On 11/11/06, Jack Schmidling <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Having said that, I guess something around 300w carrier would keep me happy for awhile. And "a while" is sort of subjective, the barefoot Ranger lasted till someone said, "you need to put some fire in the wire" and signed off.
Or phrased another way, "Life is too short to run pissweak!". There are times when the bands are nice and quiet, when low power rigs like those used by the cakepan crowd shine through and the Rangers and DX-100s sound like blockbuster rigs. Unfortunately those times seem to be scarce compared to the nights of nearly hand-to-hand combat on 75 with the slopbucket crowd or wingnut jammer types. Running a small signal then is an invitation to lose a frequency, and brings to mind another famous AM quote: "The weaker they are, the longer they talk". I recall plenty of nights back in the early 90s when 100 watts from my 32V just wouldn't cut the mustard. 'Frustrating' is an understatement. Sounds like you're on the right track here, and there are plenty of big rigs out there to be had if you don't want to homebrew, or to use until you have your transmitter ready to roll. I just had a T-368 given to me a few weeks ago and will probably be peddling my Beastly 610E at some point. Also sent a nice Raytheon RA-1000 to a new home in Maine back in October. Don't know where you're located Jack, but there's a lot of big iron in the northeast, and probably most places in the US. It will likely require some amount of driving and loading to retrieve, unless you find something next door. Plenty of good info from the crew here. Even more is located on amfone, which is also a great place to ask questions. K1JJ has a nifty rig on there known as the 'blown 813 rig' which utilizes lantern globes for chimneys. My advice would be to find an old rig that is pretty much ready to go and get it on the air. Then build a nice HB rig as well, taking your time and asking a lot of questions. In the end, you'll still have the Ranger for low power work, the big rig for higher power conditions, and the HB rig to tweak and enjoy. If one of the big rigs breaks down, you have a back up and needn't be off the air while you search for parts. A strong signal on AM is a lot like a collection of spares: Better to have and not need, than to need and not have. ~ Todd, KA1KAQ (former pissweaker) ______________________________________________________________ AMRadio mailing list List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Partner Website: http://www.amfone.net Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.html Post: mailto:[email protected]
