[AMRadio] AM "Ghetto"

[Donald Chester]

>> I don't find many that are crystal bound.
>>
>> Most either have external VFOs or have tunable rigs.

>> I don't find many that are rock bound at all.  I know I haven't owned 
>> a single one since I got licensed.  I also can't say that I've held a 
>> QSO with any either.

>> I think you must just have crystals on the brain.  The Glowbugs are 
>> much more likely to do so than any AM operators.
>>
>> Bob - N0DGN

I have a drawer full of 160, 80 and 40m crystals, including most of the 
popular AM frequencies, but they work in only one of my transmitters, 
but I have something to keep me on the air in case the VFO craps out. I 
modified the Gates BC transmitter to run off an external VFO, and it 
won't operate xtal control any more. I sometimes run the HF-300 rig on 
crystal just for the fun of it. Most of my xtals are the old round 
Bliley/Valpey types that fit into a 5-pin tube socket.


> Restructuring came in April 2000. No new Advanced, Tech Plus or Novice
> Class licenses would be issued. Code requirements also dropped to 5 
> wpm.
> Code eliminated from testing requirement February 2007.
>
> Pete, wa2cwa

So, any Advanced licensee had to have passed the 13 wpm code test? I 
wasn't sure whether or not those changes all occurred in one sweep.






> Even W3NB with his Gates can manage to move.  I'd expect that a 
> commercial AM rig is the hardest to move in frequency.  Yet, Mike 
> manages to to do so from 160 to 80 to 40.

> Bob - N0DGN

Both my homebrew rigs will work multiple bands, but the Gates works only 
160m. I find it easier to tune one of the HB rigs to 40 and the other 
one to 80. Then I just fire up whichever rig is tuned to the band to the 
band I want to get on. I have to run down to the tower to switch 
antennas, but once selected, the tuner at the tower can be remotely 
adjusted from the operating position using a reversible DC motor and 
position indicator.

I can tune equally well all way across any band. One of the excuses I 
frequently hear for not operating outside the window/Ghetto is that the 
antenna is resonant at 3870-90 and won't tune "down below". I prefer by 
far one good, solid, high antenna fed with resonant feeders and a tuner, 
to a forest of coax-fed half wave dipoles for each band, even incuding 
separate ones for 80 and 75m, cluttering the space over the shack.

Don k4kyv
> ****************************************