[AMRadio] AM Presentation

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On Tue, Jun 18, 2013 at 3:48 PM, Bob Macklin <macklinbob at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Why is the 75M AM Window the only place AM seems to live. 75M used to be a
> good late night band. But the groups I know of only operate daytime or
> early evening. Then the propagation is limited.
>

It's not, Bob. There is AM activity down in the 80m portion regularly. Same
goes for 40, you can find AM places like 7.220, 7.160 and so on. Depends
what you can hear at your location. The AM Window mentality is from a time
when SSB was dominant and few people still operated AM. It offered a
calling frequency of sorts to hopefully be able to find other AMers. Like
the 'specialty mode' argument, it's done nothing positive for the growth of
AM, instead it limits operation by pigeon-holing AMers (voluntarily, I
might add) to a handful of frequencies across the bands. Smarter minds have
long since moved forward, especially with the phone band expansions 7 years
or so back.


> I'm not even hearing late night SSB on 75M here anymore.
>

They're all on the internet or watching TV. (o: It's different back east,
Bob. And I find plenty of activity from Ohio and other areas in the middle
part of the country. West coast is a haul from here best accomplished in
quiet winter conditions.


> A 100W SSB RICEBOX can only produce about a 25W carrier in AM mode. But
> that is plenty for a club to use for local operation. And there is plenty
> of space between 7200 and 7300 to find a clear spot to work in.
>
> All you need is people with an interest in playing with their radios.
>

One of the skills lost to time seems to be the ability to find a spot and
call CQ. I do it regularly even if there are other AMers elsewhere - why
make a group larger and more unmanageable?  Start more activity. Alas, many
folks say "I listened but didn't hear anyone on so I shut it off and
watched TV".

~ Todd/KAQ