The whole matter brings a lot of interesting area for discussion. The AM Window thing is an ancient "Gentleman's" agreement. It's time has passed, and we aren't "stuffed" into a corner.
The "issue" of rock bound with Vintage Military equipment makes me laugh hard enough to worry about spraying coffee on my keyboard! My Tx is one of two BC-610s, and the Rx end is either an R-390A or a Northern Radio SP-600. So I'm well acquainted with the "vintage" realm. As to the rock bound element, the FT-171 crystals for the BC-610s are the ones left over from the same time frame as the radio. You can't go to the last of the crystal companies and order some. So when I plug one into the Beast, I've already discovered that they are NOT on the stated frequency. No amount of cleaning has resolved it. Two different 3945Kc crystals have two different frequencies of oscilation. One is up about 3Kc, while the other is down about 2Kc. Then I have multiple Tuning Units for that frequency range. The output frequency varies dependent on which one is used. I'd have to tag everything, and create tables for the whole mess. In lieu of that, I use the TUs in the M.O., (Master Oscillator), mode. I use a frequency counter with a lead draped over that section of the Tx. Those little knobs, coupled with the very little capacitance being varied over 500Kc, makes it problematic. It takes an hour of warm up time to get "reasonable" stability. I'm as close to the frequency desired as I can get it. Unless someone wants to procure a PTS-40 frequency standard that I can't afford, I'll have to continue the way I go. I don't light up the plate without listening, but I "may" step on someone that I can't hear. It "can" be very broad, but I am careful as to the mic gain, monitoring with an SM-220 with the Panadaptor. I even feed the receiver's IF into the SM-220, to watch the signal even when the Rx is muted. Keep looking for the sunspot activity, but the "other" hobby, Astronomy, has the whiz banhs predicting a significantly lower number than was originally predicted. I'm seeing the same with my telescopes. I guess we are stuck in the same old conundrum of antenna orientation, propagation, and little variances in frequency. Collisions will continue to occur. They have for my 29 yrs of being licensed, and I don't expect it to really get better. One simply should not fire up on a schedule if a QSO is ongoing. Jim and Brian: You are both doing a great job! Bob - N0DGN ______________________________________________________________ Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net AMRadio mailing list Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Post: [email protected] To unsubscribe, send an email to [email protected] with the word unsubscribe in the message body. This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
