Hi Pete - don't let the SSB'ers irritate you. I ran a home brew AM rig while I was in Huntsville, AL working for NASA but I left there in 1976. I got really tired of the guys telling me I had carrier on my signal. I don't know if it was to harass me or if they really didn't know what AM was (appliance operators?). I ran a 4-400A (Class C, of course) plate modulated by a pair of 4-400A's and loaded the negative cycle for "ultra-linear" modulation as I believe it was called. I also loved SPAM, (Society for the Preservation for Amplitude Modulation). Is that still around? I went to RTTY on 20 meters when I moved to El Paso and now do a little 20 meter SSB on my old (and beautiful) Collins S Line. Thanks for the video. Beautiful transmitter. If I had the room I would run a pair of 4-1000A's at 6KV on the plates and modulate it with another pair of 4-1000A's or maybe I would run 833A'a. Do you remember a fellow with the handle of "Con" W4EBG out of Paducah, Kentucky in the '60's? A Huge AM signal and always in trouble with the FCC. I am sure he is SK by now. 73 WA4QGA
Hey, ElPaso, I know you posted this comment a year ago, but if you ever check for new comments, I wanted to let you know that I remember Con! My Dad was a ham from 1953 until he became an SK in 1998. He was a die-hard AM'er until I got licensed in '67 at age 12, and wanted to try SSB. I built an HW-100 in 1970 and he grudgingly "upgraded". But, he kept his AM gear and still worked it whenever he could find someone still on that mode. His DX-100B to a pair of 813's was his favorite AM station. I don't think I ever worked Con with my own call, but I remember many hours of sitting in the shack listening to QSO's my Dad had with Con an several others in nightly 75-meter roundtables. Seems like Les, WA0DKY and Art, WA0DNT might have been a couple of them in the roundtables, too. Con became an SK in the late 70's. As I recall, he worked as an electrician for the TVA. I've tried to remember Con's call for several years, and now I know what it was, thanks to your comment. I just googled Con's call and came up with a picture of him. I swear, I never met him or saw a picture of him, but this is exactly how I had him pictured in my mind. www.amwindow.org/pix/htm/w4ebg.htm BTW, great vid's K7PP!
Kudos to you, old man! So many hams on HF today that haven't a clue what a passband is, let alone where their passband is in relation to an adjacent QSO. Nor do they understand part 97, or know where to go to read it. I'm part of a small group that gathers on 10 meters for a ground wave roundtable every night of the week in the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh, PA. We operate SSB most of the time, but Thursday nights we do AM so a couple of the guys can exercise their Johnson Valiants, and so the rest of us we can listen to plate-modulated audio. We operate late enough that the band has closed to DX, keep the power reasonably low, and like you, never start up if there's someone within our passband. Yet we've received occasional complaints from snobs who think the ARRL writes the rules and are convinced you can't operate AM on 28.430 because the league's band plan says so. Last time I checked part 97, A3E emissions are legal anywhere from 28.300 up to the repeater frequencies. K7PP 73 de WV3E
Hello again Pete, Kim (WA7BTG) here in Belfair, Wa, I wish we could have had more time to visit when you came and picked up the two DX-100's from my storage. I for one really appreciate this video as it has been very informative for me from both the technical and practical aspects, I was first licensed here near Bremerton in about 1965 as a Technician to initially get on the air, "Technician" was not descriptive of me as I more or less memorized what was needed to pass the test rather than having and "Elmer" or mentor for learning the real nuts and bolts of equipment and operation. mainly I confined my operation to 6 meters and remember very well the introduction of SSB to 6 meters, during that time period.I was on AM for 2 years when the first SSB stations started to appear, and there was definitely SSB/Am wars going on there during that transition period on 6..so begrudgingly I finally went SSB on 6. I'm now going to add Am once again on 6 with an old Gonset G-50 rig and a Drake 2-A receiver, RME converter. anyway I also have the low band Am bug that has been striking me for years so I plan on that also. I can appreciate your frustration with the ham QSO when it seemed having your intelligence insulted (given your technical background), but actually I'm happy it drove you to making this instructive video for some of us more than willing to learn from you, I must comment you have the longest coax run that I have ever seen, now I can be assured and comforted in realizing that if I set up mine properly 200 feet should present no problems. I'm highly impressed your stations also, and very impressive with your operating philosophy, To anyone reading this, I can state Pete is a real gentlemen, meeting him and doing business with him attests to this. Thanks Pete, 73, Kim WA7BTG belfair.
+kim canterbury Geeze, Kim, thanks for the kind comments. Yeah, a long run of coax is not really a big deal. On 160 meters, I'm loosing about 25 percent of my power and on 75 meters, about 40 percent of my power. The trade off is that I've located the antenna in an area that is super quiet and very high. I hear things on this antenna that are completely absent on the ones up close to the house and which are at a lower level. Hope to hear you on AM some evening. Pete
Hi Pete, love your Collins transmitter. Per your posting above from a fellow ham about running an illegal station --- I hope you just ignored him and did not try to explain that you were running a station called "amplitude modulation.'" If he has that kind of attitude, he probably would not have understood what you were trying to explain anyway. I am a Collins fan and have a good bit of it to include a 30K-1 and the 310B exciter from 1947. The 30K-1 had already been "modified" (I think someone tried to turn it into a CB linear) when I picked it up in 1975 so I turned it into a wonderful experimental cabinet. I built all kinds of amplifiers in it and finally settled on a 4CX1000A amp for SSB. On the other side, I ran a homebrew AM station on 75M AM from the early 70's to 1975 until I left Huntsville, AL for El Paso. My AM station consisted of a class-C 4-400A and I plate modulated it with a pair of 4-400A's. For some reason I can not exactly explain, I want to get back on AM. I don't really care what band. At the moment, I only operate 20M. Back in the early 80's I only ran RTTY but tired of it and went back to SSB. I have the PS built which sports 872A's and the modulator is a pair of 810's. I already have a 833A amplifier built for 20M that I will change over to class-C and plate modulate it. I am not exactly copying the KW-1 but I know that is what was in that transmitter (but not the 833A). I don't have much room for antennas so I am not sure I can even put up a 75M dipole but, that is a problem for another day. I started in 1963 with my general ticket and operated on 75M sometimes and I remember the guys that ran SSB back then, harassing me because I had "carrier on my signal". I never once had anyone complain during the 70's when I had my homebrew AM transmitter on 75M. I wonder why? Anyway, I am actually surprised that people complain to you about your AM signal. I regret having to say this but a short experience I had a couple of years back when I put up a 40M dipole is hearing a number of people with seriously foul language and attitudes. There were, of course, some good fellows also. During my early days, foul language was illegal per the FCC. Now I guess everything is free-speech no matter who it offends (?) This will not keep me off the air on AM as I am good at ignoring harassment. Fortunately, I hear very little offensive language and comments on 20M and I am sure that is one reason that it is the only band I operate at this time. Lastly, I certainly admire your approach and the effort you made to post your video and I am glad to hear the FCC does not have a problem with the width of an AM signal. I hope to have my AM station on the air in the next month or so and if I can get up a 75M dipole, maybe we can have a QSO. Keep up the good work and don't let the guys give you a hard time because you have "carrier on your signal." 73 WA4QGA PS - I also have a UA-cam page by ElPaso TubeAmps and lots of pictures on my QRZ page of my home brew equipment..
Pete, I think the big long mea culpa was totally unnecessary on your part. Your best bet is to ignore barbarians of that sort and move on. Keep the faith, bro. KA4KOE
Very Nice clean signal. I am a retired Broadcast Engineer and love seeing the equipment I used to use on AM Radio Broadcasting including the Heathkit Modulation Monitor. I used to strive for HiFi Broadcasting up to 15Khz and down to 20Hz until the FCC neutering the AM Broadcasters. Keep up the excellent signals.
Jeez, Pete, you could pass NRSC with that signal! And as a former AM Bureau engineer, I concur fully with the Commissions reply. There's room enough on 160 and 75 for everybody and their favorite mode. I just wish K4ZDH would come out of retirement, and have a word with the lids that seem to think they have exclusive rights to certain frequencies, and the toilet-mouths who are the real spectrum polluters. Hope to catch you on this winter with my Vanguard-II....73
Well Said Pete ! Each station is entitled to use the bandwidth appropriate to that mode, band, and conditions, and to have a reasonable guard band of separation . Which means that when anyone goes on the air, they need to make allowance for adjacent user, adjust their transmission to fit the space they intend occupy. On the receive end, operators need to use appropriate rx bandwidth consistant with thier mode of operation. Pete is saying he will use a reasonable transmitted bandwidth appropriate to the band and the conditions. SSB operators need to understand the nature of DSB AM. Most of us who operate AM also operate ssb, and other modes. SSB operators need to understand that when we use vintage recievers that strong ssb stations operating too close, pump our AVC, and make communicating very difficult... thus requiring more power than would otherwise be necessary.. and thus begins a cascade of unnecessary stupidty with no end. W6WUH.
I used to get on 3775khz am here in denver. one morning a east coast station accused me of illegal power. I told him it must be my 5 kw into 9 tons of aluminum on 9 acres. in reality I was running my healthkit dx100 into a full wave horizontal loop at 20 feet. it was just conditions.
First off very nice Video. Ok let get down to this the FCC did not set up that AM operators have to work only between 3870 to 3885 Khz. You will not find this in any of the new text at all. This was set up by the ARRL as where it would be a good place for AM operators to work. If you look at the band plan the FCC shows clearly that AM and SSB can be operated in the same areas. As far as wattage you are allowed a 1500 Watt Carrier with a modulation up to 100% imposed on to the carrier. I am a electronic Engineer that has worked for Raytheon and NASA. I have been doing this for more than 4 decades professionally . I had to get a Radio telephone license to even work on transmitters and Radars. Now lets get down to the real problem most these radios that are being bought by new hams lack several things they have a wide end front tune RF amp on the receiver. When you by them they give you all these specs that say the radio has a certain selectivity. No they do not because the retail store forgot to tell you to get the tight specs you need to add in extra filtering. Yes your radios can still have a crystal filters added to them. Instead you use a cheap way of filtering in the audio circuits in the Receivers.This is known as Digital audio filtering and can tighten up the band width but not in the IF circuits where it is really needed.. You need a crystal filter and most the time it call a SSB crystal filter and it can be installed in the newer ham radio but no we just go out and pay a large amount for a transceiver and assume all this is already in the radio or just do not know the new radios can have these filters added. The problem is that most these ham radios have a +6 and ---6 khz band width. Wow that 12Khz in total. The crystal filters will say 2.7 Khz band pass on them. If you had these in your receiver you would never hear anything out side of 2.7 Khz of your operating frequency. So to all the new ham operators please ask for these filters. It will help on your dXing and you will get a lot less interference known as QRM. This is what I do design radios . I design transceivers professionally for a living. I like all modes of that exist but SSB is not the only mode of operation. I try to tell everyone I know because they always want a better transceiver to get out further. Two things play a huge part is your antenna and second your receiver. If you cant hear the station how will you work them. Invest a lot into your receiver. Digital filter can clean up noise and tighten only then audio on your receiver. You want better selectivity on your receiver invest into the crystal filters. Yes ALL new radios have this option but you have to ask for it. The dealer may not even know about this so contact the company that made your radio and tell them you want them installed filters into your receiver. If your radio does not have this option then it probably was made to be a lost cost receiver. Which would be in the same class as shortwave receivers for general broadcast signals. There are mods that could be done to even tighten up band widths on them as well. Your station set up is good and very legal. I also restore thousands of radio each year that are from the past. I do this for a living and as a hobby now. I have owned two AM and FM stations on the Broadcast band myself. Let me put in a small comment if you are using a SSB band receiver and do get QRM on the 80 meter band while working on 3890. First tune your receiver down to 3885 and zero beat in on the AM signal. IF you see they are right on 3885 than your receiver has a wide band pass on the IF strip. This is why you are receiving the interference. If you had the crystal filter you would see this go away. Till then move up 5 Khz and continue your QSO. IF operators using AM mode are only going to get 3870 to 3885 to talk on then surely you can find another frequency because everything else is open up to you to talk on. What if this was in reverse and SSB users were only allowed 3870 to 3885 and you could not talk anywhere else. You would probably be very unhappy.with this choice. Anyways lets try getting along and work out the problems instead of causing them. Do not always assume the other person is at fault and look at your own equipment it may just be on your end. Remember these new receivers made in China and Japan are taking short cuts. Their main goal is to make money and you need to ask does this radio meet these specifications most the time it will not unless you get their extra add on filters and other things. I will give you and example of a radio I have and it was really for me to listen to but I found out by opening it that there was open slots at first I was what is this. Well it was places for Crystal filters. It was not mention it the owners manual or by any retailers . I called the company and they said well it for crystal filters. I told them well I was never told your radio had this option. They said yes it does and you can install them or we can do it for you. Please know what you are buying and look into what options are available for your radio. Anyways enough of this . I saw the Video and I can see he goes through a lot of extra precautions to make sure his signal is very clean on the air. If more operators did this much work we would not have any problems on the air like this. Take everyone and have fun this is what ham radio is about. Thanks I hope this helps.
