2011 AM Transmitter Rally Feb 5th and 6th !

[KX5JT]

KX5JT on 7.160 until about 17:30 UTC

[Opcom]

I have already been told by a SSB station on 80M that I was "not on an AM channel". Anyway she claimed to have been using the 'channel' so I politely moved a few KC away.

75 was good early but it's just local now. The AM 'hoss traders' net and an AM rag chew net started up  so that absorbed care of the nearby stations. 7160/7163 later, maybe 11:30A-1PM CST (UTC 5:30-7) there's usually some AMers around there. SW BC is overwhelming on 40M and there is a slopbucket every 2.5KC here. wak wak qwack.

[WA3VJB]

80M lighting up along the East Coast, Saturday evening at 5pm EST.

3885Kc :
W1E  in Mass.,
N1SNG at Rhode Island

My first two contacts of the evening.

Then up:
3733Kc
K3ZRF in Penna.
KD3CN in Penna.

Last contact of the evening:
3705Kc / 0500GMT
K4KYV in Tenn.
And just to add to the equation, I was listening to him and myself through internet-streamed audio from a receiver in the Pacific NW. Was trying to find a node far enough from home that I could hear Ralph, W3GL.

[w8khk]

Been working on my son's car all day, needs a new timing chain and tensioner/guides.  But I was able to get on 3885 for a while this afternoon with the Viking II and work the following:

NX4S Larry Helena AL
W7IUC Norm Philadelphia TN
K5SZN Bobby Little Rock MS
W4BBN Bob Oneonta AL
W4DEU Randall Oneonta AL
KG4HVQ David  Snead AL

I have never met or worked these guys before.  QRM was not bad today, sigs were strapping.

In the heat of the moment, I used call W8KHK, forgetting all about the special event call....  Will get back on later this evening as W8K!

[W2PHL]

7160 is clear but nobody's home!

[K9PNP]

Hope there is some left by tomorrow afternoon.  Working full tour today.  Gotta get me an antenna up here at the station.

W7IUC is a regular.  Normally has a good strapping signal.

[KC9RGF]

Zorched my DX100 on the first contact   

[KF1Z]

Zorched my DX100 on the first contact   

Ouch!
Bummer.

[Opcom]

Lots of interesting equipment. Most of this was rag chewing as well. Note the interesting lash-up of W5FRS.

Freq	Call	State	Comment
3890	W9A	IL	Flex5000+linear, 1500PEP actually in Mexico at the time
3890	WW9W	TX	RCA BC1D / R390A
3890	AD5HR	TX	HB Gate-modulated SS PW with Heath amp 60W carrier
3890	KD5ECG	TX	Col. 32V3, Drake R4B
3890	K5LAR	TX	DX100B @ 95W, ladder line antenna
3890	K5ZOH	TX	(AM)"Hoss Traders Net" check-in
7160	W5FRS	TX	Lafayette 6L6 TX driving an 809 amp driving pair of cathode modulated HK-45's
7160	K9KK	TX	Icom 7700 with Icom PW-1 SS amp @ 500W.
7160	W5JGI	TX	orig. BC610, D104, AR-88 RX. Switched to TCM transmitter.
7160	K5RB	TX
7160	K5KZQ	TX	KW TS440-S @25W carrier
7160	W5NDS	TX	Icom 775 @ 50-100W

That's it for me, tomorrow I have Guard.

[Ed/KB1HYS]

Much fun had here. only made about 15 contacts, but more than I have in a month of sundays, got on 3 bands, 160, 80. and 40. 

Never heard anything above 40 though, but didn't spend a lot of time checking.

Back on tomorrow sometime, most fun I've had in radio in a long while.

[W9GT]

Just heard a slopbucketeer on 3890 complaining about those %^$#*&^% AMers and their "intense modulation" messing up the band.  

I, for one, have been having a great time.  I was trudging thru about 20" of snow trying to get my antenna back up yesterday.  Ended up installing a new inverted vee off the side of the tower.  Worked both coasts last night on 75, so I guess its working OK.

73,  Jack, W9GT

[KX5JT]

Intense Modulation!!!


LOVE IT!

[k4kyv]

Maybe a good time to get on 40m this evening will be during the Super Bowl.  Many slopbucketeers will undoubtedly be glued to their TVs, leaving clear spots below 7200 to be commandeered.

[KX5JT]

Made a couple nice contacts on 3.705 AM just before I had to come to work (right after the Superbowl started up).

[Opcom]

I have a suggestion about the logging software.

Can the cursor be made bold? it can be hard to see sometimes on a small notebook.

