I think its the sunspot cycle, there used to be a huge amount of activity at the top of the band, with loads of people running 50 watts and doing well on the eastern half of the US before the broadcast stuff came in.
That has been gone for years, although I have made a few contacts from time to time. When I started out on AM, conditions were like now, then 40 came into play, now its back to 80 in the daytime mostly... Brett N2DTS ----- Original Message ----- From: "rbethman" <rbeth...@comcast.net> To: "Discussion of AM Radio in the Amateur Service" <amradio@mailman.qth.net> Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 1:25 PM Subject: Re: [AMRadio] Is the novelty of the "new" 40m band wearing offalready? Todd, That IS part of the current discourse. Everyone IS solely talking about the lower end of the band where General Class cannot go without the probable penalty of getting nailed. I *DO* run upward of 7175. Haven't had much success with contacts, AND I don't just listen. Being honest about it, the upper area USED to be VERY active. Then we lost one of our VERY welcome voices due to a fatal stroke. This geographical area, that spread across PA, MD, and VA has NOT been the same since. I've found the activity level to have just about gone to nothing. Bob - N0DGN Todd, KA1KAQ wrote: > On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 10:06 AM, Bob Carpenter > <bcarpenter_...@bellsouth.net> wrote: > >> The "extra's" can't understand why "everybody" is not down there ! Might >> help if someone would pick a freq. that all HF ham's could use. There >> answer >> is get off your butt and up grade. >> > > I don't think that's it at all, Bob - particularly since there's > virtually zero activity up in the General portion as well. Nor is the > answer to "pick a freq.'" as that simply boxes us in and sets up > expectations for the anti-AM crowd to insist 'get back where you > belong'. Upgrading is always a plus (I'm only a lowly Advanced, my > license class doesn't even exist anymore in the testing structure!) > since it allows you full access to all amateur privileges, but at the > end of that day - getting on the air and off the internet is the only > way to improve activity - regardless of mode. The only 'radio season' > is the one we choose to impose personally. Static and interference - > intentional or otherwise - have always been an issue we've had to > contend with. > > Those who want to operate will be on the air, those who just want to > talk about it online will continue to do so. > > ~ Todd, KA1KAQ/4 > -- Bob - NØDGN ______________________________________________________________ Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net AMRadio mailing list Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/amradio@mailman.qth.net/ List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Post: AMRadio@mailman.qth.net To unsubscribe, send an email to amradio-requ...@mailman.qth.net with the word unsubscribe in the message body. This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html ______________________________________________________________ Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net AMRadio mailing list Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/amradio@mailman.qth.net/ List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Post: AMRadio@mailman.qth.net To unsubscribe, send an email to amradio-requ...@mailman.qth.net with the word unsubscribe in the message body. This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html