[AMRadio] Usages of AM in the amateur context

Sun Sep 26 07:10:37 EDT 2010

Greetings,

You will likely receive many replies to your questions as there are 
some very helpful people on this list.

The person who suggested that you listen to the ham bands was correct. 
Reading that comment caused me to remember doing exactly that from age 
11 until the time I was first licensed at age 14. That was 41 years 
ago next month, in October, 1969.

I used everything from window screens to as much wire as I could 
string through the yard for receiving antennas. Some of them worked 
better than others, but I didn't have anything nearly as good as a 
TS930 for a receiver.

You are coming into a good time of the year to listen to AM activity. 
That's because the static level will drop significantly from about now 
through March or early April.

You will hear the most AM activity on 3.885. There are two nets on 
this frequency, one on Tuesday, and one on Thursday. People begin 
gathering for both of these activities as early as 5:00 PM central 
time.

You will also hear activity on this frequency around that time, and 
during the early morning on most other days.

Here are other frequencies and times for listening to AM. The times 
are listed in central time.

1.885 and 1.985 (evenings, especially during the winter).

3.663 (mornings around 7:30 - 9:00) This group from Louisiana and 
Arkansas will begin on ssb, then switch to AM.

3.675 (Sunday morning at 5:30 - 7:00) This is the Florida AM Net. You 
will hear most of the stations quite well during the late fall and 
winter.

3.725 (mornings until around 9:00)

3.880 (mornings and evenings) Lots of Texas stations and a few from 
Arkansas and the Midwest.

3.990 (mornings, and sometimes evenings) There's a group of Texas, 
Arkansas, and Oklahoma stations that hang out here. They have a good 
net beginning at 7:30 AM on Saturday.

7.160 (Saturday and Sunday between 1:00 and 3:00 PM, plus other random 
evenings) The daytime activity is some of the same people from 3.663. 
Sometimes in the evening, you will hear stations from the east or west 
coasts.

7.290 and 7.295 (daytime) There doesn't appear to be as much activity 
here as there once was, but there are still some good signals. A 
traffic net from Texas uses 7.290 part of the day, so check 7.295 for 
AM when it is operating.

14.286 (early evenings) Again, there isn't nearly as much activity 
here as there was a year or two ago.

21.415 - 21.450 (daytime, mainly weekends) When 15 meters is open, you 
can hear some really good AM signals.

29.000 - 29.100 (daytime, especially weekends) You may not hear much 
on this part of 10 meters right now, but as it begins to open up 
again, you will hear bunches of AM signals from everywhere, many only 
running a few watts.

The AM filter in the TS930 is a little broad, especially on 75 meters, 
but don't let that discourage you from listening.

Keep listening and studying for that license.

73,

Mike Duke, K5XU

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donald R McMurray" <donmcm63 at bellsouth.net>
To: <amradio at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2010 3:30 AM
Subject: [AMRadio] Usages of AM in the amateur context

Hello everyone,

I am new to this group and amateur radio. I am 32 years old and have 
had some health problems the past few years.

I bought a Kenwood TS-930S in 2006. I hooked up a 12 awg wire approx 
60' long and in some places up to 35' tall. It works a lot better than 
I thought it would. I run it straight down from the apex of the house. 
I run it through the window and close the window on it. It doesn't 
seem to hurt it because of the insulation on it. I run the 12 awg 
strait into the back of the radio with the help of a very short and 
small gauge nail so the wire will stay in place and make good contact. 
Of course, this is just a receiving antenna, if you could call it 
that.

While I'm studying for my exams, my mentor suggested that it would be 
more motivating if I got a working station built to get used to 
listening and developing my ham shack ( but of course not transmitting 
until I'm licensed ). My favorite band while I've been doing all this 
listening on the bands in the 75-80 meter band. I almost have all the 
parts together to build a half-wave 75 meter dipole. I have studied 
our property and I know I can get it 50' high but I'm hoping for 60' 
which would be a 1/4 wave in height. I have other antennas in mind for 
the other HF bands.

Well... enough rambling. My question is, how effective is AM on the 
bands, what bands do you usually use, what time of day do you usually 
use them, and how do you know someone is calling CQ on a band that is 
predominately SSB?

I hope everyone will bare with me, as I am just trying to learn about 
full-wave AM ( I guess that is a term for AM since SSB AM is either 
the bottom or top of the AM wave, but please correct me if I'm using 
the wrong terminology).

I hope some of you might want to explain the standard of AM in amateur 
radio, versus SSB.

I hope to be licensed soon, so maybe I'll see you on the bands! 73's

Donald McMurray
Kingston, TN
mailto:donmcm63 at bellsouth.net

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