Perhaps if there are two or more AM'ers within close range of each other
interested in operating 160, you could make it a point to meet regularly on
some spot outside the usual frequencies of 1885, 1980 and 1985, during
static season. That way you will have already established AM presence in
that part of the band when conditions begin to improve, before a dead-air
SSB group can squat on the frequency. Hopefully, regular activity would
attract additional participants.
The problem I have here is so little AM activity within a couple of hundred
miles of my QTH, that in summer it is rare to hear a comfortably strong
signal through the QRN. And even in winter I have found calling CQ outside
the usual AM frequencies to be ineffective in attracting other AM stations.
My quarter wave vertical with radial ground system puts out a signal that
covers all of N America, but even with the beverage receiving antenna,
readable AM signals are often hard to find. I don't QSO's in which I have
to struggle to receive the other station through the background noise.
I think one thing that has hurt 160m AM activity is the 75m phone band
expansion. I used to take refuge on 160 because the 3870-90 kHz Ghetto was
overcrowded and each QSO had a half dozen or more participants, but now with
all the space "down below" it is easier to simply QSY on 75 than to change
bands. I am sure this has not affected me alone.
Don k4kyv
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