10-11 meter sidebanding

[teckniqs]

I never knew that but have such a lack of interest in it these days someone might have mentioned it but I didn't bother taking any notice.

Yes I agree, 10w works well on those narrow bands and pisses all over the FM radio band and band I, which as we all know reaches much further than band II.

I'd say band I can easily do double the distance of 'FM' and 27-28MHz (NFM) can easily do the double that of Band I!

[SOTS 87 7]

Agreed, on a slightly different note, I managed New York on 40mtrs with 1 watt on a G5RV about 3 years ago.

[MiXiN]

Canada as well as the usual European skip coming in on UK FM (Muppets) a couple of days ago, and managed to have a quick report from the station in Canada on 20 watts until signal faded and noise levels increased.

[SoloMusic25]

Cobra 148 is my favorite

[Albert H]

Agreed, on a slightly different note, I managed New York on 40mtrs with 1 watt on a G5RV about 3 years ago.

I used to have a scheduled contact with a friend in Hong Kong on 20m (14MHz) using just 5 Watts pep of SSB each way! It was my first SSB rig - that I built myself - and I still have it here somewhere. I let my amateur licence lapse about 15 years ago.

[Gigahertz]

Well I picked a CRE-8900 10m radio off ebay for 90£ came with a PC lead to open it up for 11m. You can buy the radios new for 135£ off eBay now. Better than my uniden 341!

Been able to speak with France, Germany and best so far Italy not bad for 12 watts and all on a boomerang antenna on the balcony. Lots of activity on SSB side and still quite a lot of local FM stuff.

Suppose you take what you want from it!

[SOTS 87 7]

Here's a blast from the past, wilst rumaging around in my loft the other day, I found my old Ham International Concorde II. Totally unmolested, the covers never been taken off and original microphone. It worked perfectly.

[NTR]

There is still a heathy 11m scene worldwide - if conditions are good the frequencies get over crowded. 11 seems more popular and deffo more fun than legal amateur bands.

[Steve West]

Found this old clanger knocking around.
Also have an original Ham Concorde II & a Hy-Gain V, all still working.

Loved the squeaky roger beep on the Hy-Gain

I've got one of these beauties:

[MiXiN]

Found this old clanger knocking around.
Also have an original Ham Concorde II & a Hy-Gain V, all still working.

Loved the squeaky roger beep on the Hy-Gain

I've got one of these beauties:

Always liked these & the Deltaforce, and close runners are the Lincoln, Grant, and Emperor Shogun.

I've been looking out for a Stalker 9 on eBay & have put a bid in on the odd ones, but they end up selling for ridiculous prices.

[SOTS 87 7]

Albrecht AE485S.JPG

I've always found these to be quite a nice little radio, nice receiver, good audio quality on SSB and small enough not to get in the way in the car (unlike my Alinco DX70).

[doc retro]

10 and 11 meter and 27.555 and all the lsb and USB can get active and loads use them world wide and when there is lots of skip about its a good crack because you have no idea who you'll copy .some are loonies some are your average Jo blog cb lads and some are Ham's that want a bit of 27.555 action and want to be able to talk normal for 10 mins .

[SOTS 87 7]

Since the lockdown, the conditions have been good throughout.
Its brought a lot of people back on and hopefully restarted peoples interest in it.
I blew the dust off my old Yaesu FT-757GX, Replaced the failed memory battery and was quite surprised. I've been really enjoying it once again.

[Zozo]

I let my amateur licence lapse about 15 years ago.

I'm sure your already aware that you can contact the RSGB and Ofcom to get it back, or have you lost interest in the Ham Bands?

[Zozo]

I always liked 11mtrs, even popped on last year for a bit and worked a few stations. There's some very professional Nets running now. you'd think you was on the amateur bands the way there run (very formal) with a controller in the chair. I always found it hard dealing with some operators who just don't understand the difference between Bands and Modes. I even made a diagram for some operators.

[Albert H]

I let my amateur licence lapse about 15 years ago.

I'm sure your already aware that you can contact the RSGB and Ofcom to get it back, or have you lost interest in the Ham Bands?

It was a foreign licence. The rules are slightly different over there, and involve expense I don't need at the moment! I learned a lot from developing transmitters and receivers for various frequencies, and all the microwave stuff I did at 10GHz and above stood me in good stead both professionally and for building links for nefarious purposes.

I enjoyed the lower bands too, and building FET PAs for 7 and 14 MHz taught me a lot about pressing "switching" power FETs into Class E for use in AM rigs for various bands. I came up with a very simple, cost-effective synthesised AM Class E SW rig that's quite widely used around the world. Component cost is negligible, and it can be successfully constructed with the minimum of test gear. I don't really want to step on "Stretchyman"'s toes, since it's not dissimilar to his "Lulu"-based products, so I won't post it on here just yet.

