[AMRadio] AM Presentation

[Donald Chester]

I have observed in the past decade or so a pronounced reduction in the
amount of activity on 160, 75 and 40, despite statistics reported from the
FCC data base showing a record number of licensees. This includes all modes,
not just AM. Late in the evening  there is usually very  little 80m CW
activity, except when there is a QuaRMtest on. For many years I have noticed
they roll up the sidewalks on 160m after about 9 PM, and it's getting that
way on 75 as well. Gone are the nightly nocturnal emissions that used to
regularly fill the band until well past 2 AM, even on static-free weekend
nights, although  there are a couple of groups that are often heard on
through the wee hours, and sometimes early evening QSOs end up dragging on
past midnight if the conversation gets interesting enough.

For right now, the dearth of activity is understandable, with all the QRN.
Lately the lightning storm map has been looking like it has measles or
smallpox. If the forecasts about global warming pan out as predicted, this
may become more and more the norm, something we will have to adapt to.

When the phone band was expanded on 75, there was a rush within the AM
community to get on the air "down below". Ops were heard talking about
upgrading so they could get down into the Extra class segment, and into the
Advanced segment too. AM  stations could be heard throughout the newly
opened spectrum. This continued for a couple of months until the novelty
wore off, and then,  slowly, one by one, most of the stations tucked their
tails and migrated back to their old habitual hanging out spots, until now,
it is relatively rare to hear AM activity below 3700, or more than one or
two QSOs above that frequency. I no longer hear the Canadian AM group that
used to hang out every afternoon on 3725 either. I sometimes stir up a
little activity by calling CQ down in the low end, and 95% if the time any
AM QSO to follow is with someone who decided to try out his transceiver on
AM for the first time. I have had more than a few to reply that they liked
what they heard and that they might work more AM in the future, now that
they knew how good it sounded and how relaxing the AM style of operating is.
But where are all the AMers who rushed to get down there right after the
band was expanded? Of course, I still hear the old excuse, "my antenna won't
work down that far ". I dunno, but I have never had any problem making my
antenna work anywhere between 3500 and 4000 with nearly uniform efficiency.

Then it was "déjà vu all over again" when the broadcasters vacated 7100-7200
on 40m. Right away the old AM hang-out on 7160 was revived, and AM was
regularly heard near that frequency from the late afternoon through the late
evening hours. Once again, the novelty soon wore off, and now AM is seldom
heard in  that part of the band except for the daytime group from 5-land.
The top end is OK when the broadcasters are absent, but very often the
vicinity of 7290 is clobbered with one or more loud BC stations from early
evening on.

Something I have noted recently though, is that the BC stations on 7200-7300
seem to be thinning out, especially in the early evening hours before
several loud ones from the middle east region fire up at 0400Z. This could
be encouraging, unless it's merely a summertime phenomenon. Maybe with the
demise of the big ones like Radio Moscow, BBC, AFRTS and VOA and the
increasing availability of computers in poorer countries to receive
streaming audio off the internet, SW broadcasting is gradually falling into
disuse. That also might mean less competition from SWBC interests for HF
spectrum at upcoming WARCs, and some of our present bands could even be
expanded in the future, and maybe one day we'll get a REAL ham band on 60m.
In the meantime, we need to give frequencies  like 7225 a try. Very often
there is a large swathe of blank frequency in the middle of the 7200-7300
segment with no broadcasters or slopbucketeers either. With less overall
activity, there is all  the less reason for  that bogus "bandwidth" and
"spectrum conservation"  arguments against AM.

The most effective way to promote AM is to simply make sure that AM signals
are heard on all the bands, daily.

Don k4kyv