[Boatanchors] OT: Ignorance :))

[Carl]

AM is all over 75 these days, I can often hear 5-6 QSO's going on and can 
almost always raise a QSO even during a daytime weekday.

I also ran a DX-100 on 11M a lot in the 50's, even after the band was 
stolen. It was quite active in the NYC area. The FCC finally came out with a 
letter promising no action if we all got off by a certain date, it was 
published in QST. We went back on with CB calls and the same rigs but then I 
went into the Navy and when I got back the fad had mostly died off.

Ummm, there were many commercial SSB rigs on from the late 40's to the 
transceivers of the early 60's. Maybe you didnt remember Central 
Electronics, Collins, Gonset,  Hallicrafters, Hammarlund and all the others. 
At least the phasing rigs sounded good. I started with a W2EWL HB on 75/20 
and then a CE-10A, 20A and 100V with a HT-37 tossed in for awhile.

While 10M was fine during the high of Cycle 19 it was 6M where the fun was 
and it made me a lifelong fan of the band.

Carl
KM1H




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Wilhite" <w5jo at brightok.net>
To: "Carl" <km1h at jeremy.mv.com>; "butwheat" <butwheat73 at gmail.com>
Cc: <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, March 21, 2011 9:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] OT: Ignorance :))


> The demise of AM was because, purportedly, you could get two SSB 
> conversations in the same space as one AM.  In those days the bands were 
> full of heterodynes, cussing  and short tempers because someone was always 
> on someone's frequency.  Hummmmmmm, that sounds sort of familiar.
>
> By restricting the audio in the transmitter it took less space than the 
> standard AM signal of the 40s and 50s.  The push to SSB was mostly due to 
> the fact it was the latest technology so the ARRL endorsed it as an answer 
> to the crowded bands.   In later years they endorsed other new modes as 
> they came along so it wasn't just to rid the bands of AM.  They also 
> didn't really challenge the gift of 11 meters to the CB band to supplement 
> already existing commercial frequencies near that band because no one ever 
> used it.  If anyone was up there it was 10 meters. Just look at all us old 
> timers brag about the conditions in 55-57 and it will all be 10 meters.
>
> In the beginning you only heard SSB signals in the 3 Kc segment near the 
> top and bottom of the bands.  The operators ran lower sideband on 3.997 
> and upper sideband lower edge.  All the transmitters were home build for 
> years until the first transceiver arrived.
>
> Nothing has really changed except there are fewer stations on the air 
> today than in yesteryear and you hear AM station on the upper and lower 
> ends of the bands, quite reverse from 1956.
>
> Jim/W5JO
>
> ----- Original Message ----- .
>>
>> I think it was that restricted nasal sound pushed by the ARRL and built 
>> into
>> most everything after the late 40's that helped the demise of AM.
>>
>