[AMRadio] Hash on 3710

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On Sat, Oct 2, 2010 at 12:33 AM, Rob Atkinson <ranchorobbo at gmail.com> wrote:
> Well, we had a big group tonight on 3703 to 3706 ( we moved occasionally to
> accommodate hams who had to stay inside the Advanced class sub-band) with a
> lot of strapping signals for about 3 hours or so and no digital hash or SSB
> bugged us at all.   There were enough big carriers flattening the noise on
> my end that I think they all just gave up and went away.

Heard you in there Rob when you were on 03 so I didn't chime in. Along
with being in the Advanced portion but too close to to the band edge
for Advanced ops to use AM, another thing to consider is that 05 is a
popular frequency for the guys in Europe, like Henk in the Netherlands
and Jean in France, as well as guys from Malta, England, Wales and
elsewhere. If you're right on 05, there's a good chance they'll hear
you at their peak time and some of the gang can work across the pond.

You were definitely the channel master when I heard you, Rob. Very
loud into NC, +20 to +40 without a lot of fluctuation. Could hear an
AB9 station well too, the others were down near the noise.

I got the transmitter back together late in the afternoon, did some
testing and later fired up on 3710 to join Dee W4PNT in W VA and Tom
W3BYM in MD. We were joined by Larry K3JRR/4 who was demonstrating ham
radio to his 8 year old grandson Matt. Unfortunately the nitwit SSTV
goons decided it was time to fire up and from the comments I heard
from them when I tuned to sideband, it was indeed deliberate. They
tried jamming for a while with their pissweak carriers and whistling,
etc, ten finally turned on their noise boxes. One of them is in
Arkansas and another is in Alabama from what they said. Certainly from
the shallow end of the gene pool.

After chatting there for about an hour, I moved up to 3725 and found
Al VE3AJM and Tim VE6PG having a discussion about MW and SW DXing of
the past, quite interesting so I listened for a while then joined in.
Both were coming in down here between 20-40 over. Had an excellent
chat with them until the wife got home from her school meeting, when
the guys were treated to hearing the garage door open in the
background as I was talking. Finally signed off a while later to spend
some time with the Mrs just as Don 'KYV arrived on frequency. When I
came back out later, 25 was quiet and you guys were down on 03, so I
called it a night. The last couple of early mornings working on the
rig caught up with me.

Good news is, the band was in great shape for another night, and it
looks like I actually fixed the transmitter.I'll post some shots on
'fone later of what I found, which I thought was pretty unusual but
apparently really isn't.

~ Todd,  KA1KAQ/4