[AMRadio] FM on 29.050...

[Jim Candela]

    Today I was driving home, and calling several CQ's on 10 am PW mobile.
No response. I heard a KL7 sigh out on 29.066, and a Kh6 sign out on 29.000
mc. The band was quiet, i.e. no signals between 29-29.1 mc. It was dark, so
I said what the heck. I went to 29.050, switched to FM, and went up 6 db in
power to 70 watts output, and called CQ 10 FM.....

    Much to my surprise, I had a pile-up of AM stations yelling at me, the
am band plan, etc. Nobody tried to talk to me about it, so with my blood
sugar low, I kept calling CQ FM.... Two more nice long CQ's. I felt like
George Jefferson after moving into Archie Bunkers neighborhood!

    I am a AM'er first, and over the last 20 years, I have on occasion
worked 10 FM in the AM portion. I recall some fond QSO's with pete, w1vzr.
We were both running AM gear with home made reactance modulators. If you run
10 fm at the high end of 10 meters, the "appliance factor" seems to
dominate, and I have little to say to those chaps.

    So now that my blood sugar is back to normal, I appologize to the AM'ers
that were so offended by me calling CQ FM in the am portion of ten meters at
a time of day when the band normally fizzles out.

Regards,
Jim Candela
WD5JKO