AmateurRadio.com

The 29-29.1MHz sub-band continues to be the best place to find HF AM. This is the HF band with most space, although there are AM enthusiasts on 160m and other bands. When these bands are not busy AM has its place.

When 10m goes “off the boil” 29MHz AM will be ideal for local nets with very simple gear. Ranges are fine for local nets. Also there is a ready supply of ex-CB kit around, although making a wholly homebrew QRP rig for 29MHz AM is a nice group project. There are some ideas for starters on my main website.

As an example of how effective 10m AM can be see http://www.macnaughtonart.com/10metlog-ss24.htm .

Roger Lapthorn, G3XBM, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cambridge, England.

In many ways, 6m (50MHz) is an ideal band for experiments. Short RF leads are always good, but 6m is a forgiving band and you can get away with HF constructional techniques. It is 2MHz wide here in the UK and this means all speech modes can be fitted and used. The page below shows a number of links to 50MHz projects.

See http://www.pg1n.nl/articles.php?lng=en&pg=145 .

See also my Sixbox 6m AM transceiver .

Roger Lapthorn, G3XBM, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cambridge, England.

By now, most of you have heard that, at least in the New Jersey area, "The Blizzard of 2015" has turned out to be a big bust. The forecasters were warning us of 18-24 inches (45-60 cm), plus. Instead what we actually received was about 4 inches (10 cm).

I am one of the ones who is not disappointed. I would much rather have the weatherman tell me I am going to get 24 inches of snow, and only get 4, as opposed to the other way around. Meteorology is an art, even to this day. To anyone who is forcing the weather people to eat crow today, I say, "Let's see YOU try it for a while!". I am hearing so many people say, "Oh yeah, I knew from the beginning it wasn't going to be that bad."  Yeah ..... right.

Listening to New England stations coming through Echolink on the local repeater, I understand they are getting hammered, as predicted. Stay safe, warm and dry, my friends.

Even though we didn't get the snow, we did get the cold and the winds. Not gale force winds, but when I was out there shoveling snow, I was chilled to the bone. And the whole time I was removing snow, I was dreaming of something like this:



Thanks to Sean KX9X for posting this.  Some portable outdoor QRP in a nice, warm sunny location is EXACTLY what the doctor ordered, right about now.

On a side note, the office was declared closed for the day last night, when the ominous forecast was still hovering over us. So when the snow stopped this afternoon, having some time available, I went out and switched the coax from the EDZ over to the W3EDP. Much to my relief, the W3EDP hears fine again! It loads up easily on every band and the KX3's auto tuner handles it with nary a whimper.

As it turns out, the coax problem on the W3EDP was entirely may fault. When I went to disconnect the coax from the balun at the end of the W3EDP, I noticed to my horror, that I had never sealed the connection. It's no wonder that water got in there. This time, I double coated the connection with tape, added some plumber's putty over that, and added a final layer of tape.  If the W3EDP plays as well as I think it will, I may just end up taking down the EDZ this Spring and keeping the W3EDP as my primary wire antenna.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Sverre Holm, LA3ZA, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Norway. Contact him at [email protected].

Good evening all, as you can tell from the lack of updates on my blog my time has been spent elsewhere. The blog is still a very important to me and reading the others blogs is very enjoyable, I am committed to my blog but not as much for the last few months. This is not radio related at all and is by no means an advertisement. Julie and have decided to work on our overall health and we are under going a lifestyle change. We have decided to eat more of a plant based diet and move away from the processed food (or yummy food) We both have been very preoccupied with reading and research to make sure what we end up with  the best fit for our lifestyle. We have decided to start our journey by juicing to plain old cleaning out our systems. Then its largely a plant based diet with some juicing on the side. So this has kept me very busy and away from positing in my blog. We both hope to loose some pounds and overall eat and get healthy. So the blog is not gone by the way side I'm just getting my health back on track.


Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

The first official episode of AmateurLogic’s Ham College will be shot this Friday evening, January 30th at 7:00 CST, 0100 UTC.
You can watch us produce it live and participate in the chatroom at www.live.amateurlogic.tv.
This is a new show for those wanting to join the hobby and new Hams as well.

George Thomas, W5JDX, is co-host of AmateurLogic.TV, an original amateur radio video program hosted by George Thomas (W5JDX), Tommy Martin (N5ZNO), Peter Berrett (VK3PB), and Emile Diodene (KE5QKR). Contact him at [email protected].

This little top band AM transmitter and a companion receiver were first published in the GQRP club SPRAT magazine. This TX version was built by M0DAD. Where the noise floor allows, 160m AM is quite popular for local nets.  There is something nice about “rolling your own” builds and getting satisfying results without spending a fortune. For daytime local use 160m AM is a great mode and rigs are simple. I am still surprised that more is not made of AM on 10m at night for local nets here in the UK.

See http://www.delboyonline.co.uk/m0dad/construcion/poppet_top_band_am_transmitter.htm.

Roger Lapthorn, G3XBM, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cambridge, England.