[AMRadio] New to AM

[Rob Atkinson]

Hi Jerry, welcome to the List and AM.  lots of things to tell you but
don't get overwhelmed and discouraged.  You are in a good location for
AM because there are a lot of northeastern AMers active and what is
supposed to be a great AM hamfest every six months in New Hampshire,
the Northeast Amateur Radio Fest (I think that's what it is called,
often abbreviated to NEARFest).  You can do okay locally with the Icom
for starters but I think it should be dialed back to 25 watts carrier
or less.   I recommend acquiring a used oscilloscope like an old
Tektronix 465 (but any Tek dual trace scope 30 MHz or higher will be
fine for just about everything you will want to do).  The scope is
useful for looking at your modulation envelope for one thing.  You can
quickly determine at what level audio you are hitting 100% with.

I don't know how much money you have for equipment but a good antenna
such as a high 1/2 wave 80 m. dipole up in the clear and fed at the
center with ladder line is a real nice thing to have for ragchewing on
AM.  use a balanced tuner like a Johnson KW Matchbox.  I'd study your
antenna situation first, while looking at the equipment landscape
before rushing to get the Apache and Warrior.   If you hold off for
six months or a year you might be real glad you did.   Your idea of a
good rig to have may be completely different 12 months from now.
But, a good antenna is always a good antenna no matter what rig your
are running so I'd start thinking about that unless you already have a
dipole up 75 feet or more.

73

Rob
K5UJ

On Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 10:27 AM, Jerry Colton <cornerman at comcast.net> wrote:
> Hello to all
> Maybe changing the subject may help... hi hi. I am new to AMPhone. I have been a ham for almost 40 years but have only worked the AM mode 2 or 3 times and that was just recently. I have been so impressed over the years by the sounds of many of the stations using AM. By "sounds" I mean the quality. I also have found that the majority of the AM'ers are very interesting to listen to. I'd like to learn all about the mode as I'm sure there are differences compared to using SSB.
> I'll get to the point here.... I have an Icom 746pro and have worked 2 fellows on AM. Of course, I can only use 40 watts with my 746pro. Is there any nets or regular gatherings for rag-chews? I have my eye on an AM station (Apache/Warrior) that I plan on buying soon and would like to get more involved with you folks and using AM. I, like many others, are looking for a change of pace because of the terrible conditions on the HF bands. I also think it may be a good opportunity to meet local guys and make a few new friends. I am new to the area here in Haverhill Massachusetts.
> Any tips, tricks, info, etc..... would be much appreciated.
> Thank you and best 73
> Jerry - N1TKO
>