On Wed, 20 Jan 2016, gareth wrote:

If it is still felt in some quarters taht the future of amateur radio
lies in sweeping youngsters in off the streets, then a reversion
to AM would do the trick, so that they can listen in with simple equipment.

But a lot of not expensive digitally tuned portable shortwave radios can
receive SSB and CW well.

I paid close to a hundred dollars in the summer of 1971 for a
Hallicrafters S-120A (it was the transistorized model), the cheapest
shortwave receiver I could get locally. It was awful, lots of backlash on
the tuning, not that it mattered since the ham bands were tiny places on
the dial and calibration pretty much didn't exist. It overloaded badly
from tv and FM stations, and putting a filter ahead likely wouldn't help
since the receiver wasn't particularly shielded.

And it didn't receive SSB. So yes, I could tune in the few ham using AM,
I think they are still there since some of them were young at the time.

ONly with time did I come to realize that the BFO was too weak compare to
the incoming signal, so I added a potentiometer betweent he antenna and
the receiver to act as an attenuator. Then I could receive SSB, it's no
wonder I'd previously described SSB as "being distorted". But by the time
the signals were weak enough for the BFO to work, relativley few signals
got through.

When I got a Grundig YB-400 a few years back, it was about the same price
(and I got a free windup radio as a bonus), and it does receive SSB fine.
The dial is a whole lot better too, as is selectivity.

That Grundig, despite being a far better receiver, cost a whole lot less
than that Hallicrafters. Money is easier to come by now.

Regen receivers can apparently receive SSB (I use "apparently" sicne I've
never tried it, but when they go into oscillate, it's about the same as a
direct conversion receiver).

One could build a direct conversion receiver, indeed in the late sixties
and early seventies, those took over from regens (and even simple
superhets) for the beginner.

A simple superhet is probably easier to build now than in the past.
Ladder filters have taken a significant role in homebrewing, and thus a
decent filter is much cheaper than if you had to buy a KVG filter forty
years ago. Having a crystal filter in the HF range means image rejection
is so much easier You have to fuss about making the VFO stable.

The one advantage of AM is that it may be easier to build a low power AM
transmitter than an SSB transmitter, though now that everyone wants a VFO,
it may not. But you don't need the conversions if you build an AM
transmitter like they used to be built. On the other hand, that's when
DSB with a suppressed carrier stepped in. Most of the ease of AM, but no
carrier. Since everyone has an SSB receiver, the fact that two sidebands
are sent doesn't mean a thing, the extra one is stripped off in the
receiver. Not efficient use of the spectrum, but it does get a
transmitter going fast.

Of course, here in Canada none of this is relevant, since the entry level
license doesn't allow for building of transmitters.

Michael