This morning I got up and did the usual morning routine and then sat down to pay bills online as one does with a nice cup of tea and didn’t think of anything else until around 9ish and I suddenly realised that I hadn’t had the ParksnPeaks website running as I usually do when my laptop is on. Low and behold, VK3ARR had been spotted on SSB so I quickly flicked on my Alinco and raced up to 7.180. Yep, he was still there so I called in and made the contact and Andrew mentioned about using AM earlier and I then remembered that some of the VK1 guys were also planning on trying AM on their summits today. I haven’t actually used AM yet, the Alinco does have the capacity to do it but I guess I just never thought to use anything other than SSB as that seems to be the most common form used…and CW of course, but I’m not ready to go there yet!
So, anyway, moving along until just after dinner for us and the spots were coming up for Gerard, VK2IO and then he went to 40m AM and so a quick scramble of tuning and checking out the settings and I was calling into Gerard in AM mode! It being my first try of AM, things sounded differently to SSB and there was a lot more noise etc. but made the contact and then went up the band to get Andrew, VK1NAM and finally Andrew, VK1DA. I was using only 4 watts according to the Alinco Manual and was receiving 56 and even 59 signals…awesome! It’s always nice to try out something totally different to the usual so pretty pleased with how it all went.
Now I know that I couldn’t be as cool as having an Andrew Mode to Andrew Mode but my name starts with an A too, so I included myself in today’s festivities of AM just because! 😛
VK3FQSO 