We are ALL allowed 1500 watts PEP OUTPUT.You can have 1500 watts CW /FM outputYou can have 1500 watts PEP SSB OutputYou can 1500 watts PEP AM output ( which is 375 watts carrier @100% mod)1500 Watts Peak Envelope Power in DSB AM mode means 375 watts Carrier with 100 % modulation which equals 1500 watts Peak Envelope Power.The old rule was 1000 watts average input... and guys ran 4KW PEP because they didn't know any better ( or didnt want to ) and their Plate current meters didn't move where they thought all that audio power was going..nobody knows !. However if you are a real radio engineer..you understand the power relationships involved in AM and will not this is not so.
Well played.. nice station . There is nothing sweeter than a great sounding AM station. All the best and keep up the good work. We need more AM stations out there. 73's KB3ZW
What a great setup. If the SSB folks get upset over AM bandwidth, tell them they are in good company. After all, the CW ops are no doubt upset at them for the same reason. :) I recognized your 129x ---- I rebuilt one a few years ago which still receives regular on-air use.
Pete, you've done an amazing job on your station. I used to run AM on 160m with an RCA BTA-500R broadcast transmitter. With a Gates compander and crystal controlled. I had no EQ back then. With the EV RE27 mike, I got nice warm AM audio about 10 khz wide. I think 4 khz on each side is perfectly reasonable. Commercial SSB rigs were built to run 2.7 khz. The missing extra upper khz is understandable if you are running in contest mode with everyone jammed together, but a nice relaxing rag chew should sound good and be easy on the ears so that S's don't sound like Fs and Z's don't sound like V's. The extra sibilance is easier on the brain when it doesn't have to rely on context to interpret words. So, the FCCs reg says minimum amount of bandwidth to achieve intelligence, it misinterpreted and vague. Anyway, you are doing a far better job than I did on AM at the turn of the century. I still love the glow of vacuum tubes and big old rigs, but they just became impractical here. Anyway, AMers have rights, too. When the narrow band SSBers do contests, it fills the band up and those of us who are only interested in talking to our buddies step aside. So, I wish they would respect our rights, too. Splatter: A word used loosely to describe anyone interfering is widely misunderstood by hams that got their licenses with the now very easy FCC tests. Many SSBers try to get more talking power by turning the gain up, causing IMD and have 3khz of real splatter garbage on either side of their 2.7 khz signal. I'm glad you have such a nice setup and in a great location. You're doing a nice job and a very professionally run station. Keep at it, my friend and stay happy. You have many allies here supporting you! 73, Jim Hawkins - WA2WHV (now an appliance ham with Flex 6500 SDR and eq eSSB We are hated by some hams also.)
I guess I will never have ulcers. I am not smart enough ;-) We use the SUP method here ( screw you Phil ) Phil is just a fictitious character and not a real person . What it boils down to is if you know you are operating in legal fashion and your station is within engineering specifications and compliance required by the FCC , if and when a disgruntled operator rears his ugly head you basically have two choices . #1 ignore them and continue on with your QSO or #2 do a SUP . an SUP goes like this : say 73 to your buddy's , turn the rig off and whilst walking upstairs say " screw you Phil " and take the dog out for a nice long healthy walk in the fresh air . Been doing this as a Ham now for near 40 years .. Best of luck om ... de ka3fad
We need to invite the newer hams to come over and experience the Classic Transmitters that operate in the AM mode! The blood, sweat and tears that go into restoring these classics is something all hams should experience. If I had the chance to get a hold of a classic it would be a pleasure to invite fellow hams over to see first hand how the magic is made, many times from scrap, half cannibalized transmitters transformed into a work of art.
Nice setup and great explanation on what we do and why we do it. I used to be in commercial radio on air so it's great to see the old transmitter and CBS AudioMax/Volumemax units, like we used. 73 from W4DXL
Very good video , and explanation Pete, I am primary a SSB guy but have just recently got to talking to a few guys here in Texas, when I first came across them it drove me crazy as to why some one would run a trashy station as I was scanning thru the band , UNTILL it dawned on me that they were on AM so I got to listening to them and was amazed to the audio quality. Since then I have got on the band wagon and joined in. I'm currently now looking for a decent boat anchor AM rig to referb. Thanks for the great video. I have only been a amateur operator for 25+ years and have only got back on the air just the first of this year after many years off , and I have noticed that their are a lot more ass holes on the air than there ever was Thanks to the code being lifted. any way excuse the french LOL and 73s, Tom KB5SMG
Thanks for the comments, Tom. I've spent the last 45 years knee deep working on repeaters and just re-discovered AM about 5 years ago. Before then, I didn't own any tube equipment or AM style boat anchors. Something about nostalgia, isn't there? As far as the Bozo' factor goes, agreed. I don't think code has anything to do with it. It's just a reflection of the general loss of integrity and good manners and I don't think we'll ever get them back. Sad!
Oh Peat I was going to ask you Is there and surplus outlet for some of these old AM broad cast transmitters like you have , I remember when I use to work in that field long ago , I would like to get my hand on one of these just to play with , I too have a General Radiophone licensee and would just like to have one to restore and have as a conversation piece. If you have a web site that sell such stuff , pleas pas that on to me . My main field of work was working on TwoWay radios and repeaters, back in th e70 80 90s
Tom; Don't have to many places to find transmitters but there is one place in Central Washington that has a pretty big selection of tube type Ham Equipment. ua-cam.com/video/_EgA0mWuWLI/v-deo.html
the sidebanders or even other am’ers must also remember that the closer they are to a station operating completely legal....will experience what appears to be interference but its not...the receiver is just being overloaded..turn thy att on and limit it.
Great technical explanation and a whole lot of common sense Pete. Unfortunately, there are a number of newer operators that just don't get it or even want to learn how it all works together. The folks near the window you mentioned spend 90% of their on air time groveling, complaining and belly-aching for the pleasure of it. The hobby is changing and seems to be moving in a direction that does not look so good for it's long term survival. I'm sure you know whats going on out here on the West coast. Keep up the good clean operating habits and don't let this new generation of hams take the fun out of it for you. 73'
Pete, I know it’s an old video but I’m impressed! Love the huge equipment. After I get my HQ129X I’d like to start researching a linear amp build. 73 W6cpy
Thanks for the comment, Dave. It's been an ongoing battle for years. There is room for us all and AM'ers try to stay within the "AM" window but there are more and more SSB signals in and next to it. Hard to be diplomatic at times and keep one's cool but it's still a Gentleman's Hobby. We just have to remember that.
I'm a younger ham, not a new ham by any means licensed in 1994. I love he sound of AM signals they just sound better then SSB i know it's not as spectraly efficient but who cares with the small number of stations still using AM. It's kinda like saying we should never use a steam engine again because modern diesel electric is more efficient, steam engines are cool! Old AM transmitters are just plain cool! It's not like 80m is full most of the time anyway! As for people thinking you are using crazy high power they are just being plain stupid. Thanks for the history lesson and keep up the good work. Next time you get any crap from a SSBer tell them they need to switch to PSK31 because they are using too much bandwidth!
Tyler, you need to get an AM transmitter and join us ASAP. You'll fit right in. Many I work on AM are half my age. Yes, it takes up twice or more space than SSB but most AM activity is relegated to specific areas of the band so as not to make others have to deal with the wide sidebands. I made the video to try to recruit other Hams and not to demean them in any way. I just want them to experience the history from which our hobby evolved.
one of my friends was transmitting on an old johnson viking 2. his transmitter was 32khz wide at the half power points. due to the severe distortion in the modulation driver transformer saturation and lots of distortion he was that wide. a bit of modification to get the dc out of the driver transformer primary and limiting the bandwidth I soon had him sound good at reasonable bandwidth. another friend had complaints of splatter. sure enough his bc transmitters had puffs of splatter but it was the space between his front teeth. he put a sweat sock over the mic and it was fine. us am hams can do things to be sure we are good operators.
That license on his wall is a First Class Commercial Radio Telephone Operator's. I have one also. You are looking at a station being operated to a technical standard far above what 99% of hams can achieve. We are the guys who build and maintain Broadcast, Aviation, Marine, Public Safety and other radio installations that require extemely high standards, far in excess of ham standards. When you start criticizing a guy like paul, you had best seriously know your stuff, because he does.
As an old time ham I remember the AM/SSB issues. I think it is great that AM is still in use, it is such an elegant mode and far more pleasing on the ears vs SSB. Most hams have got along and shared the bands without the FCC getting involved. Enjoy your videos! 73's WA3TVH
WELL DONE Pete - WELL DONE (lots of emphasis on "WELL"!). You are a dying breed of ham and I am very impressed with your ability and your "guts" to apologize for "blowing up"! I too have done just that (it feels GOOD when the complaining operator is being a jerk as the non-gent was being towards YOU). SUPERB JOB on your end and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment. It is a PLEASURE. Be well and keep on "being Pete"! 73............. Don
Beautiful station! I wouldn't worry about any negative comments especially with the Children's Band type activities that currently haunt 75 meters. I am around very late at night and constantly annoyed by people playing music and broadcasting instead of having conversations. My goal is to have a AM station on the air at some point and am in the process of restoring an old CCA unit using 4-400 tubes. I have not worked on a plate modulated class C amplifier since school in the 70's but love the fact than I can see the parts in the unit. Working with SMT is beyond my visual ability, so I am trying to stay with tube equipment.
Hello, Pete K7PP. Your thoughtful and well explained technical background on AM amateur operation is complete and accurate. I was the chief engineer of an AM station at 1530 kHz, Northern California. I am very well aware of the rules regarding AM operation for commercial broadcast. I was ordered by corporate to limit audio bandwidth to 4 Khz in anticipation of AM IBOC. I defied that order which cost me my job. However, the 50 Kw station I ran was legal in every way with 10 kHz audio bandwidth. On to the complaint of other ham radio operators. The problem is the front end of their receivers. Amateur receivers do not come with selective crystal limiters. So, "artifacts" are allowed into the demodulated audio. Normal speech does not need 10 kHz, but music does, and broadcast radio was all about top-40 and 120% modulation. Personally, I feel you owe very little "apology." You are being very contrite and adult with your explanation. I respect that. However, amateur operators need to study and learn the modes of operation on the amateur spectrum. Ross, WA6VWY, Sacramento, California.
Hi Ross; Thanks for your comments. I know I over reacted with the video I made but, It made me feel better about telling my side and my take on the problem. Some times reputations follow us around on Ham Radio like a bad penny and operating practices say allot about a Ham. It really is a small community. I was also hoping to open up a discussion from the SSB operators take but, nothing yet.
Really a brilliant video; I especially appreciate the thoughts on audio processing. I've recently been bitten by the commercial transmitter bug (I have a 21E and 20V-3 in my collection) and appreciate the work of others to bring such gear on the air in a compliant fashion. 73 de AF6AP, Chris
That is one awesome set up ! one thing i would change is where your feed line goes up that pole and away from the horses . i would suggest using some messenger line to take the stress off of that feed line . we need to take into account some of the new ham gear have poor filters. So it could be that the othersthat have trouble with your transmit signal actually don't have their receive settings correct . any way GREAT looking and most likely AWESOME sounding station . I could only wish to have a set up like that. note iam not licensed amateur but have been kicking around the idea of pulling the trigger and getting the ticket. good note on bandwith you get to the point of too much bandwith you can put all the info you need into a 4-5Khz AM signal the rest is just wasted bandwith
Pull the trigger. I've been doing this for 65 years and loved every minute of it. Find a local club. They most likely can administer the test. Join the gang. You'll fit right in.
