Hello friends!

Well 2009 has arrived and is in full swing.  My journal seems to have been reported to Google as an "attack site" or somesuch.  I don't know who or why but I have no software or any thing to nature.  It's a blog, period.  I'll have them review it and see what's going on.

AM is indeed a great mode!  I am finding out however that one must really have beefy equipment to play in this mode.  Your feedline, antenna tuner, amplifiers, baluns, antennas... well EVERYTHING should be way overrated to play in AM.  The continuous carrier associated with an AM signal creates way more heat than a single sideband or cw signal.  I found out the hard way when my MFJ-962C 1.5KW roller inductor tuner from MFJ crapped out.  Well I had to see what the deal was so I opened her up and found a burned antenna selector switch wafer.  I decided I didn't need that or the metering circuit/meter so I pulled everything out of that box but the two air caps and the roller inductor.  I left one so-239 for input and one for output.  Now my tuner has no failure prone wafer switches or metering.  It's working FB as a basic T-match.

Point is that one should take careful notice of the ratings and stuff used when running continuous duty like RTTY, digital or AM modes.

I bought a 40Mhz oscilloscope.  I have a N3ZI dds vfo kit.  I also have a Heathkit DX-60 am/cw transmitter and matching HG-10 VFO on the way.  Of course, my Viking I is still on the bench and a fellow ham, Jack, AD5VO is sending me a replacement 6al5 rectifier tube for it.  So now I'll have some projects rolling!

That's all for now!
73, KX5JT

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