AM QSO Party, day one.

A rather dull and cold day greeted us for the start of the AM QSO Party today.

GB0AMC had set-up at Dulas Bay, east coast of Anglesey, by about 10am, and was receiving steady calls.

GB0AMC at Dulas Bay, just after high tide.

I took a trip to visit the station, just a couple of km from me.  I'd left the radio at home on 3.625MHz.  When I came back, my XYL asked me if I'd enjoyed my cup of tea?  Huh?  She had heard me talking about it in the bakcground as GB0AMC was busy making a call!

Meanwhile, someone asked me if I'd seen a dog, as he'd lost it.  I told him it was causing traffic chaos, running around in the main road!  He later safely retrieved the dog.

Simon Taylor, MW0NWM, organiser of the AM QSO Party, operates GB0AMC.

By the afternoon, a few more stations had understood there was some AM activity underway, helped by plenty of cluster spotting. DM8MM was doing particularly well with a 3-ele beam for 40m, with a constant stream of G- stations calling him all afternoon.

I gave a call on 14.325MHz, and was very surprised to hear a 59+ call from W9OO.  I was quite emotional as Carl told me this was the first QSO is AM mode he had made since 1967!  That really made my day.

Simon's very fine homebrew crystal-controlled valve TX.

Well, it wasn't as busy as it could have been, but not bad, either.  There's still another evening and half a day to go, so we'll see if any more surprises turn up!

Listen to the beautiful AM audio of DM8MM, with a 200W carrier: