My comment on equipment purchase was based on experience. I went to buy my FT2000 at HRO in Pelham NH and they refused to sell it to me until I had my general license. So they sold me the book and I took the test.

Why does everyone ask for a callsign if you don’t need one to buy gear?

Jim Allen would come in handy here. Miss Jim.... RIP.

HRO always asks for a callsign. I think their customer DB uses callsign as the key, HRO in PDX sold me a Icom 706 with a tech license (the 706 supports HF/VHF/UHF).

To the OP:

Hand held radio is limited to about 5W FM output. It's ok, but you'll get disappointed. Limited range unless you go thru a repeater.

Base station is better - 50-75 watts FM, VHF or VHF/HUF.

HF (106M - 6M all mode is much more versatile. Yea, you need a General ticket at least, but the test is not that hard and you learn some cool stuff. HF is you long distance, or short distance (ground wave or NVIS).

A good all mode shack in a box radio, like what the ICOM 706 was, is not too expensive, considering that it does. ICOM 7100 is a nice one. The Yeasu FT 101D or so is good too.

With a 15AH Bioenno LIFO battery, these 2 a 'mobile/ portable' solutions. Need antenna of course too.

Read up on the radio stuff. Then decide you options / solutions based on your needs.

As Jim used to say 'Amateur Radio is a disease.' If you catch it, and HT will not do..

Good luck.

I'm a few weeks ahead of you. I got a Baofeng BF-F8HP a few weeks ago and am reading the AARL manual. I got the radio on Amazon and programmed it with Chirp.With current events I don't know when I'll get an exam but I'll be ready when things open up.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mark60,

Besides being illegal, what keeps a person from making up a call sign do people check these?

I got my ticket almost two years ago and while I play around occasionally, I don’t devote as much time to the hobby as I would like. That said, here is my take on a variety of things....


Baofengs work. They are cheap and plentiful and my personal belief is their popularity has something to do with how affordable basic Yaesu, Icom, and Kenwood handhelds have become.

I have a Baofeng and two “Retevis” dual band handhelds that are similar. Amazon has lots of options for these type of radios. Unlike Yaesu, Icom, and Kenwood these radios are a bit more “loose” on the frequencies they can be programmed for.


While not technically “legal”, you could get a couple radios and use them on the FRS or MURS frequencies. These frequencies don’t require a license and so long as you follow the “rest” of the rules (output power etc.) no one is going to find out you are not using a “type accepted” radio.



For a short time I had a Yaesu FT-2DR, at the time their high end handheld (north of $300). I actually had two of them as the first one’s display/touch screen crapped out after just a few weeks. My take is it was pretty complicated and seemed “delicate”, so I ended up selling it. The FT-2DR has been replaced by the FT-3DR. I have no experience with that one.

If I was going to go with a high end handheld through, I think I would go with the Kenwood TD-72A or TD-74A seem to be more stout, but again a lot of money, complicated and still limited in output power.



I also have a Yaesu FT-70DR, a more basic dualbander but still offers C4FM digital modes. Actually thinking of selling it now that I have picked up Anytone DMR handheld and mobile radios. I think DMR is starting to pull ahead of the pack when it come to digital Ham formats.


If you don’t want to go Baofeng/CCR (Cheap Chinese Radios), the Icom IC-V86 is a very affordable ($115) and stout VHF handheld. I have two of them. VHF only, but not that big of a deal, UHF is fairly short range and generally even lower output power.


As other posts mention, 5w only gets you so far. There are affordable mobile VHF/UHF rigs as well as a plethora of “portable” radios that do VHF and UHF as well as open the door to HF and get you into the 35-100w transmit power range.


Currently, in addition to way too many handheld, I have a Yaesu FTM-400XDR mobile, Anytone D578UV DMR mobile, Icom IC-7100, and Yaesu FT-991A. You see what happens here? Kind of like guns and cameras, Ham radio can become an addiction and exercise in GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome)


For test prep, I used https://www.qrz.com/hamtest/ free treat prep quizzes. Having done Avionics in the Marines I have some background in electronics. If you don’t know a resistor from a diode, you may need something more in depth. Technician is pretty easy, even for those not “technically” inclined. General requires a bit more gray matter, but opens up a lot of options.


I bought my FT-991A from HamRadioOutlet before I was licensed, they didn’t give me any hassle. They usually have the best prices, but between the big Ham gear sellers prices only vary a few dollars. Whether they are going to charge tax or shipping usually becomes the deciding factor. I do prefer HRO though and they have gotten a lot more of my money than I am will to tell my wife.

quote:

Originally posted by XLT:
Besides being illegal, what keeps a person from making up a call sign do people check these?

