[AMRadio] Bandwidth, AM, special case, just another button to push

[Donald Chester]

From: Bob Stevens <bob at choateco.net>

>AM is not  "special mode" it's just Another way of transmitting a signal to
the ether... 73,  Bob K9ING

So is talking on a cell phone.

>Nothing more nor nothing less. Leave us alone & we will leave you alone.
Lots of kcs out there. I work >AM, CW and SSB but I don't hold one above the
other. It's all hamming. 73 es hve fun with our great hobby.
>

Some have been flamed on other message boards for singling out AM as a
"legacy mode". The same could be said of CW, which dates back at least as
far as AM. I don't believe calling attention to that fact in any way
endangers the status AM or could lead to the elimination of AM or CW from
the amateur bands. The most dangerous aspect of promoting AM as a "special
mode" would be to establish a blanket bandwidth limit at something like 2.8
kHz, and then allow AM to exist only via a mere footnote, as in the case of
the IARU Band Plans, and with the now-defunct ARRL "Son of 20777" bandwidth
petition.

Region 2 Bandplan:
http://www.iaru-r2.org/documents/explorer/files/Plan%20de%20bandas%20|%20Ban
d-plan/R2%20LF-MF-HF%20Bandplan%202010.pdf 

AM enthusiasts consider the mode to be more than just another button to push
on a  transceiver. Already, the "just another mode" phenomenon prevails to
the point than more often than not when I call CQ  I get a response from
someone who says he decided to push the button and try out AM for the first
time. Now don't take this the wrong way;  this is NOT meant to discourage
anyone in any way from trying out AM; some of those transceiver
button-pushers have said they liked what they heard and came back for more
AM operation, some have become  regulars and have AM operating procedure
down pat, and a few have ended up acquiring or building a plate modulated
transmitter. And we  must remember, they comprise about the only remaining
source of newcomers to the AM community, so we shouldn't dismiss them out of
hand. But still, many of the ops I run into on the air, even some who have
become more or less regulars, don't have a clue about AM operating
procedure; for example, one of the most annoying practices I encounter is
the tendency to be transmitting, then abruptly drop the carrier right in
mid- sentence, without  saying "over" or "go ahead", or in any other way
indicating that the op has turned it back to me, so I'm not sure if the band
changed, they had a rig failure or if they turned it back. I don't mind
explaining AM procedure and helping a newcomer get his rig tuned up properly
on AM, but I must admit that it kind of gets old when practically every QSO
goes that direction.

One of the things I have always enjoyed about meeting someone new was to
exchange station descriptions. This was especially true when the other op
was  running a homebrew rig, or an otherwise unusual transmitter, and we
would each describe the tubes we were running in the final and what we used
to modulate. To-day, those exchanges are rare; whenever I tell the other op
that I am running a class-C final, I can usually tell that he hasn't a clue
what I am talking about. I have noticed the same thing on CW. I miss those
conversations that go something like "I'm using a pair of... modulated by a
pair of..."  And, it doesn't have to be  tube-related. The Class-E guys find
plenty of state-of-the-art technology to keep their conversations going for
hours at a time. When I hear the other op read off a string of numbers,
"TSFTDX50001AX" I don't have any more of a clue what he is talking about
than he does when I describe my HF-300 triodes in Class-C modulated by a
pair of 810s in class-B.

AM enthusiasts share something with the often scorned hi-fi SSB (ESSB)
crowd, in that we are willing to open up the box and modify our rigs, take
pride in signal quality, and that a good part of our conversation is about
technical matters and improving our stations. To me those are just a few of
the things that make AM an "exceptional" mode, and that's what makes it
interesting. I find it kind of boring to talk on a mobile phone.

Don k4kyv