AM or SSB, are there "windows?"

HOLEY CARP!!

Youze guys must be really bored!
This discussion - again?

Yep, every few years, this same old tired bone gets dug up again, and all the puppy dogs,
bark and woof, growl, and try to control the bone. Waffore??

The real dogs, the big dogs, they don't do that.
They get on-the-air and do radio, and maybe CONTROL the FREQUENCY.

Somebody posted that they tried AM, and people talked for a long time about one subject?
You want fast, or faster?
Go to a group that does fast or faster.
One does not go to a table tennis club and feel bad that it isn't the same as tennis, or football!!
There are plenty of "quick key" what I refer to as "snappy reparte" (should be an accent in the e, French) groups,
where it is very quick, and really nothing much gets said. Is that better??
Do some people talk too long? Yep.
And?

Those who are worried about "excessive bandwidth"?
Exercise your FCC given right to QSY, switch bands, or operate the OFF switch until you like
what you hear.

The guys who try AM and can't get "in"?
Maybe you need a signal first, and then to grasp how AM is done, more or less as a style and art form.
Just like SSB has its styles and art forms...
A lot of stations have gotten on with 10-25 watts, transceivers, low antennas, and been frustrated.
Would you enter a freeway at 30mph and complain how fast the cars are going??

In general, not always, AM requires some actual effort - more than just throwing on a transceiver and talking.
But anyone who does AM, or listens a bit already knows this.
(generally speaking, the ops in the NE USA fall over backwards to help someone, especially newcomers with both technical advice and encouragement...)

Well, seems like I am stating the obvious.

What does this have to do with "the window"?

Just this: get on the air, operate. That's IT.
Plenty of bandwidth.
Plenty of space.
The bands are UNDER UTILIZED NOW.
PERIOD.

Don't like the way the usual AM groups work?
Get on with ur buds - make ur own.
Put it ANYWHERE in the band that is legal.

Imho, Bob Heil, K9EID's issue is a non-issue, one that has been discussed and debated for decades.
Needs NO FURTHER rumination.

Bob Heil, spend ur time and money trying to figure out how to make this hobby attractive to
young(er) people, the bands are fine as they are.

 

Bear, all Bob is doing is trying to make himself relevant again by using an existing hot topic debate to do so.

At the end of the day, no current AM’ers really care about what he thinks is the right way to go about playing radio.

As long as we all just follow Part 97, we’ll all be fine and continue to enjoy the hobby.

I was on 7280 earlier and the SSB QRM’ers were at their usual full tilt stupid mode and trying to QRM us.

But since their stations were inferior to ours, they had no substantial affect, and ended up going A-Whhhhhaaaaaaayyyyyy after a short period of time.

If only Bob was on the air to hear it.

 

Tough audience.

 

I guess if you identify as Tinkerbell.

 

You mean - "...I don't get no respect..."???

 

What license is required to operate using the AM mode?

 

Premium Class.

 

It’s an endorsement added on to your existing license and requires a visit to an F.C.C. field office where three agents grill you with rapid- fire questions in a smokey and dimly lit room.

Questions might include describing the purpose of a cathode bypass capacitor or hand-drawing a push-pull modulator and PA stage.

I remember having to explain why the term “modified Heising” makes no sense and should be avoided.

It’s rigorous but worth it! Truly a rite of passage.

 

Don't forget warming up your 866's before use.

 

I see you're the licensee formerly known as KJ7COZ in Nevada. To seriously answer your question (good-natured joking aside), you will need to upgrade to something with HF voice privileges. General or Extra. May I suggest dropping a line to John, N9AMI who also is in your region. He is the head of AM International (2000 members!) and may know of clubs or other resources that can help you move your license higher and get on with us.

https://www.aminternational.club/contact/

 

W3AMT said:

And remember: You have to wait an hour after eating before you can modulate 100%!

 

The author frequently practices what he doth preach.

 

My fellow hams: a couple of things, if you will: Bob should get credit for inventing the Heil cartridges that a lot of 'slopbucketeers' use on SSB. They were a huge improvement on the stock mics people were using on SSB before that time. Then the Gold Line mics became extremely popular. I still use a Heil headest or a PR-40 on SSB and they still sound great.

Secondly, his Wurlitzer pipe organ work, and third his tours with the Grateful Dead and The Who (etc.) massively improved sound on the road. And fourth; who could forget Frampton's 'Heil Talk Box' -- Do you feel like I do?

People who use AM have been trying and succeeding in improvement of on-the-air fidelity, since before Bob was born, of course, and many sound as good or better than commercial broadcast stations, often using equipment from commercial broadcast stations. Listen to a strong AM signal at 8-15 kHz (depending on transmitter width) and you'll hear what I mean.

More to the heart of this matter, I'd like to know more about this so-called 'Gentlemen's Agreement' which l'm sure would be rejected outright as a "horribly anachronistic, misogynistic, and class-based, founder's attempt at defacto segregation of a minority mode," at many of our premier institutions, such as Stanford, U Penn, Harvard, and Yale. Unfortunately, even the ARRL itself would undoubtedly be classified as such, after one look at the age, race, and class of the majority of the Board, not to mention the current controligarchy and push for even less transparency, up there in Newington.

In all seriousness, (at last) who developed the rubric for this agreement; what were the parameters; the personalities; the working theories; the give and take; the rationale? And why would modern hams feel bound to approve of, and follow this mysterious agreement, which produced a document without even a set of published minutes, which we've all heard of, but really know nothing about?

Some have claimed it merely created ghettos for a disfavored mode. Others claim there was more ad money in commercially purchased SSB rigs and more to be made in jamming more signals into the ham bands and more money in the ad kitty at QST. Some even claim the League bullied AM ops and often chastised them in the yellowed and aging pages of QST.

Gentlemen (and ladies) and the rest of you, your thoughts please?

Written with tongue partly-in-cheek, in the style of 'The Old Man' by another OM,

Sincerely, Tom

 

Who cares about gentlemen's aggreements? Considerate, polite people. Gentlemen and women, that is. All the rest can just forget all that.

 

If someone were asking you to "drive slower" (use a less effective mode or band or whatever) that might hold some weight. They're not. Your signal will be just as good, or just as bad, a few khz up or down the band. Band crowding is rarely an issue these days. Why make it one when it needn't be?