{"id":406,"date":"2018-01-21T14:32:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-21T03:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2018\/01\/21\/mike-rainey-and-heavy-metal-am-phone\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T13:06:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T03:06:13","slug":"mike-rainey-and-heavy-metal-am-phone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2018\/01\/21\/mike-rainey-and-heavy-metal-am-phone\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Rainey and Heavy Metal AM Phone"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Michael Rainey AA1TJ wrote: <\/b><\/div>\n
I can tell you exactly what’s going on here. I’d just received a license upgrade from “Novice” to “General.” My new license granted radiotelephone privileges and I was eager to try them out.<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
<\/b> <\/p>\n
In the early 1970’s no self-respecting amateur radio operator would dream of using amplitude modulation (AM) on wavelengths above 10m. It wasn’t illegal, rather, it was frowned upon due to bandwidth issues, among other things.<\/b><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

But in my excitement – and in the time-honored spirit of, “don’t ask permission, ask forgiveness” – I tuned my clunky, Heathkit DX-100 to the 40m radiotelephone band and began calling CQ on AM. Everyone that I contacted was very polite, but to the man they all mentioned how “odd” it was to hear an AM signal on 40m. I eventually took the hint, but not before I’d figured out that yakking on a microphone wasn’t my thing after all. Morse telegraphy was my first and enduring love.<\/div>\n
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I think Michael’s next phone transmitter was that voice-powered rig that he used in an attempt to cross the Atlantic with the only power source being his vocal cords. But even there, he was using his voice to send Morse. <\/div>\n
<\/b><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
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<\/b> <\/p>\n

<\/b><\/div>\n

<\/b><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

C’mon back to radiotelephone Mike. There is more to life than dots and dashes! <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/b><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Rainey AA1TJ wrote: I can tell you exactly what’s going on here. I’d just received a license upgrade from “Novice” to “General.” My new license granted radiotelephone privileges and I was eager to try them out. In the early 1970’s no self-respecting amateur radio operator would dream of using amplitude modulation (AM) on wavelengths … Continue reading “Mike Rainey and Heavy Metal AM Phone”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,116,150,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-am","category-cw","category-dx-100","category-rainey-michael"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":408,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions\/408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}