Has anyone logged /AM?

I think Andy can easily answer this question thanks to his excellent vintage SOTA software tools?
73, enjoy! Heinz

Chuck Stover K4QS made 4 /am chases on a flight in January 2012.
If you follow the nasota yahoo group you will find his comment in Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos

Edit: Better report at Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos
Jim

Yes Juerg I made an activator QSO with LA4CIA/AM when I was on Wiechberg DL/AL-179. The QSO was on 20m SSB at 10:24z on 21st June 2016. Take a look at Lewi’s QRZ page and you will see what he flies.

73 Phil

Hello Juerg,

I also did a QSO with EA1ENT/AM while activating for SOTA.

Story and a picture of his tiny plane is here:
http://reflector.sota.org.uk/t/am-in-my-last-activation-of-mt-bizkai-nv-142/11765

73 de Ignacio.

Thanks for posting. I remember that day well. It certainly was unique.

I spend most of my time flying across the North Atlantic now, so the HF is tuned to appropriate air frequencies.

73, Chuck K4QS

My most memorable /AM was being chased on VHF by a state fire fighting helicopter, KD6VNX/AM, while I was activating a virgin peak in August of 2012. He was first in the log. The following year, G6WRW and I were both chased by KA1GJU/AM while activating my home summit with M0YHB.

From the home QTH, I have logged 43 AM contacts, mostly airline pilots.

From the air, I have logged several VHF contacts from my P-51, hundreds from my AT-6, and many more from my helicopter.

Although I didn’t operate AM on HF, my high school friend K6HPX did, using a trailing wire antenna from his 65 horsepower L-2 airplane. That went well until the wire got caught in the approach light structure on landing. He then decided that was not enough of a challenge, so he loaded the plane with auxiliary fuel tanks and flew it from California to Israel… Now that’s what I call a pilgrimage back to the home land.

Elliott, K6EL
Sota MT

Hi Elliott; it was the field’s barbed wire fence, actually, on the first 160-meter test. Break cord worked as designed, and future landings were made hot and long, so the 170-foot long wire would not droop 'till over the paved runway. Later, the antenna was made permanent, with a reel to deploy and select frequency.

Most memorable /AM contact was on the way to Tucson from N. CA, over the desert. Heard a VK calling CQ on 20M; the /AM pulled me out of the pile-up, and we had a short CW QSO. Mentioned to him that the plane was formerly US Army Air Force, from 1943. Later received a nice letter; he had gone to England at age 18, and flew Spits in the battle of Britain; he passed away just a few years ago.

Best, Ken, K6HPX

Sounds as if he was one of the few who were owed so much by so many.

I still have my antenna reel, whose motor operates on 28 volts, but it’s now relegated to service at home to pay-out a 5/8 wave 160 meter wire antenna supported by a Gibson Girl helium balloon.

EL

OK folks, SOTA history happened again today 26 Jan 2017.

K4QS/AM is in the logs of N4QYI and WA2USA operating from W4T/SU-037. Returning from Zurich, Switzerland today I tuned across Wes and Dennis on 14.347mhz while over the St. Lawrence entering US airspace. They had an incredible booming signal at 36,000ft. Location, Location, Location!

I forgot one…On 08 Jan 2012 I worked my good neighbor David, N4WDC activating Hawksbill Mt. W4V/SH-001, while returning home on a domestic flight from Denver, Co.

I am so truly blessed to be involved in this hobby and flying around the world as a career. I get to fly along the great circle routes to where I’m going which happens to be the same route a radio signal travels.

I once worked a ham in Europe and less than 48 hours later delivered a QSL card in person and enjoyed diner with him.

I have a little over 1 year to go to retirement. I hope to work as many of you as I can /AM before I hang up my wings.

73, Chuck K4QS

1 Like

Chuck and other /AM enthusiasts,

Exciting stories, thank you!
Who knows if we will still see pilots in commercial aircraft in the not too distant future?
If so, then only AM (without slash) would remind us of past times - of course together with cw4ever, hi!

73 gl, Heinz HB9BCB

I have logged a /AM call but not from a SOTA summit. I was one of the operators on the Special event callsign GB5EJ which was ran during the European Scout Jamboree in Essex around 2005. I think the operator who was /AM was >35000ft and was over the Caribbean i believe.
The special event station was a nice setup. We have a FT1000MP mark 5 field running 100w into a 7 element beam which was 3 elements or 4 elements on 10-15 and 20m. I Managed to work all 7 continents in the week, was a good time.
It was and still is the only time I have got Antarctica. I was on PSK on a dipole using a TS2000 and got an Antarctic station then i asked him for a quick qso on SSB and so he obliged. i ran to SSB rig(the ft1000) we had a quick QSO and then he went back to PSK before the pileup started.

73
Anthony

Not from a mountain, but I once worked an /am station on 2 m FM while I was mobile myself - in a railway train near the Harz mountains with a handheld TRX and a quarter wave antenna. Also received signals from a balloon experiment with the same setup while on a train near Aschaffenburg. Both about 19 years ago …

73, Jan-Martin

I worked PH9HB/AM on my second ever activation, on Dommel DM/HE-020
It was 18/7/2014 at 12:00 UTC. on 14.285, I was using an FT857 at 20W and a wire groundplane with one radial. Signals were 59 both ways.
Jeroen (Jerry) told me he was flying 80 km south of Frankfurt, and on his way to Eindhoven. I thought it was so special, I wrote all this info my log !
The distance between us was less than 100 km, so this was groundwave communication … or should that be AIRWAVE communication in this case ? HI
Luc - ON7DQ