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How long have I had my FT-8900? Four, five years, maybe? Of course I knew it received AM on air band and have used it on there from time to time, but it never occurred to me that it would work on 29MHz.

This afternoon, I noticed a tweet from Richard GW1JFV saying that he’d worked K1GUP on 29MHz AM and went on to say that he used his FT8900. I happened to be in the shack at the time and had the instruction manual to hand.

Menu item #45 was quickly found AM on | off – which allowed me to toggle AM on to 29MHz.

I fired it up and it sounds ok. Not brilliant on the monitor receiver – perhaps a little harsh, but it’s AM nevertheless.

Another option for using AM on 29MHz. Thanks Richard!

Update: Oh dear – this turns out to be wrong! The 8900 is receive only on AM. After an interesting conversation with Chris G3VEH, I checked this. Although the 8900 transmits when AM is selected, if you listen, it’s actually FM. When Richard made his QSO, his QSO partner must have slope detected his FM!