Thanks, it is a long feed line but, the antenna is very quiet and there is 20 percent loss on 160 meters and 43 percent loss on 75 meters. If 50 percent loss is 3db and 3db is 1/2 an S unit, I can live with it as the antenna is 6 S units more quiet than the dipole in front of the House.
Pete, it is really great to see the Collins Transmitter still going. I was active in the early 60's and the whole AM / SSB argument has never changed. There are many good reasons to keep the old technology alive for newcomers to learn, or else we will lose the value of that knowledge. I mile the way you have combined the modern spectral analysis with the old transmitters. back in the 60's stuff like that was only a dream. 73, (formerly) WA1FTG.
+Bill Moran Hi Bill, Thanks for your kind comments. You would be astounded at how many AM stations you'll hear on Ham radio now days. Many camp out on 75 and 160 meters. Great contacts to be had. You need to jump back into the Hobby, Bill. There's fun to be had. PP
i need that power on the AM broadcast band. I am a broadcast engineer and our equipment has become defective. Our transmitter is way worse than your's, in all senses, from the harmonics to how much swr it can handle. It didn't handle the first thunder storm. In the case of audio processing, our equipment has been used on FM and is super high quality, there is a fine line on all the peaks.
Congratulations on making this video, very polite and informative. I have watched it before but good to rediscover it. If everyone was as courteous the hobby would be better for it. I wasn’t licenced until well after SSB was the norm and it was a long time after that when I first operated AM, not with huge audio bandwidth probably very little outside of 100hz to 4kHz. It was an utter pleasure working a friend only 10 miles away on 160m with low power. The slightly wider audio bandwidth than standard SSB did make for a pleasant sound. Subjectively it far exceeded my expectations. Fortunately we never got comments from self appointed radio policemen, 160m seems to attract different users to the other bands. Your video has made me want to revisit AM... 73
Thank You for the comments. I might have over reacted a bit when I made the video but I left it up because It does have some usable info in it. I did let Me vent my frustration over seeing the direction Ham Radio has gone, though.
Gadzooks I think I was just picturing major wood in my pants when I saw those tubes inside that transmitter light up I remember my days when I was working at a commercial radio station and I had to cut the power and go directional at night and I used to have a somewhat lapse of memory to go from non-directional to directional and I just wanted to see what it was going to be like one time until I got a phone call from a station manager saying that I was interfering with his radio station well I guess you can say I burnt rubber like a NHRA dragster to hit the button to change the pattern lickety-split that did it for me boys!
I quit wasting time on 75M with all of the YAHOOS on the air. Your 20-V TX would be happier on 160M...that's what I do during the winter. 1880 or 1885 or 1930 or 1945 are the hang outs. A lot less friction there
Very nice setup Pete. That Collins transmitter is a sweet one for sure. You were more than kind sharing what you run and how you run it. Some people would just tell the SSB person or crowd to just blankadee blankadee blank. It would be nice if those persons or person would just take the time to do a little research on radio history, and also maybe try AM for them self. They may find it fun. I know I do...Anyways, great video my friend...N1TZU...Bob.
Thanks for the kind comments, Bob. Looks like you have good taste in transmitters as well. The one I had went to my Brother this weekend so we will have another AM'er on the air soon. Don't hear to much from you guys on the East coast but I'll keep my ears open for ya..... PP
K7PP Page Hello Pete, I hope to hear you also some day. I've enjoyed AMing for quite some time. Something about glowing tubes I guess. That's cool about your Brother. I also hope to hear him. Many blessings to you and yours my fellow AM'er. 73's. Bob.
Hi Pete. Very informative, You generously took time to help us better understand AM. Your appreciation for the tube AM gear is contagious!! Do we ever have 'enough' vintage or even broadcast rigs?? Take care and again...thank you for having blessed us!!
Hi Dave; Thank you for your kind comments. There has to be a way to help all of us share and get along so we can enjoy this great hobby. UA-cam deserves a pat on the back for it's existence. Thanks for your support. PP
Pete that is the most nifty way I have ever seen to procure Nightcrawlers. All that underground stuff is just classic radio. Let me guess that you have your own pond to drown all the Nightcrawlers?
A good explanation, but I feel not addressing the problem. I got the feeling that the real issue was the use of excessive power, reason being, that with the run of coax that you showed us, and the losses that would be incurred, in order to make up for that loss, would be to put a little more " juice " into the coax, which in turn, got you caught with your pants down. Rather than get upset, you should take a minute an think about the situation. How do you thing the mess on 11 meters was created ?? Another thing is, I'm surprised the FCC even got involved. They are so lazy, and don't care anything about Amateur or CB anymore. If that weren't true, then why do you have CB'ers running in excess of 100,000 watts today ? Some of them are even ignorant enough to run 75,000 watts mobile. Amateur radio operators don't police themselves as they did 60 or 70 years ago. Back then the FCC worked with them in an effort to keep everything legal, but that is no longer. The operators of that era are almost gone, and the Amateur bands of today are a joke. The only difference between CB and Amateur today, is one is glorified and one is not.
Any chance that You might have noticed that the power output meter said 375 watts? That puts My PEP within the legal limit of power. On AM that would be less than 1500 watts PEP. The run of coax most likely puts Me at 175 watts of carrier to the antenna or 700 watts PEP. Nice comments otherwise. I've been a Ham since the 50's. No CB at all then. 11 meters was a pretty good Amateur band then. I'm torn between trying to explain how the rules should be applied with the understanding that a new Ham might not be familiar or just ignoring the complaint.
You Need QRO on 160M and a VEE , Apex 60 feet, Ends 20 feet or more off the ground...Fed by open ladder line. That's antenna here. Gets out quite well, on 160M and 75 and 40M. A Valiant ins't gonna cut it on 160M ...got to break through mother Nature's noises. Running my Ameritron AL1500 at 250 w carrier and it makes HUGE positive peaks...lovely audio!! Driven by a nice Kenwood TS-850 Easy rig to modify for Hi-Fi AM audio. 30hz to 10khz audio response RX and TX!!!!
I have a dipole for 160 meters fed with LMR 400 at 160 feet elevation. Ends droop all the way down to 120 feet above ground level. I share the Balun with a 75 meter dipole at same elevation. I can run QRO with my Amp supply LK500. It does an easy 500 watt carrier with peaks to 1500 or so. Most of the guys out here run heavy metal and are close by so the Val does a nice job. Sounds like you have a sweet set up.
SDRs are quite amazing devices, can be used in quite a few different ways. Especially nice to use them like you're using them to see your signal. Then there's ones connected to the internet others can connect to to hear signals around the world that one might not be able to hear from the location they're currently at. can also be used in the same fashion in your video but to see how well you're being received from different locations across the country. Plus can also be used to triangulate a signal.
Good job. I am setting up a high and low pass audio filter between my mic (or AR Newsline audio source for a net, etc.) and my Hallicrafters 32A I've been servicing and testing on 10m and dummy load. This way I can narrow-up my bandwidth in a pinch without getting into doing it on a more technical RF level (I think I see you doing the same as a preliminary filtering stage in your elaborate setup). I'm no veteran at this but audio filtering seems to have the same effect on a scope or remote web SDR waterfall check as narrowing my bandwidth in or after the transmitter (?) since even if the transmitter is eager to splat more it has nothing to splat wide coming in the mic input). Am I wrong? Thanks in advance. Believe me, I'm in no hurry to test theories or shaky calibrations on a pileup. As far as I'm concerned the old-style transceivers are more important than the disposable and virtually non-serviceable (or not worth servicing) crap with all the bells and whistles. We need a big giant solar event to crispy critter all the fragile stuff, make the beefy steel more valuable again in folks' minds, and make my bowyer skills come back in style. But then I'm doing the same, "no skin off my nose, screw the other guy" thing I don't like boat anchor-bashers doing. A long-time SWL'er, vintage CB'er, I'm only soon getting carefully into HF transmitting at all (other than 10m, CB, and stunted CW). I like the fact you can spend $65 on a shortwave SDR with surprising selectivity and filtering and see the whole spectrum on a cheap PC, but I wouldn't trade radios that are capable of being run for 80+ years through one or two cap replacements and deep cleanings for it. There's something sacred about simpler and far tougher equipment that's practical-seeming in possibly pre-apocalyptic times, beyond novel or sentimental and nostalgic. Kids today don't even know you can build a crystal radio with several cheap parts (still several dollars today for a "crystal" diode and a ceramic ear piece... heck maybe a makeshift cat's whisker, forget the diode) and scrap around the house or dumpster, which can be powered by nothing other than the ambient waves it receives. The kind of guy who hates your Collins never built one of those in Cub Scouts or he'd get it as an adult.
When you get on the ham bands you inevitably end up listening to one rules nerd or group of needs contending with another nerd or group of, who's center of concern is what communica- tion rule someone is skirting or breaking. This is why ham radio has declined from what it used to be in the late 50's to early 60's when it had a status it doesn't have one. Remember when fathers and sons took exams on the same day. Dad for a general son for a novice? The morons and Tecno nerds killed all that....
Yes, I remember. We've turned into a point and click, me first society. One of the reasons I still include AM and tube radios in my Ham Radio is to keep me in touch with how I started out. I know those days are gone forever. Sigh!
375 watts carrier 100% mod = 1500 watts PEP.. the current legal limit for any mode.seems you have that nailed. Many hams have never read the regs, and it is doubtful if many can understand them. There are a disproportionately high number of old broadcast engineers with commercial tickets among the boat anchor gang like you and I.
I would love a collins like that.. Worked on a 250 watt AM transmitter in Clearwater. The tower was on fill, with the ground running off into the bay there...
Ham radio is all about experimentation and trying out new ideas. So therefore you have the freedom to tryout wide band modes and you do your best to notify others that you will be doing such experiments. As for a hobby of communicates, it can be near impossible to get this message through to other users.
There are different permissible modes based on frequency bands, and these are spelled out in the regulations.. Why Wont Anybody Read The Regulations anymore. They are printed in the ARRL handbook, and on line. It is a licensed hams responsiblility to know and understand the regs !
Pete, a beautiful video. I thought you were going to talk about "supermodulation" which Ding Hayward, W1PH talked about and ran on his DX-100 transmitter in "73" magazine, he was following broadcast protocols, often running 150% positive modulation peaks, but NEVER EVER negative peaks above 100%. = 73 de N1EA +
K7PP DE KB4AKS Im envious.. only just a little tho. Love your set up, and your station restoration of the Collins. In my teen years, I worked at the local station here in Dickenson, County Virginia, and we had GATES BC-1T 4 - of the 833 A tubes with one thousand watts of local power back then. I got out of commercial radio back in the mid 70s and went into a field where I would actually have money to eat dinner.!! Im Glad that you are so inclined to keep AM on the band. Just had to leave a comment Keep up the good work. That's what Amateur Radio is all about. 73 MarKB4AKS
Has anyone commented on how the switch to SSB affected the recruitment of new hams? When I was a kid in 7th grade about 1969 I was interested in radio. I read all the books in the library most of which were over 20 years old. I did not know any hams and parents were not interested. I finally got a Radio Shack DX- ??? General coverage receiver for Christmas. I can not remember the model 120 or 160 I think. It could not really get SSB so I only listened to AM. Sometimes I could tune in to get SSB. I hated the SSB guys. After a while I gave up as the Am got less and SSB took over. I did listen to Short Wave. I did not get my license till I was an adult years later in the 1990’s as Tech Plus. Stuck until they dropped the code now an Extra. I do think they should have maintained the code test for the top class of license. I think code will die now. ARRL needs to bribe a video game company to make learning the code a part of playing a popular game to get a new generation. N2yun Took me forever to learn the code. Was there other kids listening that
Compared to what the ham bands were back to the 70's and 80's when I was active, no one has any legitimate complaint about crowding, especially on 75 meters.