Yes, there are lots of folks who wish they were third world dictators and spend their time and energy hunting down violators and ratting them out to the FCC.

Then they pat themselves on the back and sing their praises to others...

KI7YQW

quote:

Originally posted by drill sgt:
INMHO some of the study guides today are designed for people who do not want to study and understand the material and subject matter. Basically you are given the "actual" test questions with the correct answers (mixed with three other answers). So you can "memorize" the correct answers and pass the test. In 1978 we had to "know" the subject matter for the written test --NO MULTIPLE CHOICE POSSIBILITIES.... Also 5 word per minute code test and you had to "upgrade" to 13 wpm within 2 years or ticket no longer valid and you would have to start all over again . Now the code requirements have been dropped and not required but it is optional if you care to operate that mode of operation. There are several books and on-line study aids which allow you to take a "practice test" that work well for some people. I am all for someone who wants to become a "HAM" they need to "work" for it. ........... I am still active on the "ham" bands. ......drill sgt.

Tell them how you talk to me everyday on your Baofeng when I'm on my mobile driving around south Louisiana

My advice to a new Tech Class licensee:

Don’t buy a baofeng or any cheap crap Chinese bargain basement price radio.

Buy a Yaesu Ft-60 dual band HT. $150 bucks very well spent.
Buy an antenna adapter that will let you hook it up to any external antenna. Cheap
Buy or make an external antenna. Cheap.
Get a stand for the radio to sit in. Cheap
Buy a speaker mic. Cheap

You can do the same in your vehicle, buy a Mag Mount antenna and with an adapter you can hook up the antenna to your radio, put the radio in the cup holder and use the speaker mic.

This will let you hit the repeaters with a much better signal and more satisfactory and fun results.

Have fun and learn.

Study for the General Class License. Find a local club that teaches the class and offers the test.

Buy a whip antenna for the radio, they make longer and better whips or rubber ducky antennas.

De N5USS, best wishes to you.

Just a couple of bits of info to add. I’m studying for the technician level as well. Due to the covid-19 mess, they are seriously considering and taking steps to be able to test online. I have no idea how that looks or works. You do not need to be licensed to buy radios. They may ask for your call sign (I was asked) but simply said “ I haven’t tested yet “. No issue

quote:

Originally posted by XLT:
Besides being illegal, what keeps a person from making up a call sign do people check these?

In addition to people who have nothing better to do and would love to catch someone on the air with an invalid callsign, it would be much more likely that how someone operated and the callsign itself would cause other hams to become suspicious. Once someone had a question, it would a matter of a few seconds to check.

For new licensees, callsigns are issued in sequence and the number indicates the geographical area where the new applicant is located. If someone new on the air in Colorado, for example, claimed to have just gotten his license as an excuse for improper operating procedures and said his callsign was K3ABC, everyone else would immediately ask why he had a callsign from the east coast that should have been issued decades ago.

Someone who went to the trouble of researching the matter might be able to get away with a fake callsign for a time under certain circumstances, but it would probably be easier to just get a legitimate license.

quote:

Originally posted by XLT:
Besides being illegal, what keeps a person from making up a call sign do people check these?

As soon as the ticket is issued then call sign it is entered into a database that anyone can access that gives your information . Yes some have even tried to use a call sign that belongs to someone else but are usually found out in very short order . This and other violations are subject to control of the Federal Communication Commission with possible equipment forfitature / money fines / and or jail time for any and all offenses .

I have been advanced class amateur since 1993 but not been very active in quite a while mostly due to the poor propagation due to extremely low sunspot count for years now.

I live in Chicago metro area and sometimes scan the 2 meter and 440 FM repeaters and they are all almost dead with very little activity. Are others seeing the same where they live?

A friend of mine has a new fangled Icom HT and he can talk to people all over the country via repeaters that link using the D STAR technology I believe. These HTs are more expensive than the basics but have come way down in price and have an amazing array of features and may be something to consider too for someone looking for new HT or new to ham radio. Yaesu has their own technology to do the same but can't recall name offhand.

https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-015301

I would also stay away from the low end equipment. Prices have come way down on Yaesu and ICOM FM equipment in the last 10 or so years and are very affordable now.

https://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/ht/0060.html

Here is a link to a website with product reviews by ham radio operators. This page is for HTs but there are a whole lot of other categories.

https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-category?id=49

My HT, an Alinco. Must be 20 years old. I bought it on Ebay like new with rapid charger for $100 years back. It went for about $400 new back in the day made in Japan and rugged as a brick outhouse. A dinosaur by todays standards but I like the size, big dual band display, easy to use buttons, and battery capacity. Alinco quit making batteries a long time ago but I found new non OEM replacement on Ebay for around $15 shipped that works great. It is scanning local 2 meter and 440 repeaters right now. However I am thinking of getting the tried and true Yaesu FT-60R also considering it goes for only about $160 new these days to have something a little more compact and with newer features too.

