AM on 60 Metres? Here's What Happened...

Today I decided to try something a little different - AM on the UK 60 metre band. A few of us had been chatting on 40m during the week and it got me wondering how AM would sound on 5 MHz. The result surprised me! In this video I show: • How I set up AM on the Kenwood TS-990S • Why carrier power matters • Why I turn the speech processor OFF • How to achieve approximately 100% modulation • A real off-air recording from the Hack Green SDR My AM Setup Checklist: ✓ AM mode selected ✓ Speech Processor OFF ✓ Compression OFF ✓ TX Bandwidth = 100 Hz - 4 kHz (or widest available) ✓ Carrier adjusted so ALC is at or near ZERO ✓ Mic Gain adjusted for voice peaks approximately 4× carrier power ✓ Monitor audio sounds clean and natural Example: Carrier = 25W Voice Peaks ≈ 100W This gives approximately 100% modulation. If you're active on AM, let me know your favourite setup, microphone and operating frequency in the comments below. Note: On AM, the audio appears on both sides of the carrier. So a 4 kHz audio bandwidth results in an RF signal approximately 8 kHz wide. If that seems a bit generous, try 100 Hz - 3 kHz instead. It'll still sound great and occupy roughly 6 kHz of bandwidth. 73, Callum M0MCX DX Commander