+jejustissIII I'd have to agree with that. Anytime, however, when you start up a QSO, you are subject to band change. Back in the day, we called it "when the band goes long". When that happens, a QSO in progress may find itself on top of another QSO in progress. The gentlemen on Amateur Radio would either QSY or sign out but today it's been replaced with name calling and all sorts of other mean spirited comments that didn't use to be part of Ham Radio. Oh where o where did it come from.?
I don’t think the FCC really cares if your modulation peaks go to 3600 watts or not. 900 watts of useless carrier causes far more mayhem then modulation peaks. One fellow I know has a KW1 that was modified to limit carrier power to 375 watts. To me that is a crime.
it's a mater of the law and math. 375 watts carrier 100% modulated 2 sideband = 1500 Watts PEP Out Put. the Legal Limit. The sub bands where AM is permitted is a matter of federal regulation. For that matter you can probably operate 1500 watts output FM.. it's just a matter of the permitted emission type for any given frequency. W6WUH Now courtesy or lack of it.. is another matter.
It is not a federal regulation its a band plan by the ARRL and isnt a law nor a requirement but simply a standard courtesy of rules. Its for courtesy only and isnt illegal
Hi Pete, more than 90% of hams do not go nearly as far as you have to bend over backwords concerning good amateur practice. Those big mouth belly achers are LIDS. I much enjoy your vids OT, keep up the good work. 73, the Donold
+umajunkcollector all the new hams are a bunch of appliance operators, they cant fix anything let alone a pl259 which is really sad, or to even understand another ham is in the right on his mode, it shows us where the hobby is actually headed
+AA1PR Not ALL THE NEW HAMS. There are a few that do the right thing and love building and experimenting. Besides, I hear a lot of old timers bellyaching MORE than the newer hams many times. Most of the SSB'ers giving AM problems are still pissed off from the 60s. Just saying. 73 de KX5JT
Whomever or whatever they are, we need MORE radio activity on ALL ham bands. Most bands are dead or full of contesters with quickie contacts. I'd rather hear something than nothing. If we don't use it, we'll lose it. Lids need elmers, so they learn the art of radio. Many hams were CBers, but changed because a nice ham explained how we operate. QSL. Don
Hello, Pete, I have a 75A - 4. Recent complete recap by a licensed engineer who was a design engineer for Collins Toronto plant for many years. He has well over 20 collins rigs and at 77 is still very active on CW as well as repairs onHF rigs. this rig shows and performs as new. it breaks my heart to have to part with it. If you have any interest please contact me through google plus. Many thanks.
Hi Pete! Love the station! Licensed in the early 90’s but my first hook was listening to AM shortwave radios! I’m not familiar with the transmitter. Plate modulated? Beefy! And reliable not being pushed to its limits all the time. Also, off topic, how is your video so stable, even while walking?Tnx ‘73 de KB2MEN.
I doubt if you were ever over power. With 500ft of coax, you already have a large attenuation between Tx and antenna. You can easily figure your db loss if you know the coax number. Might even be able to increase the Tx power to compensate without going over the legal limit.
Yes, you're right. Figuring the loss is a piece of cake but, I'm wishing the FCC would see things the way you see them. They specify where the power should be measured and that's right at the transmitter output. I guess they want to make it uniform and easy for the inspectors. It would be tough to measure at the output of a tuner. Perhaps I could figure a way to bring the feed point closer to the transmitter......hummmmmm
I never understood why so many people have a problem with "each to his own" and if you don't have something good to say don't say it. Ego's are out of control anymore with respect at an all time low. People take themselves way way to seriously, maybe they are frustrated from not making their mark on society. But a couple generations from now no one will ever speak our names again or even know we existed, might as well enjoy what brief time we have.
I noticed you are only running 375 watts of carrier. I know the 20V. Is capable of over a KW of carrier power so I assume you are doing this to stay within the 1500 watt PEP limit. Also, if you are losing 3 dB in your feedline than you really only have < 190 watts of carrier power. There is no question in my mind you are well within all parameters of the law. I am in the process of obtaining a KW-1 transmitter. On 75 meters it will put out 900 watts of carrier. I intend to just run the modulation peaks at 1500 watts. I use 4000 sq feet of mesh to reduce the ground resistance to 0. That helps immensely, just like your warer. Jim Beck, KJ7NW
Hi Jim; Better to run 375 watts of carrier and the balance of the 1500 watt limit to the sidebands. 900 watts of carrier contains no intelligence. Limiting modulation to stay within the limit will net you a weak sounding signal.
Very nice setup! I worked, for many years,with a Collins 21A 5kW rig at WBAA. Collins AM transmitters are the best of that era. 500 feet of LMR400? And I thought I had a lot on my HF antenna with 125 feet of DXE400MAX! As to your audio processing, always liked what the audimax did with voice program. I'd love to find a software plugin that simulated the audimax. --de N3TS
Thanks for the comment, Tim. Had one of the 20V's at the first AM station I worked at. Moved to KMO radio and a Gates BC5A installed in 1936. Hate to use so much coax but I have electric fences North and South of Me. The coax does a great job getting my Signal to My dipole in the middle of My pasture. Hardly any popping there. Ladder line delivered a 20/9 pop on the S meter. Yikes. Wish I could afford some 5/8th Heliax.
Good video. Gorgeous station. I am, however, taking up a collection to replace your very good LMR-400 with something even more spectacular because it's a shame to lose half of the power out of that beautiful 20V-2 just heating up worms. I'm surprised we haven't talked or maybe we have. Like most CA AMers I'm mostly down at 3870. Keep the air vibrating. Jon, K6JEK
Thanks for the comment, Jon. I'm building a vertically polarized delta loop fed with 450 ohm ladder line. That should get most of the fire where it will do some good. I'll keep my existing antenna and may add a second delta loop East West....lots of room to string antennas.
Very cool. That's a lot of wire in the air. I'm jealous The best 75 meter antenna I ever had was a pair of dipoles, phased, It was amazing. So when you want to try yet another antenna, I'd highly recommend it. Mine was complicated (I wrote it up in ER a few years back) but this is probably just as good: amfone.net/ECSound/K1JJ21.htm I should stop typing and get on the air.
Hey Pete. Nice station. I hope to build and operate an AM station one day soon (when I retire) and I hope it sounds as good as yours. 73 - Steve - VE3EZB
Hi Lloyd. Yes, I have a lightning arrestor outside the house mounted on a ground system and that is where the coax goes in and out of the arrestor and then travels underground about 500 feet where it resurfaces and then goes up to the balun in the tree about 160 feet above ground level.
Ignore the ignorant. BTW, I'm jealous of your Heath scope since I have the rest of that series station. But I'm not jealous of the Hammarlund since I have the same one. :) 73
I had a Collins 20V-2 in the early 1990's. Had to sell it due to a move. A guy from western Colorado bought it in abt 1995 or so. He said he was a retired engineer from the VOA. Anyone know where that transmitter is now?? Dave N9HF
+1903A3shooter Hi Shooter. There are better formulas that can be used to calculate total output. The 4 to one ratio is fairly accurate as well but also far from exact and I used the one I did as it gets you in the ball park with simple addition and multiplication. If you are in need of making an exact measurement and are fairly up on higher math I would be pleased to publish a new video for you outlining the formula and how to go about making the measurement. Do you think that might be more helpful? Assuming 100 percent symmetrical modulation, the 4 to one or the one outlined in the video will get you pretty close. At less the 100 percent or with unsymmetrical modulation applications, it gets more complicated.
+K7PP Page Well I am no math king that is why I went to a couple engineers. I did pick up on a couple of thing you said but it is no big deal. It is very impressive that you have such a nice transmitter and try to make sure to operate it in a manner that respects others. Only wish all the folks on the air would do the same. Dave W4GSM
+1903A3shooter Thanks for the nice complement, Dave. I wish I knew a bit more about how to impart what I know so that it is useful. I've watched this video a few times to see if there is anything that would be better explained another way and the last time I feel asleep during my own presentation. That should tell me something. Hi! I have several really slick trig formulas I've stolen fair and square from a couple of other sites but they, coupled with my presentation would be pretty worthless to the average hobbyist.
ive always been interested in HAM even sence i saw/played with my first set at a boy scout camp back in hte day. always been an electronics nerd..... anyway......HAM has AM right in the name! lol
A normal single sideband signal is 3.8 khz wide, plus or minus a bit. An AM signal is twice as wide and sometimes wider depending on the frequency response of the modulator. It is possible to have audio components out to 15khz which makes the signal 30 khz wide and still be legal. This is why it is necessary to limit the frequency response of the AM signal to under 4khz in order to be a good neighbor. Also, most AM operators try to limit their operation to a self imposed "AM window". Here in the Northwest, it is 3.870 to 3.885 khz on 75 meters.
if hams have a problems with wide am just go to 11m ware am is the go to mode. ham radio has got to uptight. and has its share of bad ops. 11m more relaxed and is more welcoming.75-80m has a lot of bad ops that sound worse than ch19!!! take care have fun
thanks thanks for the reply. radio is suppose to be fun. I have no idea why their is this, uptight I am better than you mentality on ham radio with 75m being where it is most common. I find ssb cb more relaxed, and on ssb cb the discussions sound like stuff on the ham bands, with out the poor behavior. cb has its bad players as well but what I have heard on 75m was just worse than ch19 trucker stuff. well take care good dx.
Jake in Europe 11meters (CB) is mostly in use by FM modulated stations (AM is legal now, but is still the most common). K7PP about the range, well it isn't that bad. Back in the late 90's I was using a President Vegas (I still have it somewhere) and had only 2 watts (something) and with packetradio (and a 3el beam horizontal) I could connect stations from Scandinavia and Italy at certain days. B.T.W. I'm living in The Netherlands.
Hi Pete - don't let the SSB'ers irritate you. I ran a home brew AM rig while I was in Huntsville, AL working for NASA but I left there in 1976. I got really tired of the guys telling me I had carrier on my signal. I don't know if it was to harass me or if they really didn't know what AM was (appliance operators?). I ran a 4-400A (Class C, of course) plate modulated by a pair of 4-400A's and loaded the negative cycle for "ultra-linear" modulation as I believe it was called. I also loved SPAM, (Society for the Preservation for Amplitude Modulation). Is that still around? I went to RTTY on 20 meters when I moved to El Paso and now do a little 20 meter SSB on my old (and beautiful) Collins S Line. Thanks for the video. Beautiful transmitter. If I had the room I would run a pair of 4-1000A's at 6KV on the plates and modulate it with another pair of 4-1000A's or maybe I would run 833A'a. Do you remember a fellow with the handle of "Con" W4EBG out of Paducah, Kentucky in the '60's? A Huge AM signal and always in trouble with the FCC. I am sure he is SK by now. 73 WA4QGA
Hey, ElPaso, I know you posted this comment a year ago, but if you ever check for new comments, I wanted to let you know that I remember Con! My Dad was a ham from 1953 until he became an SK in 1998. He was a die-hard AM'er until I got licensed in '67 at age 12, and wanted to try SSB. I built an HW-100 in 1970 and he grudgingly "upgraded". But, he kept his AM gear and still worked it whenever he could find someone still on that mode. His DX-100B to a pair of 813's was his favorite AM station. I don't think I ever worked Con with my own call, but I remember many hours of sitting in the shack listening to QSO's my Dad had with Con an several others in nightly 75-meter roundtables. Seems like Les, WA0DKY and Art, WA0DNT might have been a couple of them in the roundtables, too. Con became an SK in the late 70's. As I recall, he worked as an electrician for the TVA. I've tried to remember Con's call for several years, and now I know what it was, thanks to your comment. I just googled Con's call and came up with a picture of him. I swear, I never met him or saw a picture of him, but this is exactly how I had him pictured in my mind. www.amwindow.org/pix/htm/w4ebg.htm BTW, great vid's K7PP!
Kudos to you, old man! So many hams on HF today that haven't a clue what a passband is, let alone where their passband is in relation to an adjacent QSO. Nor do they understand part 97, or know where to go to read it.
