[AMRadio] Regarding Radio Moscow and 40 meters

[Mike Duke, K5XU]

K4KYV wrote: "Remember back in the Cold-War days how they transmitted a 
separate 60 dB over 9 signal every 15 kc/s all way across the entire 
40m band? :-)"

Absolutely! Radio Moscow, BBC, and VOA  all had transmitters everywhere 
I had a 40 meter Novice crystal. They would take turns making my Novice 
life challenging from mid afternoon through nearly daylight.

Then, I came up with the silly notion of getting a crystal for 7157. 
That simply meant I would get hammered from BC stations on both 7155 
and 7160 at the same time.

Somehow, despite all that racket, I managed to get 38 states confirmed 
and 45 states worked on 40 meters as a Novice.

Later, as a General class licensee who couldn't see the dial scale, 
Radio Prague, which transmitted for years on 7305, made a wonderful 
edge marker for the top of the band. Their signal was loud enough and 
wide enough that there was no way I could get too close to the band 
edge. And if I did, nobody could hear me anyway when Prague was transmitting.


Once the BC stations moved out of the 7100 - 7200 range, many people 
discovered what had been a relatively well kept secret: 40 meters is 
probably our best overall HF band. It is almost always open to 
somewhere, and can usually provide local area coverage during the day 
and early evening as well as DX.

And, remember when a 2 element 40 meter beam automatically made you a 
"big gun?" Now, I'm amazed by the number of 4 element, and stacked 4 
element arrays that I encounter on 40.

But take heart; there are still plenty of us using an inverted V. Some 
of us don't have any better sense than to think we can hold our own 
with the big boys. Most of the time, we do okay. At least, we have fun trying!

-- 
Mike Duke, K5XU