Another good morning for 11m 1507 UTC 14 OCT 2021

[ChrisSmolinski]

Curacao, Peru, Mexico, England all coming in.

[ChrisSmolinski]

2009 it's a fiesta on channel 20 with Latin music

[RobRich]

They are not packed wall-to-wall here, but I am noting 11m and even 10m activity at 2024z. Mostly Spanish-language, and 27065 sounds almost like 27025 often does. o.0

Anyway, 11/10 activity gives me a reason to actually connect the Shakespeare 318-GBT 18' vertical, which tends to go neglected otherwise.

[ChrisSmolinski]

11m still hopping with Latin American stations

Earlier I heard some local traffic on channel 1, it sounded like coordinated truckers. I need to check it out more often.

[Elf36]

Wow. 27.385 is jammin. California, Nova Scotia, NY, PA etc. Big signals too. I can't even get a call in there.

[RobRich]

27305 seems to be the hangout in my immediate area for a few people. Elf, you are close enough to me to probably hear and maybe work them. Usually like late evening to nighttime hours.

Speaking of proximity, 27385 is largely in the noise floor here. I have heard one truly decent signal in the past few minutes. Shows what a (relatively) few miles difference can do for DX.


DX from Arizona, California, and New Mexico is improving on 27385 at 2238z.

[Elf36]

Yeah. There are a few guys over in the Tampa area that I hear regularly when conditions are good. Sometimes it's direct or I hear the out of state station say their QTH

[Elf36]

If the band continues to be open throughout the weekend, it's gonna be packed. Listening yesterday afternoon. you'd have thought it was Saturday. So many stations. I wish hams would realize 10M is open!

[R4002]

11m still hopping with Latin American stations

Earlier I heard some local traffic on channel 1, it sounded like coordinated truckers. I need to check it out more often.

I heard local truckers using channel 6 (!!!) for coordination the other day...this was during a chunk of time where the band was closed though.  Usually the locals hang out on channel 4, channel 7, channel 14, channel 22 and channel 33.

Trucking companies and job site coordination on various other channels, including 12, 13, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27, 31, 32, 35 and 36 have all been logged.  I heard two truckers talking on channel 17 the other day and they must have been running power because they were very loud for a long time..and one of them was splattering up to channel 19 (27.185 MHz) and down to channel 16 (27.155 MHz) pretty badly.  There were points where the guys on 19 had serious interference from splatter due to overmodulation from the super-loud truck driver on channel 17....

CB may be old, but it's still really popular (for obvious reasons)

[Elf36]

I haven't talked to anyone on AM CB in years. I went from a Radioshack AM base station to a Sears Roadtalker SSB rig and eventually an HR2510 by the time I was 15. A guy I work with has a CB in his truck and told me there were still some locals on there daily. I guess it just varies from area to area. You certainly don't see nearly as many CB antennas on vehicles like you use to. Not here anyway.

[R4002]

I haven't talked to anyone on AM CB in years. I went from a Radioshack AM base station to a Sears Roadtalker SSB rig and eventually an HR2510 by the time I was 15. A guy I work with has a CB in his truck and told me there were still some locals on there daily. I guess it just varies from area to area. You certainly don't see nearly as many CB antennas on vehicles like you use to. Not here anyway.

Ahh, yes, the HR2510.  I remember trading a Galaxy DX 949 for one (!!) - what a great radio. 

There is a lot of variation from area to area for sure. 

[RobRich]

Back in the mid-90s I used to do the 27025 AM thing, along with the other AM DX usuals like 27.085, 27.265, etc.

CB stood for constant buying, including the routine replacing of previously inexpensive sweep tubes being abused way beyond CCS ratings. Anyone priced even just a modest used 6LQ6 in recent years? o.0

[R4002]

A cursory eBay search for 6LQ6...yeah...wow. $100 for a pair of NOS tested RCA 6LQ6 tubes...others are going for what appears to be the $20-$60 per tube price range (for new in box/new old stock 6LQ6 tubes).

[RobRich]

I skipped over the hobby for several years, but AFAIK, prices were even worse for awhile. I suspect most of the older 11m sweep tube splatter boxes are long gone by now. Then again, many of the cheapest-built modern 11m solid-state amps with little to no output filtering can be just as bad or even worse for IMD and harmonics. o.0

[Elf36]

Yeah, the HR2510 was a great rig. I remember when I got a SSB rig and people were using Q codes. It was a whole new world and then getting the HR2510 and being able to go above 27.405. I was like oh my gosh, I've missed so much. This was mid/late 90's and the conditions were unreal. Such great memories.