AM Chasing on 80 Meters - Vintage style

The plans for the handbag weekend are coming together slowly here. Saturday looks to be the driest day, although hardly perfect. I hope its going to be fun for all.

Taking up nearly 100 KGS of WW2 radio gear up to the top of Hope mountain (GW/NW-062) on the day a pretty easy summit. Using the Wireless Set No. 19 as the main transceiver complete with the mighty 15W MkIII power amplifier to hopefully make it through the QRM / QSB on a doublet.

Equipment set up is OK really, what worries me if people will chase.

Q1.) Is 80m too difficult for most chasers in terms of antennas and QSB ?

Q2.) Would 40m be more effective ? Its going to be difficult in terms of consumed bandwidth with a already crowded band. 60m is a no go for obvious reasons.

Q3.) How would people find using AM to chase ?

If I can gauge an opinion from a few HF chasers then maybe I can refine / decide if this is going to work as well as I hope !

Jonathan

Getting access to Hope Mountain itself - and getting somewhere to park - would be my own priority concern. I wouldn’t worry about bands and modes these days. If you self-spot, chasers will come looking for you, no doubt about it.

I should be OK with access, Hope mountain is like the cloud is to you. I live in the next valley. I know the farmer pretty well on the road side farm.

I hope you are right, I am not so confident as I have yet to see AM being used on the spots this year.

I have had several AM contacts on 80m using the FT817 and a G5RV, so I am pretty sure that I can contact you, I’ll have a good go, anyway!

Looks like I won’t be activating this weekend after all, the car needs some work!

Brian

Thanks Brian,

I am 50/50 with the idea at the moment. I think I would rather work on the car then get the radio wet …

Jonathan