I'm part of a small group that gathers on 10 meters for a ground wave roundtable every night of the week in the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh, PA. We operate SSB most of the time, but Thursday nights we do AM so a couple of the guys can exercise their Johnson Valiants, and so the rest of us we can listen to plate-modulated audio. We operate late enough that the band has closed to DX, keep the power reasonably low, and like you, never start up if there's someone within our passband. Yet we've received occasional complaints from snobs who think the ARRL writes the rules and are convinced you can't operate AM on 28.430 because the league's band plan says so. Last time I checked part 97, A3E emissions are legal anywhere from 28.300 up to the repeater frequencies.
K7PP 73 de WV3E
Hello again Pete, Kim (WA7BTG) here in Belfair, Wa,
I wish we could have had more time to visit when you came and picked up the two DX-100's from my storage.
I for one really appreciate this video as it has been very informative for me from both the technical and practical aspects,
I was first licensed here near Bremerton in about 1965 as a Technician to initially get on the air, "Technician" was not descriptive of me as I more or less memorized what was needed to pass the test rather than having and "Elmer" or mentor for learning the real nuts and bolts of equipment and operation. mainly I confined my operation to 6 meters and remember very well the introduction of SSB to 6 meters, during that time period.I was on AM for 2 years when the first SSB stations started to appear, and there was definitely SSB/Am wars going on there during that transition period on 6..so begrudgingly I finally went SSB on 6.
I'm now going to add Am once again on 6 with an old Gonset G-50 rig and a Drake 2-A receiver, RME converter. anyway I also have the low band Am bug that has been striking me for years so I plan on that also.
I can appreciate your frustration with the ham QSO when it seemed having your intelligence insulted (given your technical background), but actually I'm happy it drove you to making this instructive video for some of us more than willing to learn from you,
I must comment you have the longest coax run that I have ever seen, now I can be assured and comforted in realizing that if I set up mine properly 200 feet should present no problems.
I'm highly impressed your stations also, and very impressive with your operating philosophy,
To anyone reading this, I can state Pete is a real gentlemen, meeting him and doing business with him attests to this.
Thanks Pete,
73, Kim WA7BTG
belfair.
+kim canterbury Geeze, Kim, thanks for the kind comments. Yeah, a long run of coax is not really a big deal. On 160 meters, I'm loosing about 25 percent of my power and on 75 meters, about 40 percent of my power. The trade off is that I've located the antenna in an area that is super quiet and very high. I hear things on this antenna that are completely absent on the ones up close to the house and which are at a lower level.
Hope to hear you on AM some evening.
Pete
Hi Pete, love your Collins transmitter.
Per your posting above from a fellow ham about running an illegal station --- I hope you just ignored him and did not try to explain that you were running a station called "amplitude modulation.'"
If he has that kind of attitude, he probably would not have understood what you were trying to explain anyway.
I am a Collins fan and have a good bit of it to include a 30K-1 and the 310B exciter from 1947. The 30K-1 had already been "modified" (I think someone tried to turn it into a CB linear) when I picked it up in 1975 so I turned it into a wonderful experimental cabinet. I built all kinds of amplifiers in it and finally settled on a 4CX1000A amp for SSB.
On the other side, I ran a homebrew AM station on 75M AM from the early 70's to 1975 until I left Huntsville, AL for El Paso. My AM station consisted of a class-C 4-400A and I plate modulated it with a pair of 4-400A's. For some reason I can not exactly explain, I want to get back on AM. I don't really care what band. At the moment, I only operate 20M. Back in the early 80's I only ran RTTY but tired of it and went back to SSB. I have the PS built which sports 872A's and the modulator is a pair of 810's. I already have a 833A amplifier built for 20M that I will change over to class-C and plate modulate it. I am not exactly copying the KW-1 but I know that is what was in that transmitter (but not the 833A).
I don't have much room for antennas so I am not sure I can even put up a 75M dipole but, that is a problem for another day.
I started in 1963 with my general ticket and operated on 75M sometimes and I remember the guys that ran SSB back then, harassing me because I had "carrier on my signal". I never once had anyone complain during the 70's when I had my homebrew AM transmitter on 75M. I wonder why?
Anyway, I am actually surprised that people complain to you about your AM signal. I regret having to say this but a short experience I had a couple of years back when I put up a 40M dipole is hearing a number of people with seriously foul language and attitudes. There were, of course, some good fellows also. During my early days, foul language was illegal per the FCC. Now I guess everything is free-speech no matter who it offends (?)
This will not keep me off the air on AM as I am good at ignoring harassment. Fortunately, I hear very little offensive language and comments on 20M and I am sure that is one reason that it is the only band I operate at this time.
Lastly, I certainly admire your approach and the effort you made to post your video and I am glad to hear the FCC does not have a problem with the width of an AM signal. I hope to have my AM station on the air in the next month or so and if I can get up a 75M dipole, maybe we can have a QSO.
Keep up the good work and don't let the guys give you a hard time because you have "carrier on your signal."
73 WA4QGA PS - I also have a UA-cam page by ElPaso TubeAmps and lots of pictures on my QRZ page of my home brew equipment..
ElPaso TubeAmps Regards to Uncle Doug.
Pete, I think the big long mea culpa was totally unnecessary on your part. Your best bet is to ignore barbarians of that sort and move on. Keep the faith, bro. KA4KOE
Very Nice clean signal. I am a retired Broadcast Engineer and love seeing the equipment I used to use on AM Radio Broadcasting including the Heathkit Modulation Monitor. I used to strive for HiFi Broadcasting up to 15Khz and down to 20Hz until the FCC neutering the AM Broadcasters. Keep up the excellent signals.
Jeez, Pete, you could pass NRSC with that signal! And as a former AM Bureau engineer, I concur fully with the Commissions reply. There's room enough on 160 and 75 for everybody and their favorite mode. I just wish K4ZDH would come out of retirement, and have a word with the lids that seem to think they have exclusive rights to certain frequencies, and the toilet-mouths who are the real spectrum polluters. Hope to catch you on this winter with my Vanguard-II....73
Well Said Pete ! Each station is entitled to use the bandwidth appropriate to that mode, band, and conditions, and to have a reasonable guard band of separation . Which means that when anyone goes on the air, they need to make allowance for adjacent user, adjust their transmission to fit the space they intend occupy. On the receive end, operators need to use appropriate rx bandwidth consistant with thier mode of operation. Pete is saying he will use a reasonable transmitted bandwidth appropriate to the band and the conditions. SSB operators need to understand the nature of DSB AM. Most of us who operate AM also operate ssb, and other modes. SSB operators need to understand that when we use vintage recievers that strong ssb stations operating too close, pump our AVC, and make communicating very difficult... thus requiring more power than would otherwise be necessary.. and thus begins a cascade of unnecessary stupidty with no end. W6WUH.
I used to get on 3775khz am here in denver. one morning a east coast station accused me of illegal power. I told him it must be my 5 kw into 9 tons of aluminum on 9 acres. in reality I was running my healthkit dx100 into a full wave horizontal loop at 20 feet. it was just conditions.
KX6D here. You handled this way better than I ever will. Enjoy your hobby, be respectful, and help educate the lids. That's what I do.
First off very nice Video. Ok let get down to this the FCC did not set up that AM operators have to work only between 3870 to 3885 Khz. You will not find this in any of the new text at all. This was set up by the ARRL as where it would be a good place for AM operators to work. If you look at the band plan the FCC shows clearly that AM and SSB can be operated in the same areas. As far as wattage you are allowed a 1500 Watt Carrier with a modulation up to 100%
imposed on to the carrier. I am a electronic Engineer that has worked for Raytheon and NASA. I have been doing this for more than 4 decades professionally . I had to get a Radio telephone license to even work on transmitters and Radars.
Now lets get down to the real problem most these radios that are being bought by new hams lack several things they have a wide end front tune RF amp on the receiver. When you by them they give you all these specs that say the radio has a certain selectivity. No they do not because the retail store forgot to tell you to get the tight specs you need to add in extra filtering. Yes your radios can still have a crystal filters added to them. Instead you use a cheap way of filtering in the audio circuits in the Receivers.This is known as Digital audio filtering and can tighten up the band width but not in the IF circuits where it is really needed.. You need a crystal filter and most the time it call a SSB crystal filter and it can be installed in the newer ham radio but no we just go out and pay a large amount for a transceiver and assume all this is already in the radio or just do not know the new radios can have these filters added. The problem is that most these ham radios have a +6 and ---6 khz band width. Wow that 12Khz in total. The crystal filters will say 2.7 Khz band pass on them. If you had these in your receiver you would never hear anything out side of 2.7 Khz of your operating frequency.
So to all the new ham operators please ask for these filters. It will help on your dXing and you will get a lot less
interference known as QRM. This is what I do design radios . I design transceivers professionally for a living. I like all modes of that exist but SSB is not the only mode of operation. I try to tell everyone I know because they always want a better transceiver to get out further. Two things play a huge part is your antenna and second your receiver. If you cant hear the station how will you work them. Invest a lot into your receiver. Digital filter can clean up noise and tighten only then audio on your receiver. You want better selectivity on your receiver invest into the crystal filters. Yes ALL new radios have this option but you have to ask for it. The dealer may not even know about this so contact the company that made your radio and tell them you want them installed filters into your receiver. If your radio does not have this option then it probably was made to be a lost cost receiver. Which would be in the same class as shortwave receivers for general broadcast signals.
There are mods that could be done to even tighten up band widths on them as well. Your station set up is good and very legal. I also restore thousands of radio each year that are from the past. I do this for a living and as a hobby now.
I have owned two AM and FM stations on the Broadcast band myself. Let me put in a small comment if you are using a SSB band receiver and do get QRM on the 80 meter band while working on 3890. First tune your receiver down to 3885
and zero beat in on the AM signal. IF you see they are right on 3885 than your receiver has a wide band pass on the IF strip. This is why you are receiving the interference. If you had the crystal filter you would see this go away. Till then
move up 5 Khz and continue your QSO. IF operators using AM mode are only going to get 3870 to 3885 to talk on then surely you can find another frequency because everything else is open up to you to talk on. What if this was in reverse and SSB users were only allowed 3870 to 3885 and you could not talk anywhere else. You would probably be very unhappy.with this choice. Anyways lets try getting along and work out the problems instead of causing them.
Do not always assume the other person is at fault and look at your own equipment it may just be on your end.
Remember these new receivers made in China and Japan are taking short cuts. Their main goal is to make money and you need to ask does this radio meet these specifications most the time it will not unless you get their extra add on
filters and other things. I will give you and example of a radio I have and it was really for me to listen to but I found out
by opening it that there was open slots at first I was what is this. Well it was places for Crystal filters.
It was not mention it the owners manual or by any retailers . I called the company and they said well it for crystal
filters. I told them well I was never told your radio had this option. They said yes it does and you can install them or we can do it for you. Please know what you are buying and look into what options are available for your radio.
Anyways enough of this . I saw the Video and I can see he goes through a lot of extra precautions to make sure his
signal is very clean on the air. If more operators did this much work we would not have any problems on the air like this.
Take everyone and have fun this is what ham radio is about.
Thanks I hope this helps.
We are ALL allowed 1500 watts PEP OUTPUT.You can have 1500 watts CW /FM outputYou can have 1500 watts PEP SSB OutputYou can 1500 watts PEP AM output ( which is 375 watts carrier @100% mod)1500 Watts Peak Envelope Power in DSB AM mode means 375 watts Carrier with 100 % modulation which equals 1500 watts Peak Envelope Power.The old rule was 1000 watts average input... and guys ran 4KW PEP because they didn't know any better ( or didnt want to ) and their Plate current meters didn't move where they thought all that audio power was going..nobody knows !. However if you are a real radio engineer..you understand the power relationships involved in AM and will not this is not so.
Well played.. nice station . There is nothing sweeter than a great sounding AM station. All the best and keep up the good work.
We need more AM stations out there. 73's KB3ZW
Not even a great sounding well modulated FM station?
What a great setup. If the SSB folks get upset over AM bandwidth, tell them they are in good company. After all, the CW ops are no doubt upset at them for the same reason. :) I recognized your 129x ---- I rebuilt one a few years ago which still receives regular on-air use.