I have a question about the software:
I listed the CAT: categories rows but they seem to have been deleted by the software leaving only the actual entries. I do not know what I did to cause it. I did stop the program and then start it again. What might have caused this?

[KX5JT]

I have a suggestion about the logging software.

Can the cursor be made bold? it can be hard to see sometimes on a small notebook.

I have a question about the software:
I listed the CAT: categories rows but they seem to have been deleted by the software leaving only the actual entries. I do not know what I did to cause it. I did stop the program and then start it again. What might have caused this?

Oh and please make the SHIFT-TAB work so the it parses backwards through the fields!

[steve_qix]

I have a suggestion about the logging software.

Can the cursor be made bold? it can be hard to see sometimes on a small notebook.

I have a question about the software:
I listed the CAT: categories rows but they seem to have been deleted by the software leaving only the actual entries. I do not know what I did to cause it. I did stop the program and then start it again. What might have caused this?

Hi Patrick,

If you're using the logging software, you don't have to put the CAT: line in - it is done in the background, automatically by the software.  That is only if you're using excel.

I am definitely taking suggestions on the software - this was the first time for use.

I have some things I'm going to put in right away - a feature to automatially tell you if a call is a duplicate (call and band have to match), for one.

Regards,

Steve

[WB2EMS]

Yes, dupe checking would be very handy. Pretty standard in most other software of this type. Great first effort and it made logging much handier and fun.

[Ed/KB1HYS]

I thought the software worked well.  Easy to use.

[K5IIA]

I thought the rally was great. Plenty of am activity. On thing i did  notice with this  one compared to the heavy metal rally i s there were more people treating it like the qso parties where they would basically stay on a freq and really just make contacts and not leave it open to let people join in and stay.

i remember with the heavy metal rally the groups would get so big people would just leave and come back and it was a  mess to but I didnt notice as  much squating i guess you would call it. I guess maybe steves log and the ease of getting information off of it brought out more of a competition for this one. I was not really concerned with making as many contacts as possible but i am very excited to get to see the statistics of the rally over all.

thanks for the hard work steve and also for all the a.m. activity i really enjoyed it and cant wait for next year.

brandon

[K9PNP]

FB all around.  Just had a few hours available to operate, but made some decent contacts/QSOs.  Heard an interesting exchange between 2 SSBSC stations on 40. Appears one of them had looked at the announcement and made note of the "suggested freq" so that they could go there and have "their casual QSOs".  Never did hear any station IDs from either one of them.  Makes you wonder.

AF-68/PMR-8/M1070 station had a control relay malfunction on first transmission trying to call W9T.  Rcvr dead.  So went back to Viking II/HQ-110A.  Something else to work on now.

[steve_qix]

FB all around.  Just had a few hours available to operate, but made some decent contacts/QSOs.  Heard an interesting exchange between 2 SSBSC stations on 40. Appears one of them had looked at the announcement and made note of the "suggested freq" so that they could go there and have "their casual QSOs".  Never did hear any station IDs from either one of them.  Makes you wonder.

AF-68/PMR-8/M1070 station had a control relay malfunction on first transmission trying to call W9T.  Rcvr dead.  So went back to Viking II/HQ-110A.  Something else to work on now.

Good to work you last night durring the event.  Yes, it does give one pause to think those SSB stations might have parked there to cause trouble... but then, that's against the Amateur's Code, and no decent ham would EVER even THINK of violating that! 

[Bill, KD0HG]

Had Ohio relatives in town during the event so I couldn't spend more than an hour all weekend.

Yeah, I like that Intense Modulation!
CQ IM...CQ IM...

[Steve - K4HX]

I operated less than four hours over the two days. With all the activity I was still able to work 30 stations in over 20 states. Good times!

Thanks to Steve/QIX for sponsoring and promoting the rally. I think it has become the premier AM operating event of the year.

[KC4VWU]

Even though I only worked 2 stations, still had a blast just listening while I was working on the Viking Challenger --- a find from the Richmond fest this weekend. Listening on 85 and heard Kerri on her new E class rig running 30dB over. So I was near completed to fire up the Challenger I thought, "What the heck, let me find a mic and a crystal." Also worked KS2AM, Sam, on a FT-101 running a steady 10 over at not much more than QRP carrier level! 75 was in pretty good shape yesterday evening: proves that you CAN get in there with the small rigs and still have fun.

I know it was pretty intense getting everything set up in such short time, Steve, but I'd have to say "total success" on the rally. Also, I cast my vote to keep the two separate; gives everyone a second chance to join in if they miss the first of the two.

Last but not least, a big THANK YOU for all the time and work involved to bring about this event so the AM community can get together and do a little celebrating.

73, Phil