AM is like good whisky. SSB is like cough syrup. The first is a well funded choice. The second is cheap, but necessary if yer ailin'. 73DG
Last several nights condx on 160 have been great. from around 7 to 9 p.m. local time propagation has been solid over a 400 mile path roughly and less. East of the Mississippi QRN has been nonexistent. Check out around 1880 and 1980. I imagine the band gets even better after 8 or 9 p.m. but I can't stay up that late.
I use any mode I can find good conversation on. If you went to an antique car show and told the guys there they should trade those old rust buckets in for a modern fuel efficiency vehicle you'd get some strange looks. That's what AM is to me. If i drove my ham radio to work every day I'd feel differently. CW is inefficient compared to more modern digital modes but I don't think the people using it are foolish.
Look for a friend of mine, Joe, evenings on 7293. He's in Mexico, and active as XE2/W7ISJ. I don't know how long he's down there but I'm presuming for a few weeks.
Band conditions were interesting last night on 75, started going long probably around 730, a good opening to the middle of the country, then around 930 everything started pulling back in and local stations up to about 300 to 500 miles were booming in. I suspect this probably happens a lot more often than people realize, but once the band starts going long they shut down and don't hang out till the band settles back down. Last night's high activity allowed this effect to be explored. W1AW had a good pileup going on 3885, AJ1G was running 3875, and i had 3869 to myself for almost 2 hours, even had a pileup or 2 of my own. Quite a variety of rigs: homebrew, military, vintage amateur, broadcast, modern solid state rigs (both barefoot and amplified). A great relaxed operation, get the exchange info, have a chat, then turn it over to the next guy. And having a good conversation starter makes it fun, quite a few guys i worked never heard of or saw an 814 tube before and had to look it up, not a tube you see often.
March 3, ~22:00z Nice chat with Will KF2IZE in NC on his HT-32. Nice sounding rig! Lots of signals on the air tonight. Am ghetto up near 7.290 is clear and ready for more.