Pete, you've done an amazing job on your station. I used to run AM on 160m with an RCA BTA-500R broadcast transmitter. With a Gates compander and crystal controlled. I had no EQ back then. With the EV RE27 mike, I got nice warm AM audio about 10 khz wide. I think 4 khz on each side is perfectly reasonable. Commercial SSB rigs were built to run 2.7 khz. The missing extra upper khz is understandable if you are running in contest mode with everyone jammed together, but a nice relaxing rag chew should sound good and be easy on the ears so that S's don't sound like Fs and Z's don't sound like V's. The extra sibilance is easier on the brain when it doesn't have to rely on context to interpret words. So, the FCCs reg says minimum amount of bandwidth to achieve intelligence, it misinterpreted and vague. Anyway, you are doing a far better job than I did on AM at the turn of the century. I still love the glow of vacuum tubes and big old rigs, but they just became impractical here.
Anyway, AMers have rights, too. When the narrow band SSBers do contests, it fills the band up and those of us who are only interested in talking to our buddies step aside. So, I wish they would respect our rights, too.
Splatter: A word used loosely to describe anyone interfering is widely misunderstood by hams that got their licenses with the now very easy FCC tests. Many SSBers try to get more talking power by turning the gain up, causing IMD and have 3khz of real splatter garbage on either side of their 2.7 khz signal.
I'm glad you have such a nice setup and in a great location. You're doing a nice job and a very professionally run station. Keep at it, my friend and stay happy. You have many allies here supporting you!
73,
Jim Hawkins - WA2WHV (now an appliance ham with Flex 6500 SDR and eq eSSB We are hated by some hams also.)
I guess I will never have ulcers. I am not smart enough ;-) We use the SUP method here ( screw you Phil ) Phil is just a fictitious character and not a real person . What it boils down to is if you know you are operating in legal fashion and your station is within engineering specifications and compliance required by the FCC , if and when a disgruntled operator rears his ugly head you basically have two choices . #1 ignore them and continue on with your QSO or #2 do a SUP . an SUP goes like this : say 73 to your buddy's , turn the rig off and whilst walking upstairs say " screw you Phil " and take the dog out for a nice long healthy walk in the fresh air . Been doing this as a Ham now for near 40 years .. Best of luck om ... de ka3fad
We need to invite the newer hams to come over and experience the Classic Transmitters that operate in the AM mode! The blood, sweat and tears that go into restoring these classics is something all hams should experience. If I had the chance to get a hold of a classic it would be a pleasure to invite fellow hams over to see first hand how the magic is made, many times from scrap, half cannibalized transmitters transformed into a work of art.
Nice setup and great explanation on what we do and why we do it. I used to be in commercial radio on air so it's great to see the old transmitter and CBS AudioMax/Volumemax units, like we used. 73 from W4DXL
Very good video , and explanation Pete, I am primary a SSB guy but have just recently got to talking to a few guys here in Texas, when I first came across them it drove me crazy as to why some one would run a trashy station as I was scanning thru the band , UNTILL it dawned on me that they were on AM so I got to listening to them and was amazed to the audio quality. Since then I have got on the band wagon and joined in. I'm currently now looking for a decent boat anchor AM rig to referb. Thanks for the great video. I have only been a amateur operator for 25+ years and have only got back on the air just the first of this year after many years off , and I have noticed that their are a lot more ass holes on the air than there ever was Thanks to the code being lifted. any way excuse the french LOL and 73s,
Tom KB5SMG
Thanks for the comments, Tom. I've spent the last 45 years knee deep working on repeaters and just re-discovered AM about 5 years ago. Before then, I didn't own any tube equipment or AM style boat anchors. Something about nostalgia, isn't there?
As far as the Bozo' factor goes, agreed. I don't think code has anything to do with it. It's just a reflection of the general loss of
integrity and good manners and I don't think we'll ever get them back. Sad!
Oh Peat I was going to ask you Is there and surplus outlet for some of these old AM broad cast transmitters like you have , I remember when I use to work in that field long ago , I would like to get my hand on one of these just to play with , I too have a General Radiophone licensee and would just like to have one to restore and have as a conversation piece. If you have a web site that sell such stuff , pleas pas that on to me . My main field of work was working on TwoWay radios and repeaters, back in th e70 80 90s
Tom; Don't have to many places to find transmitters but there is one place in Central Washington that has a pretty big selection of tube type Ham Equipment.
ua-cam.com/video/_EgA0mWuWLI/v-deo.html
the sidebanders or even other am’ers must also remember that the closer they are to a station operating completely legal....will experience what appears to be interference but its not...the receiver is just being overloaded..turn thy att on and limit it.
Great technical explanation and a whole lot of common sense Pete. Unfortunately, there are a number of newer operators that just don't get it or even want to learn how it all works together. The folks near the window you mentioned spend 90% of their on air time groveling, complaining and belly-aching for the pleasure of it. The hobby is changing and seems to be moving in a direction that does not look so good for it's long term survival. I'm sure you know whats going on out here on the West coast. Keep up the good clean operating habits and don't let this new generation of hams take the fun out of it for you. 73'
Pete,
I know it’s an old video but I’m impressed! Love the huge equipment. After I get my HQ129X I’d like to start researching a linear amp build.
73
W6cpy
Thanks for the comment, Dave. It's been an ongoing battle for years. There is room for us all and AM'ers try to stay within the "AM" window but there are more and more SSB signals in and next to it. Hard to be diplomatic at times and keep one's cool but it's still a Gentleman's Hobby. We just have to remember that.
I'm a younger ham, not a new ham by any means licensed in 1994. I love he sound of AM signals they just sound better then SSB i know it's not as spectraly efficient but who cares with the small number of stations still using AM. It's kinda like saying we should never use a steam engine again because modern diesel electric is more efficient, steam engines are cool! Old AM transmitters are just plain cool! It's not like 80m is full most of the time anyway! As for people thinking you are using crazy high power they are just being plain stupid. Thanks for the history lesson and keep up the good work. Next time you get any crap from a SSBer tell them they need to switch to PSK31 because they are using too much bandwidth!
Tyler, you need to get an AM transmitter and join us ASAP. You'll fit right in. Many I work on AM are half my age.
Yes, it takes up twice or more space than SSB but most AM activity is relegated to specific areas of the band so as not to make others have to deal with the wide sidebands. I made the video to try to recruit other Hams and not to demean them in any way. I just want them to experience the history from which our hobby evolved.
one of my friends was transmitting on an old johnson viking 2. his transmitter was 32khz wide at the half power points. due to the severe distortion in the modulation driver transformer saturation and lots of distortion he was that wide. a bit of modification to get the dc out of the driver transformer primary and limiting the bandwidth I soon had him sound good at reasonable bandwidth. another friend had complaints of splatter. sure enough his bc transmitters had puffs of splatter but it was the space between his front teeth. he put a sweat sock over the mic and it was fine. us am hams can do things to be sure we are good operators.
That license on his wall is a First Class Commercial Radio Telephone Operator's. I have one also. You are looking at a station being operated to a technical standard far above what 99% of hams can achieve. We are the guys who build and maintain Broadcast, Aviation, Marine, Public Safety and other radio installations that require extemely high standards, far in excess of ham standards. When you start criticizing a guy like paul, you had best seriously know your stuff, because he does.
Exactly. Tell the complainers to go after guys with $20 HT's that have harmonics 15 dB down from the fundamental.
As an old time ham I remember the AM/SSB issues. I think it is great that AM is still in use, it is such an elegant mode and far more pleasing on the ears vs SSB. Most hams have got along and shared the bands without the FCC getting involved. Enjoy your videos! 73's WA3TVH
Pete good video and technical explanation. Hope to hear you soon on 75 meters
73s
Joe ka1bwo
WELL DONE Pete - WELL DONE (lots of emphasis on "WELL"!). You are a dying breed of ham and I am very impressed with your ability and your "guts" to apologize for "blowing up"! I too have done just that (it feels GOOD when the complaining operator is being a jerk as the non-gent was being towards YOU).
SUPERB JOB on your end and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment. It is a PLEASURE. Be well and keep on "being Pete"!
73............. Don
Beautiful station! I wouldn't worry about any negative comments especially with the Children's Band type activities that currently haunt 75 meters. I am around very late at night and constantly annoyed by people playing music and broadcasting instead of having conversations. My goal is to have a AM station on the air at some point and am in the process of restoring an old CCA unit using 4-400 tubes. I have not worked on a plate modulated class C amplifier since school in the 70's but love the fact than I can see the parts in the unit. Working with SMT is beyond my visual ability, so I am trying to stay with tube equipment.
Welcome to the club, John, You'll fit right in.
Hello, Pete K7PP. Your thoughtful and well explained technical background on AM amateur operation is complete and accurate. I was the chief engineer of an AM station at 1530 kHz, Northern California. I am very well aware of the rules regarding AM operation for commercial broadcast. I was ordered by corporate to limit audio bandwidth to 4 Khz in anticipation of AM IBOC. I defied that order which cost me my job. However, the 50 Kw station I ran was legal in every way with 10 kHz audio bandwidth. On to the complaint of other ham radio operators. The problem is the front end of their receivers. Amateur receivers do not come with selective crystal limiters. So, "artifacts" are allowed into the demodulated audio. Normal speech does not need 10 kHz, but music does, and broadcast radio was all about top-40 and 120% modulation. Personally, I feel you owe very little "apology." You are being very contrite and adult with your explanation. I respect that. However, amateur operators need to study and learn the modes of operation on the amateur spectrum. Ross, WA6VWY, Sacramento, California.
Hi Ross;
Thanks for your comments. I know I over reacted with the video I made but, It made me feel better about telling my side and my take on the problem. Some times reputations follow us around on Ham Radio like a bad penny and operating practices say allot about a Ham. It really is a small community. I was also hoping to open up a discussion from the SSB operators take but, nothing yet.
I love AM. Amd wish i was around when AM was still 10khz. AM broadcast stations sound so horrible these days
An AM station in Northern California on 1530.
Cool! No ground radials to corrode!
You are way more diplomatic than I would have been.........nice work
Really a brilliant video; I especially appreciate the thoughts on audio processing. I've recently been bitten by the commercial transmitter bug (I have a 21E and 20V-3 in my collection) and appreciate the work of others to bring such gear on the air in a compliant fashion. 73 de AF6AP, Chris
That is one awesome set up ! one thing i would change is where your feed line goes up that pole and away from the horses . i would suggest using some messenger line to take the stress off of that feed line . we need to take into account some of the new ham gear have poor filters. So it could be that the othersthat have trouble with your transmit signal actually don't have their receive settings correct . any way GREAT looking and most likely AWESOME sounding station . I could only wish to have a set up like that. note iam not licensed amateur but have been kicking around the idea of pulling the trigger and getting the ticket. good note on bandwith you get to the point of too much bandwith you can put all the info you need into a 4-5Khz AM signal the rest is just wasted bandwith
Pull the trigger. I've been doing this for 65 years and loved every minute of it. Find a local club. They most likely can administer the test. Join the gang. You'll fit right in.
That's a healthy habit. Love your work. The old stuff amazes me more than the new. This is very cool. Gee that's a very long feedline.
Thanks, it is a long feed line but, the antenna is very quiet and there is 20 percent loss on 160 meters and 43 percent loss on 75 meters. If 50 percent loss is 3db and 3db is 1/2 an S unit, I can live with it as the antenna is 6 S units more quiet than the dipole in front of the House.
#
Pete, it is really great to see the Collins Transmitter still going. I was active in the early 60's and the whole AM / SSB argument has never changed. There are many good reasons to keep the old technology alive for newcomers to learn, or else we will lose the value of that knowledge. I mile the way you have combined the modern spectral analysis with the old transmitters. back in the 60's stuff like that was only a dream. 73, (formerly) WA1FTG.
+Bill Moran Hi Bill, Thanks for your kind comments. You would be astounded at how many AM stations you'll hear on Ham radio now days. Many camp out on 75 and 160 meters.
Great contacts to be had. You need to jump back into the Hobby, Bill.
