Until recently I had not been active in ham radio for quite awhile.
Previous to that period though I was trying some vintage tube type AM
stuff on 75. I discovered very quickly that there was not a single fun
thing about it. The only time you can find someone to talk to is on one
of the large nets where about 10 or more guys get on who don't talk back
and forth to each other but rather speak for about 10 minutes each about
absolutely nothing in a round table format. You can't effectively
discuss anything in this manner. In my experience most of that time was
devoted to criticizing myself for what they termed inferior audio. I was
using an un modified(except to add ptt relays) viking ranger transmitter
at 65 watts out with an s53a receiver. I drove myself nuts trying to
improve my microphone, which I assumed was the best as it was designed
for tube type transmitters,, a silver eagle D104 Astatic amplified mic.
I bypassed the audio amp in it at one point, but that didn't give enough
audio input to the speech amplifiers, I tried putting caps in it to alter
the tone etc etc etc. I drove myself silly just to satisfy a few jerks
basically. Most of them were all running in excess of 1kw plate
modulated(my ranger was PM as well) rigs of some type. Some were running
much more power. The most critical of the gang was a guy running a
johnson desk. Needless to say he had terrific audio and an incredible
signal but he felt it necessary to berate anyone who did not sound as
good as him. Well after purchasing an old UNUSED T60A Knight transmitter
I thought I'd try that out on them. They criticized my 90 watts or so of
controlled carrier up one side and down the other, so I tried to plate
modulate it. The instructions for doing this were incorrect in the
manual which ended up in litterly vaporizing the meter mode switch :(
There went all my money.. Sold the knight for about 30 bucks and sold my
ranger transmitter for 200(the going rate at the time). The funnest
moment I had on 75 AM though was one lonely night when I was calling CQ
on my paltry 65 watts of am power and a guy in new south wales australia
came back to me!!!! We chatted for about 5 or 10 minutes. So what I am
saying is that most of the people on there if not all are so damned
preoccupied with their audio and their overpriced gear that they can't
just sit down and chat with someone no matter what they're using. I
never found a more inflexible group of people. That put me off of ham
radio for about 3 or 4 years until I discovered qrp and a renewed
interest in SWL'ing.
</rant>
Dan
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