some AM fun. In fact, I heard you 40 DB over 9 into AZ on 3880.  However, We had SSB Groups on 70, 75, 82,86 and 90 and they where all in an uproar over the AM carriers.  I looked over at the icoms band scope and the ENTIRE lower half from 3865 down was empty.  I just shut the rig off and read a book.

Why didn't you call CQ-AM on 3850 (or some other unoccupied frequency)?

[Pete, WA2CWA]

The other night I set out to have some AM fun. In fact, I heard you 40 DB over 9 into AZ on 3880.  However, We had SSB Groups on 70, 75, 82,86 and 90 and they where all in an uproar over the AM carriers.  I looked over at the icoms band scope and the ENTIRE lower half from 3865 down was empty.  I just shut the rig off and read a book.

C

I don't understand that logic. As you point out, there were lots of frequencies where you could hold court. The imaginary AM Window really is imaginary to lots of amateurs.