There's fun to be had. PP
you show great consideration for others. just enjoy your ham radio.
i need that power on the AM broadcast band. I am a broadcast engineer and our equipment has become defective. Our transmitter is way worse than your's, in all senses, from the harmonics to how much swr it can handle. It didn't handle the first thunder storm. In the case of audio processing, our equipment has been used on FM and is super high quality, there is a fine line on all the peaks.
Congratulations on making this video, very polite and informative. I have watched it before but good to rediscover it. If everyone was as courteous the hobby would be better for it. I wasn’t licenced until well after SSB was the norm and it was a long time after that when I first operated AM, not with huge audio bandwidth probably very little outside of 100hz to 4kHz. It was an utter pleasure working a friend only 10 miles away on 160m with low power. The slightly wider audio bandwidth than standard SSB did make for a pleasant sound. Subjectively it far exceeded my expectations. Fortunately we never got comments from self appointed radio policemen, 160m seems to attract different users to the other bands. Your video has made me want to revisit AM... 73
Thank You for the comments. I might have over reacted a bit when I made the video but I left it up because It does have some usable info in it. I did let Me vent my frustration over seeing the direction Ham Radio has gone, though.
Gadzooks I think I was just picturing major wood in my pants when I saw those tubes inside that transmitter light up I remember my days when I was working at a commercial radio station and I had to cut the power and go directional at night and I used to have a somewhat lapse of memory to go from non-directional to directional and I just wanted to see what it was going to be like one time until I got a phone call from a station manager saying that I was interfering with his radio station well I guess you can say I burnt rubber like a NHRA dragster to hit the button to change the pattern lickety-split that did it for me boys!
I quit wasting time on 75M with all of the YAHOOS on the air. Your 20-V TX would be happier on 160M...that's what I do during the winter. 1880 or 1885 or 1930 or 1945 are the hang outs. A lot less friction there
I'm beginning to think you're right. Right now I'm using a Valiant on 160 but a few extra watts wouldn't hurt and the bozo factor is allot less there.
Very nice setup Pete. That Collins transmitter is a sweet one for sure. You were more than kind sharing what you run and how you run it. Some people would just tell the SSB person or crowd to just blankadee blankadee blank. It would be nice if those persons or person would just take the time to do a little research on radio history, and also maybe try AM for them self. They may find it fun. I know I do...Anyways, great video my friend...N1TZU...Bob.
Thanks for the kind comments, Bob. Looks like you have good taste in transmitters as well. The one I had went to my Brother this weekend so we will have another AM'er on the air soon.
Don't hear to much from you guys on the East coast but I'll keep my ears open for ya.....
PP
K7PP Page Hello Pete, I hope to hear you also some day. I've enjoyed AMing for quite some time. Something about glowing tubes I guess. That's cool about your Brother. I also hope to hear him. Many blessings to you and yours my fellow AM'er. 73's. Bob.
Hi Pete. Very informative, You generously took time to help us better understand AM. Your appreciation for the tube AM gear is contagious!! Do we ever have 'enough' vintage or even broadcast rigs?? Take care and again...thank you for having blessed us!!
Hi Dave;
Thank you for your kind comments. There has to be a way to help all of us share and get along so we can enjoy this great hobby. UA-cam deserves a pat on the back for it's existence. Thanks for your support. PP
Pete that is the most nifty way I have ever seen to procure Nightcrawlers. All that underground stuff is just classic radio. Let me guess that you have your own pond to drown all the Nightcrawlers?
You have done a great job educating folks on the proper operation of a.m. versus side band. I command you sir. 73 de AD5TD
A good explanation, but I feel not addressing the problem. I got the feeling that the real issue was the use of excessive power, reason being, that with the run of coax that you showed us, and the losses that would be incurred, in order to make up for that loss, would be to put a little more " juice " into the coax, which in turn, got you caught with your pants down. Rather than get upset, you should take a minute an think about the situation. How do you thing the mess on 11 meters was created ?? Another thing is, I'm surprised the FCC even got involved. They are so lazy, and don't care anything about Amateur or CB anymore. If that weren't true, then why do you have CB'ers running in excess of 100,000 watts today ? Some of them are even ignorant enough to run 75,000 watts mobile. Amateur radio operators don't police themselves as they did 60 or 70 years ago. Back then the FCC worked with them in an effort to keep everything legal, but that is no longer. The operators of that era are almost gone, and the Amateur bands of today are a joke. The only difference between CB and Amateur today, is one is glorified and one is not.
Any chance that You might have noticed that the power output meter said 375 watts? That puts My PEP within the legal limit of power. On AM that would be less than 1500 watts PEP. The run of coax most likely puts Me at 175 watts of carrier to the antenna or 700 watts PEP. Nice comments otherwise. I've been a Ham since the 50's. No CB at all then. 11 meters was a pretty good Amateur band then. I'm torn between trying to explain how the rules should be applied with the understanding that a new Ham might not be familiar or just ignoring the complaint.
You Need QRO on 160M and a VEE , Apex 60 feet, Ends 20 feet or more off the ground...Fed by open ladder line. That's antenna here. Gets out quite well, on 160M and 75 and 40M. A Valiant ins't gonna cut it on 160M ...got to break through mother Nature's noises. Running my Ameritron AL1500 at 250 w carrier and it makes HUGE positive peaks...lovely audio!! Driven by a nice Kenwood TS-850 Easy rig to modify for Hi-Fi AM audio. 30hz to 10khz audio response RX and TX!!!!
I have a dipole for 160 meters fed with LMR 400 at 160 feet elevation. Ends droop all the way down to 120 feet above ground level. I share the Balun with a 75 meter dipole at same elevation. I can run QRO with my Amp supply LK500. It does an easy 500 watt carrier with peaks to 1500 or so. Most of the guys out here run heavy metal and are close by so the Val does a nice job.
Sounds like you have a sweet set up.
SDRs are quite amazing devices, can be used in quite a few different ways. Especially nice to use them like you're using them to see your signal.
Then there's ones connected to the internet others can connect to to hear signals around the world that one might not be able to hear from the location they're currently at.
can also be used in the same fashion in your video but to see how well you're being received from different locations across the country. Plus can also be used to triangulate a signal.
Great job, Pete! Love the Collins. I had 1 of those.. now I have a Bauer 707. I too love restoring these rigs. 73's! KD5MHQ
Bowers are great, Bob. Hope we can work you on 75 some evening.
After watching your video I intend to look up the bandwidth of phone operation in region 3,
pete, sir, you are a total badass and a gentleman !! Much respect my friend... love the shack and the videos..keep them coming
Very kind, Howard. Thank You.
Good job. I am setting up a high and low pass audio filter between my mic (or AR Newsline audio source for a net, etc.) and my Hallicrafters 32A I've been servicing and testing on 10m and dummy load. This way I can narrow-up my bandwidth in a pinch without getting into doing it on a more technical RF level (I think I see you doing the same as a preliminary filtering stage in your elaborate setup). I'm no veteran at this but audio filtering seems to have the same effect on a scope or remote web SDR waterfall check as narrowing my bandwidth in or after the transmitter (?) since even if the transmitter is eager to splat more it has nothing to splat wide coming in the mic input). Am I wrong? Thanks in advance. Believe me, I'm in no hurry to test theories or shaky calibrations on a pileup.
As far as I'm concerned the old-style transceivers are more important than the disposable and virtually non-serviceable (or not worth servicing) crap with all the bells and whistles. We need a big giant solar event to crispy critter all the fragile stuff, make the beefy steel more valuable again in folks' minds, and make my bowyer skills come back in style. But then I'm doing the same, "no skin off my nose, screw the other guy" thing I don't like boat anchor-bashers doing. A long-time SWL'er, vintage CB'er, I'm only soon getting carefully into HF transmitting at all (other than 10m, CB, and stunted CW). I like the fact you can spend $65 on a shortwave SDR with surprising selectivity and filtering and see the whole spectrum on a cheap PC, but I wouldn't trade radios that are capable of being run for 80+ years through one or two cap replacements and deep cleanings for it. There's something sacred about simpler and far tougher equipment that's practical-seeming in possibly pre-apocalyptic times, beyond novel or sentimental and nostalgic. Kids today don't even know you can build a crystal radio with several cheap parts (still several dollars today for a "crystal" diode and a ceramic ear piece... heck maybe a makeshift cat's whisker, forget the diode) and scrap around the house or dumpster, which can be powered by nothing other than the ambient waves it receives. The kind of guy who hates your Collins never built one of those in Cub Scouts or he'd get it as an adult.
Peter that is old school, an apology ! Well done Peter, it is nice to see some people are still living there life Old School. 73 Old Mate from vk2ual
Thanks, Richard. Nice of you to say so.
When you get on the ham bands you inevitably end up listening to one rules nerd or group of needs contending with another nerd or group of, who's center of concern is what communica- tion rule someone is skirting or breaking. This is why ham radio has declined from what it used to be in the late 50's to early 60's when it had a status it doesn't have one. Remember when fathers and sons took exams on the same day. Dad for a general son for a novice? The morons and Tecno nerds killed all that....
Yes, I remember. We've turned into a point and click, me first society. One of the reasons I still include AM and tube radios in my
Ham Radio is to keep me in touch with how I started out. I know those days are gone forever. Sigh!
375 watts carrier 100% mod = 1500 watts PEP.. the current legal limit for any mode.seems you have that nailed. Many hams have never read the regs, and it is doubtful if many can understand them. There are a disproportionately high number of old broadcast engineers with commercial tickets among the boat anchor gang like you and I.
Pete, Very well done video! Lloyd - WA9NLA
I would love a collins like that.. Worked on a 250 watt AM transmitter in Clearwater. The tower was on fill, with the ground running off into the bay there...
Ham radio is all about experimentation and trying out new ideas. So therefore you have the freedom to tryout wide band modes and you do your best to notify others that you will be doing such experiments. As for a hobby of communicates, it can be near impossible to get this message through to other users.
There are different permissible modes based on frequency bands, and these are spelled out in the regulations.. Why Wont Anybody Read The Regulations anymore. They are printed in the ARRL handbook, and on line. It is a licensed hams responsiblility to know and understand the regs !
Hy Pete,
Intelligent and inform people are not dangerous, but for the stupid and crazy, they are able to do extreme things.
VE2TAE (73)
Pete, a beautiful video. I thought you were going to talk about "supermodulation" which Ding Hayward, W1PH talked about and ran on his DX-100 transmitter in "73" magazine, he was following broadcast protocols, often running 150% positive modulation peaks, but NEVER EVER negative peaks above 100%. = 73 de N1EA +
K7PP DE KB4AKS Im envious.. only just a little tho. Love your set up, and your station restoration of the Collins. In my teen years, I worked at the local station here in Dickenson, County Virginia, and we had GATES BC-1T 4 - of the 833 A tubes with one thousand watts of local power back then. I got out of commercial radio back in the mid 70s and went into a field where I would actually have money to eat dinner.!! Im Glad that you are so inclined to keep AM on the band. Just had to leave a comment Keep up the good work. That's what Amateur Radio is all about. 73 MarKB4AKS
Wow, look at that beautiful station. I wish I had a transmitter that could do that.
Has anyone commented on how the switch to SSB affected the recruitment of new hams?
When I was a kid in 7th grade about 1969 I was interested in radio. I read all the books in the library most of which were over 20 years old.
I did not know any hams and parents were not interested.
I finally got a Radio Shack DX- ???
General coverage receiver for Christmas.
I can not remember the model 120 or 160 I think.
It could not really get SSB so I only listened to AM. Sometimes I could tune in to get SSB.
I hated the SSB guys.
After a while I gave up as the Am got less and SSB took over.
I did listen to Short Wave.
I did not get my license till I was an adult years later in the 1990’s as Tech Plus.
Stuck until they dropped the code now an Extra.
I do think they should have maintained the code test for the top class of license.
I think code will die now. ARRL needs to bribe a video game company to make learning the code a part of playing a popular game to get a new generation.
N2yun
Took me forever to learn the code.
Was there other kids listening that
Compared to what the ham bands were back to the 70's and 80's when I was active, no one has any legitimate complaint about crowding, especially on 75 meters.