I find the lack of activity these days on MW and SW somewhat depressing. The Dutch "jongens" still run their stations just off the top end of the Mediumwave, but I don't think anyone but anoraks go looking for them any more. The Dutch AM licences (cheaply and easily available) for moderate power are proving popular, and many of the stations can be heard all over the Benelux and into parts of the UK. These licences have gone a long way to closing down the pirates - why run the risks when you can do it legally, in-band?

That said, it would be fun if there was a resurgence in AM activity now that FM is becoming more difficult. I'm led to believe that most of the London tower blocks have now been secured, so that rooftop access is difficult. Also, Band II is getting crammed with an awful mixture of commercial rubbish and endless BBC nationals, locals and repeaters.

Medium wave is largely unregulated, and the few UK pirates that use it have often gone unmolested for a very long time, as long as they don't cause interference. Admittedly, the quality is inferior to FM, but with some frequency response tweaking, and properly done audio processing, it can sound really good. In many instances, listening while in a car is better on AM than FM because of the lack of nodal "picket-fencing" (the "chuff-chuff" syndrome when trying to listen to weak signals).

The techniques I learned through having an amateur licence (and a "Test and Development" Licence) have paid dividends over the years. I'm now (mostly) retired, so perhaps it's time to get back on the amateur bands from my armchair......

[Zozo]

Thanks for the reply which is very insightful into your knowledge and background in this fascinating hobby. I have much interest in most bands weather that be amateur or broadcast and the bits in-between, however I don't really care to much for the 3mtr broadcast band these days. It was fun in the earlier years. I'm more at home with the MF and HF bands now.

I think we might share many similarities in which may become apparent as I continue to use this forum. As you mentioned regarding the FET PA's for 40 and 20 mtr bands which I've dabbled in a fair bit. The main attraction was the price and availability, gone the days of buying or picking up the NPN Epitaxial power transistors I used a lot years ago. But FET's are here to stay and that came with a whole new thinking and understanding.

SW band activity as you say has been on stead decline which won't come back to the scale it was any time soon, its makes me nostalgic thinking back to all the musical intervals playing after the carrier popped up and just before the scheduled programming would start. There's obviously the dedicated pirate seen on the 48mtr band which mostly consists of Laser Hot Hits on 6205 Khz oh and now 6280 Khz too. In fact I had been a regular occupier of 6275 Khz just before that relay came on only 5Khz away.

You never know, you may get your wish when it comes to a MW resurgence, this happens to where I'm mostly interested when it comes to pirating. I do regularly listen in on the Dutch pirates which may not be accessible to most with conventional UK 9Khz spacing receivers. Although it does appear that many on here are using a Tecsun or some sorts, which can get above 1602 Khz when set to US 10Khz spacing. If not it's going to have to be a communications receiver / HF radio, or possibly a nice vintage radio with the Trawler Band.

I've always liked the AM Mode and I think the sound quality can be very good if your using a nice bit of valve kit, preferably high level plate modulation. I've experimented with many types of modulation from Choke Heising modulation to clamp tube / controlled carrier modulation with the screen grid. I can honestly say that poor audio is probably either the quality of the receiver or local QRM the listener is getting from cheap Chinese SMPS / Wall warts along with many other types of electrical appliances that are not up to the UK's EMC regulations.

On another note its a shame the UK never adopted Motorola's C-Quam. It makes me chuckle when I tell some people that AM can be in Stereo and they say "WHAT!?". I do have a AM Stereo receiver in front of me now made for the Japanese market. Seems the US and Australia lucked out along with Spain, but not us. I guess the IBA and the BBC didn't want to invest in a whole in technology along with all new receiver's for a band and mode they probably wanted to hopefully phase out in the near future.

Defiantly agree with the propagation being better on Medium Wave by a long way, as apposed to VHF Bands (no picket-fencing). I like how the MF frequencies aren't so obscured by the ground terrain and obstacles. Ground wave can be very impressive on a reasonable antenna even with QRP power levels. I'll get a video up at some point demonstrating this for everyone who's interested to see. I'll even pop up a simple LPAM antenna design, to be honest it pretty much a variant of the commercial LPAM antennas used in the UK, but no capacitive hat on the top which makes it look like a rotary washing line that's gone wrong.

Anyhow, hopefully we may even work each other on the Ham Bands one day if you decided to get your licence reinstated

73's

[Zozo]

I always found it hard dealing with some operators who just don't understand the difference between Bands and Modes. I even made a diagram for some operators.

I found that diagram I made if anyone was curious??

Modes.png

[87to108]

. Although it does appear that many on here are using a Tecsun or some sorts, which can get above 1602 Khz when set to US 10Khz spacing. If not it's going to have to be a communications receiver / HF radio, or possibly a nice vintage radio with the Trawler Band.

Australia is one country that has 9khz steps but has a legal expanded AM band up to 1701kHz so surprising Tecsun does not account for this in MW tuning ranges on receivers for worldwide use.?

[Zozo]

11mtrs has been open a few times over the past week. Conditions are a little up and down today, 2 division was coming through very well earlier today on 27.375 & 27.385 LSB.

I've managed to work 13 division so far. Wales and Scotland are making the trip on the UK40, but I'm not QRV there.