^^^^^^^. There are a lot of brand new Alinco radios and accessories right now on Cheap Ham dot com. You never know what you’ll find on Cheap Ham, they’re sort of a close out seller. I’ve got some great buys from them over the years.

De N5 uncle sugar sugar

I was gonna take the technician test in May, don’t see that happening now, but I’ll get to it. I have a couple CCR’s to mess around with, I’ll use the info gained in this thread to get better equipment. As we’re seeing these days, you just never know. It’s another good tool to have Justin case. Thanks for all the info!

I think you are getting some good advice here.
The new wave of these Baofengs and Wouxon radios are definitely cheap, but some have pretty bad specs that may be out of compliance with FCC regs. I have a Wouxon and the user interface is really awful. The name brands (ICOM, Yaesu, Kenwood Alinco, Elecraft) have been around and have earned their good reputations. If you can find a local club you will get some good advice, and maybe someone has some used equipment they can offer you. Our local club routinely gets donated equipment that we give or sell at low cost to new members. Not to be morbid, but there are a lot of "old hams" that pass and relatives are pretty good about passing the equipment along to other hams. Most of my equipment was used when I got it.

There are *so many* interesting aspects to this hobby it is hard to say where someones interest may go. Some like the local VHF/UHF repeaters, others like to ragchew on the HF bands, some like to play with digital modes, others just like to build stuff. Almost like the "what kind of gun should I buy" question - the answer depends on more questions ! You can't go too wrong with a nice handheld VHF/UHF transceiver. Knowing what is around you will be a big help - for example our club recently put up some Yaesu digital repeaters - which means if you want to take advantage of the digital transmissions you need to buy a Yaesu radio with that capability.

There are so many hams here I am surprised nobody has started up the "Sigforum" HF net yet.

'73 - N1LYW

I second that advice. Join a local club even before you get your license. Lots of experience there.

There are three clubs here in my area - I belong to all three but don’t go to meetings. My dues help support the repeater operations. I belong to RST, EAARS and OVARC here and there are I would guess collectively several hundred members. I did attend a few OVARC meetings and the attendance was about 75 people.

Nothing wrong with used gear. Half my rigs are used and the other half are new. But no matter what you spend on rigs the most expensive part is going to be antennas.

I recently installed a tower In my back yard. No other way to support a 200’ folder dipole for HF but it was worth it.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:.....I recently installed a tower In my back yard. No other way to support a 200’ folder dipole for HF but it was worth it.

I envy those people who live in an H.O.A. free community.

there is a bunch of ways to string dipoles and J poles that no one will see.

Beam antennas are a bit harder to conceal.

aarl.com has listed some resources for antenna construction that goes around HOAs

Andrew
KO4BAT

I highly recommend QRZ.com

Especially check out the "Forums" and "Resources" tabs, and check out the entire site.

My favorite part is the Forums tab, then Technical.

Our departed and beloved member JAllen was a frequest poster there, I enjoyed his posts and his great knowledge of amateur radio. His callsign was W6OGC. I often addressed him as the Old Gray Cat before he moved from CA to TX, then I would refer to him as Oil Gas and Cattle, which he seemed to get a kick out of as a Texas native.
.

You can have a boatload of fun as a Technician with limited equipment, depending on your interests.

I've used a pair of those cheapo Baofengs to work satellites (first with a homebrew antenna, later an Arrow LEO) from the park across the street. Total investment under $150, 99 grids confirmed (just one away from VUCC) including 33 states and a dozen DX entities.

Repeaters in my area are well-supported but basically unused.

I started into CW and digital-mode ops not long ago, still with my Technician privileges, and have barely scratched the surface of what's possible even before upgrading to General.

My advice: Take the test, figure out what's fun, and feed the addiction. I used this Craig K4IA "Pass Your Amateur Radio Technician Class Test" book to study for Tech, and passed "clean."

I like Ham Radio Outlet, Gigaparts, and DX Engineering for radios purchases. There are often sales or rebates available. If you’re looking for a handheld particularly, I Whole heartedly endorse the Yaesu FT3DR. I have the FT2DR and love it. Took it to check on my father today and listened to the FM and Digital traffic while there. They are amazing handhelds. I also have Baofengs and a Yaesu FT60R for handhelds. If you don’t want digital the FT60R is a solid choice for a handheld.