+jejustissIII I'd have to agree with that. Anytime, however, when you start up a QSO, you are subject to band change. Back in the day, we called it "when the band goes long". When that happens, a QSO in progress may find itself on top of another QSO in progress. The gentlemen on Amateur Radio would either QSY or sign out but today it's been replaced with name calling and all sorts of other mean spirited comments that didn't use to be part of Ham Radio. Oh where o where did it come from.?
I think it kind of arrogant for anyone to think they control the air waves who put them in charge i sure didnt .
I hear AM ham radio on 3885 am in metro Saint Louis MO on a Grundig G8
Glad to see you're still having fun "playing radio" Pete :)
I don’t think the FCC really cares if your modulation peaks go to 3600 watts or not. 900 watts of useless carrier causes far more mayhem then modulation peaks.
One fellow I know has a KW1 that was modified to limit carrier power to 375 watts. To me that is a crime.
it's a mater of the law and math. 375 watts carrier 100% modulated 2 sideband = 1500 Watts PEP Out Put. the Legal Limit. The sub bands where AM is permitted is a matter of federal regulation. For that matter you can probably operate 1500 watts output FM.. it's just a matter of the permitted emission type for any given frequency. W6WUH Now courtesy or lack of it.. is another matter.
Exactly what I tried to convey. I think you're right about the 1500 watts FM. Perhaps narrow band FM on 75 meters might be the way to go?
It is not a federal regulation its a band plan by the ARRL and isnt a law nor a requirement but simply a standard courtesy of rules. Its for courtesy only and isnt illegal
I admire what u do ..I love old transmitters..I restore old tube amps and transmitters
Very kind, Thank You.
@@dogtagsvette love your videos man just found them
Hi Pete, more than 90% of hams do not go nearly as far as you have to bend over backwords concerning good amateur practice. Those big mouth belly achers are LIDS. I much enjoy your vids OT, keep up the good work. 73, the Donold
+umajunkcollector all the new hams are a bunch of appliance operators, they cant fix anything let alone a pl259 which is really sad, or to even understand another ham is in the right on his mode, it shows us where the hobby is actually headed
+AA1PR Not ALL THE NEW HAMS. There are a few that do the right thing and love building and experimenting. Besides, I hear a lot of old timers bellyaching MORE than the newer hams many times. Most of the SSB'ers giving AM problems are still pissed off from the 60s. Just saying. 73 de KX5JT
Jay Tee
yes there are & I know one who has built more than most other hams in the hobby for 20yrs havent
Whomever or whatever they are, we need MORE radio activity on ALL ham bands. Most bands are dead or full of contesters with quickie contacts. I'd rather hear something than nothing. If we don't use it, we'll lose it. Lids need elmers, so they learn the art of radio. Many hams were CBers, but changed because a nice ham explained how we operate. QSL. Don
Hello, Pete, I have a 75A - 4. Recent complete recap by a licensed engineer who was a
design engineer for Collins Toronto plant for many years.
He has well over 20 collins rigs and at 77 is still very active on CW as well as repairs onHF rigs. this rig shows and performs as new. it breaks my heart to have to part with it.
If you have any interest please contact me through google plus.
Many thanks.
Hey Pete, I live in Vancouver WA so hopefully we can work some AM. I only have a general class so I can't go under 3800khz. 73
The AM "window" is between 3870 and 3885. You can find me on one of those two frequencies. 73s'
Hi Pete! Love the station! Licensed in the early 90’s but my first hook was listening to AM shortwave radios! I’m not familiar with the transmitter. Plate modulated? Beefy! And reliable not being pushed to its limits all the time. Also, off topic, how is your video so stable, even while walking?Tnx ‘73 de KB2MEN.
Thanks for your comment. Video was choppy so I use the stabilizer tool in the video editor.
we never heard about who it was ,where he was and all that from this video
I doubt if you were ever over power. With 500ft of coax, you already have a large attenuation between Tx and antenna. You can easily figure your db loss if you know the coax number. Might even be able to increase the Tx power to compensate without going over the legal limit.
Yes, you're right. Figuring the loss is a piece of cake but, I'm wishing the FCC would see things the way you see them. They specify where the power should be measured and that's right at the transmitter output.
I guess they want to make it uniform and easy for the inspectors. It would be tough to measure at the output of a tuner. Perhaps I could figure a way to bring the feed point closer to the transmitter......hummmmmm
I never understood why so many people have a problem with "each to his own" and if you don't have something good to say don't say it. Ego's are out of control anymore with respect at an all time low. People take themselves way way to seriously, maybe they are frustrated from not making their mark on society. But a couple generations from now no one will ever speak our names again or even know we existed, might as well enjoy what brief time we have.
I noticed you are only running 375 watts of carrier. I know the 20V. Is capable of over a KW of carrier power so I assume you are doing this to stay within the 1500 watt PEP limit. Also, if you are losing 3 dB in your feedline than you really only have < 190 watts of carrier power. There is no question in my mind you are well within all parameters of the law.
I am in the process of obtaining a KW-1 transmitter. On 75 meters it will put out 900 watts of carrier. I intend to just run the modulation peaks at 1500 watts.
I use 4000 sq feet of mesh to reduce the ground resistance to 0. That helps immensely, just like your warer. Jim Beck, KJ7NW
Hi Jim;
Better to run 375 watts of carrier and the balance of the 1500 watt limit to the sidebands. 900 watts of carrier contains no intelligence. Limiting modulation to stay within the limit will net you a weak sounding signal.
Gosh, Mea Culpa, 300 watts is illegal on the west coast ?
Very nice setup! I worked, for many years,with a Collins 21A 5kW rig at WBAA. Collins AM transmitters are the best of that era. 500 feet of LMR400? And I thought I had a lot on my HF antenna with 125 feet of DXE400MAX! As to your audio processing, always liked what the audimax did with voice program. I'd love to find a software plugin that simulated the audimax. --de N3TS
Thanks for the comment, Tim. Had one of the 20V's at the first AM station I worked at. Moved to KMO radio and a Gates BC5A installed in 1936. Hate to use so much coax but I have electric fences North and South of Me. The coax does a great job getting my Signal to My dipole in the middle of My pasture. Hardly any popping there. Ladder line delivered a 20/9 pop on the S meter. Yikes. Wish I could afford
some 5/8th Heliax.
Good video. Gorgeous station. I am, however, taking up a collection to replace your very good LMR-400 with something even more spectacular because it's a shame to lose half of the power out of that beautiful 20V-2 just heating up worms. I'm surprised we haven't talked or maybe we have. Like most CA AMers I'm mostly down at 3870. Keep the air vibrating. Jon, K6JEK
Thanks for the comment, Jon. I'm building a vertically polarized delta loop fed with 450 ohm ladder line. That should get most of the fire where it will do some good. I'll keep my existing antenna and may add a second delta loop East West....lots of room to string antennas.
Very cool. That's a lot of wire in the air. I'm jealous
The best 75 meter antenna I ever had was a pair of dipoles, phased, It was amazing. So when you want to try yet another antenna, I'd highly recommend it. Mine was complicated (I wrote it up in ER a few years back) but this is probably just as good: amfone.net/ECSound/K1JJ21.htm
I should stop typing and get on the air.
Nice setup by far man beautiful as it gets
Hey Pete. Nice station. I hope to build and operate an AM station one day soon (when I retire) and I hope it sounds as good as yours. 73 - Steve - VE3EZB
Thanks for the nice comments, Steve. Hope to work you on 75 meters some PM
Beautiful Setup.. But no Surge Supression on the feedline at the building entrance??? Just asking..
Hi Lloyd. Yes, I have a lightning arrestor outside the house mounted on a ground system and that is where the
coax goes in and out of the arrestor and then travels underground about 500 feet where it resurfaces and then goes up to the balun in the tree about 160 feet above ground level.
Did the complainant ever respond to this Slam Dunk video?
Ignore the ignorant. BTW, I'm jealous of your Heath scope since I have the rest of that series station. But I'm not jealous of the Hammarlund since I have the same one. :) 73
I had a Collins 20V-2 in the early 1990's. Had to sell it due to a move. A guy from western Colorado bought it in abt 1995 or so. He said he was a retired engineer from the VOA. Anyone know where that transmitter is now?? Dave N9HF
You have an excellent 75m AM voice. That should be part of the licensing process for people who want to operate AM.
I love it! "The number 3 ham shack"!
Great video. Thank you.
I checked with two electrical engineers both hams and both do research and amplifier design and they said your math is far from correct.
+1903A3shooter Hi Shooter. There are better formulas that can be used to calculate total output. The 4 to one ratio is fairly accurate as well but also far from exact and I used the one I did as it gets you in the ball park with simple addition and multiplication. If you are in need of making an exact measurement and are fairly up on higher math I would be pleased to publish a new video for you outlining the formula and how to go about making the measurement.
Do you think that might be more helpful? Assuming 100 percent symmetrical modulation, the 4 to one or the one outlined in the video will get you pretty close. At less the 100 percent or with unsymmetrical modulation applications, it gets more complicated.
+K7PP Page Well I am no math king that is why I went to a couple engineers. I did pick up on a couple of thing you said but it is no big deal. It is very impressive that you have such a nice transmitter and try to make sure to operate it in a manner that respects others. Only wish all the folks on the air would do the same. Dave W4GSM
+1903A3shooter Thanks for the nice complement, Dave. I wish I knew a bit more about how to impart what I know so that it is useful. I've watched this video a few times to see if there is anything that would be better explained another way and the last time I feel asleep during my own presentation. That should tell me something. Hi! I have several really slick trig formulas I've stolen fair and square from a couple of other sites but they, coupled with my presentation would be pretty worthless to the average hobbyist.
Good video and packed with info. How high are the two ends of the dipole antenna?
The Balun is at 160 feet and the 80 meter tips droop down to 110 feet and the 160 tips droop down to 75 feet above ground.
ive always been interested in HAM even sence i saw/played with my first set at a boy scout camp back in hte day.
always been an electronics nerd.....
anyway......HAM has AM right in the name! lol
if your p.e.p. is legal for your license? what's the trouble ? bandwidth interference, scattered throughout the band?
A normal single sideband signal is 3.8 khz wide, plus or minus a bit. An AM signal is twice as wide and sometimes wider depending on the frequency response of the modulator. It is possible to have audio components out to 15khz which makes the signal 30 khz wide and still be legal.
This is why it is necessary to limit the frequency response of the AM signal to under 4khz in order to be a good neighbor.
Also, most AM operators try to limit their operation to a self imposed "AM window". Here in the Northwest, it is 3.870 to 3.885 khz on 75 meters.
My Motto Ignoramus Non Carborundum
Thanks, Larry. My new motto is, "don't get stressed, give stress". LOL
I am suprised your not running on 160 meters.
I do run a Viking Valiant on 160. Works great. I might find another Broadcast Transmitter for 160.
Nothing wrong with a lot of power
Hi, I would love to get a chance to chat with you. I am also blind and I love your videos.
Don't let anyone push you around.
if hams have a problems with wide am just go to 11m ware am is the go to mode. ham radio has got to uptight. and has its share of bad ops. 11m more relaxed and is more welcoming.75-80m has a lot of bad ops that sound worse than ch19!!! take care have fun
I'd have to agree with you on that one, Jake. Not into CB as the range is very poor at night but You're dead on about the poor operators on 75 meters.
thanks thanks for the reply. radio is suppose to be fun. I have no idea why their is this, uptight I am better than you mentality on ham radio with 75m being where it is most common. I find ssb cb more relaxed, and on ssb cb the discussions sound like stuff on the ham bands, with out the poor behavior. cb has its bad players as well but what I have heard on 75m was just worse than ch19 trucker stuff. well take care good dx.
Jake in Europe 11meters (CB) is mostly in use by FM modulated stations (AM is legal now, but is still the most common). K7PP about the range, well it isn't that bad. Back in the late 90's I was using a President Vegas (I still have it somewhere) and had only 2 watts (something) and with packetradio (and a 3el beam horizontal) I could connect stations from Scandinavia and Italy at certain days. B.T.W. I'm living in The Netherlands.
That is an amazing station!
gee, i wonder if any of those "self proclamed radio police " ever run into somone running full leagel power or a spark gap tx.? de kf6uxj.
Can you still run a spark gap tx legally? If so, count me in for nostalgia's sake!