Hi Don: yep, I probably work about 50% ssb at the low end and about half will try AM. ----- Original Message ----- From: "D. Chester" <k4...@charter.net> To: <amradio@mailman.qth.net> Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2009 4:03 PM Subject: [AMRadio] AM 75- 80 meters
>> From: "Bernie Doran" <qedconsulta...@embarqmail.com> > >> what is this fascination with 3880 to 3885? last evening my s meter did >> not >> fall below +20 tuning through that area and each side. there is no >> possible >> way to have a QSO at times like that unless you are talking to your next >> door neighbor! Of course maybe it is just that no one wants to talk to >> me!! I have also been listening and calling on 7160 and 7290 for >> several >> days without a nibble. Just about ready to throw in the towel and get >> rid >> of my junk. Bernie > > I got on the air later in the evening, about 11 PM local time, and had a > good QSO on 3885 with no QRM, SSB or otherwise. The QSO outlasted me, and > I > consider myself a night-owl. I have found it easy to operate "down below" > during the autumn/winter months when the QRN is low, but during static > season, activity drops off, and usually about the only activity I can find > is up in the Ghetto. When condx improve, I find the Ghetto too crowded, > not > only with SSB QRM, but with AM stations, and any QSO established very > quickly accumulates 5, 6, 7 or more stations and I don't care for large > groups, so I find that the ideal time to QSY down lower in the band. > > >>I gave up and went to 3705, called cq for 30 minutes untill >> dave w9ad ran across me. > > My solution to that was to build my automated CQ caller. I just turn it > on, > the recorded CQ is transmitted, and after the initial call it > automatically > stands by for 30 seconds and then transmits another CQ, until I manually > take control of the station. That way I con work on a project at the > bench, > read something, or round up my tools and tidy up the shack while the CQ is > running. If, during one of the stand-by periods, I hear someone come > back, > I run over and take manual control of the station and reply to the CQ. > That > way, I am not wasting a half hour or more sitting at the rig calling CQ > before I can contact someone when the band is sparsely populated. > > > >I could find only three or four ssb stations >> between 3.6 and 3.7. the low end is almost not used, if it is not going >> to >> be used the band might as well be changed back where it was. > > Well, from what I have read on some of the CW mailing lists, they are > trying > to gather support for a petition to the FCC to do just that. They feel > that > a big hunk of the "cw band" was stolen from them. Their justification > for > changing it back is that phone stations are rarely using the segment from > 3600 to about 3680, so it should be "returned" to CW. But in rebuttal, I > would point out that the CW ops have not lost any frequencies. It is > still > perfectly legal to operate CW on 3600-3700, so if they find that segment > devoid of phone activity, there is no reason why they can't operate CW > there, just as they did befor the phone band expansion. But most of the > time, unless there is a QRMtest going on, there is plenty of empty space > between 3500 and 3600 as well. And I can't see altering the band > allocations just to accommodate QRMtests that might occur a few weekend > nights a year. > > But they do bring up a point. When the band was first expanded, there was > a > big scramble to get on the air on the "new" frequencies, and there was > loads of AM activity down in the lower part of the band. People were > ecstatically commenting on how much better it was down there, away from > all > the QRM and chaos up in the Ghetto. But as weeks passed, the activity > down > below gradually dwindled, and one by one, stations migrated back up to the > old frequencies, until it became somewhat of a rarity to hear any AM below > 3875, and particularly, below 3600. The SSB activity on 3600-3700 has > fallen off as well. > > At one time the entire CW band from 3500 to 3750, past the old Novice > band, > was as congested with CW activity as 3500-3580 is now. But just before > the > change, 3600-3700 was almost always empty of signals, except for a few > early > evening traffic nets and a few RTTY/data signals. That was one reason the > FCC reallocated the frequencies. Use it or lose it. > > If we don't start using those frequencies, next thing we know amateurs > will > be kicked off part of the band and we'll be listening to Brother Stair on > those frequencies. > > >>And yes, I >> know this has been brought up before, and yes I know there are generals, >> not >> an excuse for most, a few hours with the license manual and you are an >> extra. I talked with a 13 year girl a while back that was an extra!! > > That brings out the point that the situation on the bottom end of the > phone > band is more a matter of Incentive Licensing and licence class > sub-subbands, > than phone vs CW/data allocations. > > >> I will be back on the low end tonight around 3.7 +or -15, maybe I can get >> a >> ssb to respond. > > Try calling CQ-AM. You might be surprised how many SSB'ers will try out > their ricebox appliances on AM for the first time. Once in a great while, > someone will like AM well enough to want to try it again, and eventually > end > up setting up a "real" AM station of their own. There are at least a > couple > of regular AM'ers on the band to-day a result of CQ's that I called on the > low end since the band change. Also, most of the SSB below 3600 is > between > 3675 and 3700, while 3600-3675 may be completely empty. We should make an > effort to populate that portion of the band with a few AM signals. > > >> From: "Edward Swynar" <gswy...@durham.net> > >> I sorta hung up my Viking II & RCA AR-88LF combo into retirement mode up >> on >> the shelf here several years back for the very reason you mentioned >> about >> 40-meters... >> >> I'd call & call CQ at various hours of the day with no responses >> whatsoever. >> So I finally stopped trying. >> >> As for 75-meters, well, I guess some old habits are slow to die...but >> from >> what I've been hearing up & around the "window" of 3800-3885-KHz, more >> than >> a few of the regular AM denizens seem to actually enjoy the challenges of >> standing-up to the random (and by times, downright vicious!) heckling >> from >> a >> few of the more "expressive" within the SSB crowd... > > STRAP SOFTLY AND TURN UP THE WICK! > > >> NOT the sort of place you'd really want to demonstrate the joys & >> pleasures >> of AM phone, to visitors in the shack! >> >> The part of the band around 3.7-MHz seems far more civilized. I enjoy >> SWL'ing the gentlemen who come down there for some interesting technical >> QSOs on AM... >> >> ~73~ Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ > > Plus, there are the Europeans who operate on 3705. I heard some activity > last night, but I am locate just a little too far in the hinterlands to > work > the usual European AM'ers. The guys on the east coast seem to do much > better. But if everyone just listens for AM activity in that part of the > band but no-one transmits, then there will be "no" AM activity heard. > > > Don k4kyv > > > _______________________________________________________________ > > This message was typed using the DVORAK keyboard layout. > > http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/ > http://gigliwood.com/abcd/ > > ______________________________________________________________ > 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. 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