[AMRadio] Heavy Metal Rally report from NE1S

[Larry Szendrei]

I got on the air at about 8:45 EST for the AWA Sunday PM AM net on 3837 
KHz. The net wrapped up around 6PM, at which point I carried on with Tim 
WA1HLR, who had also checked into the net, for about half an hour. I was 
then called by KC2UAO, Bill in Brent, NY, who was running a TS-480 into 
some sort of linear amp. I didn't hang around too long after that as I 
needed supper, and Bill's signal wasn't real strong and was getting some 
competition from adjacent SSB stations. After supper, I'd say around 
7PM, I tuned up to around 3880 and found a Heavy Metal group in progress 
with Gerry KC8ZUL "wearing the white coat." I stayed with that group 
until about 8:30PM local, at which point I hung it up for the evening. I 
was running my homebrew vacuum-tube PDM transmitter (833A class D 
modulator and a pair of 7527As in the class C RF PA). Yes, it runs more 
than 250W and weighs over 250 lbs. My receiver was the old SX-28, 
antenna was 2 half-waves in phase at about 65' or so. With a few rare 
exceptions, signals were decent. Here is the list of stations that were 
in the group while I was in there:

KC9QJE Tim, running an RCA BTA 101(?), a 4-1000 modulated by 833s
NS8P Clyde, running some ricebox into an amp
N8NSN Jim - good signal, especially for feeding an inverted-L
KC8ZUL Gerry running a Collins 20V3
WA1HLR Tim running his Viking 1.5 and SX-62
KD8CVY Mike running a Globe King 500A and HQ-129X
W9BHI Don running a Gates BC1G into a 43' vertical
Wa4JK Jerry (light copy)
N8ZBA Dan in Greenwood Township, MI
AB9MQ Marsa (?) in Normal, IL running a homebrew class D RF PA with PDM 
modulator
K8GPY Jeff running a 32V2 and SX-32
K9YQQ in Indianapolis running a homebrew pair of GI7Bs modulated by a pair
W9JMK Jerry in Norway, WI running a 4-400 modulated by 813s
K9GAS Jerry
KC9PCP (light copy)
W5CZ Rod running a KW-1 and 51J4
KG8LB running only 20W, but good copy

Gerry KC8ZUL did a good job of picking up new check-ins and making sure 
no one was left out.

Fun stuff! I'm an early riser and not much of a night-time operator, but 
these events encourage me to change my habits and I get a chance to talk 
to people who I usually don't get to.

73,
-Larry/NE1S