One also modestly suggests that others consider taking an interest in Ham radio.
"Voluntary vanity fee paid."
Ioc 7300
I wouldn’t spent too much on a ham transceiver seeing that you don’t have a license. A shortwave radio with SSB might serve your purposes better right now and they can be relatively inexpensive.
Getting your Technician license is relatively easy, I did it so it can’t be too hard. There are two great resources on the internet, HamStudy and HamExam dot org. You can take practice tests. I am currently studying for Extra class license and have a Gorden West book. What I do is go through and cross out all the wrong answers so that each time I look at the question I see the correct answer.
Once you get your ticket then take a look at transceivers.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3923234/posts
Your question is overly broad to give a specific answer IMO, but what I would do is start learning at the Amateur Radio Relay League website.
It’s a wealth of information, about how to get licensed, who administers the test, books you can purchase to study for the exam, etc....
I would not want to run out and purchase a piece of equipment and find out it doesn’t do what you are interested in.....
Once you have an idea of what the Ham Radio Community is all about, start simple, get a basic handheld device.
I started with a Baofeng UV-5R for about $30 purchased off of Amazon....I learned how to program it, how to make it scan and later once licensed I could transmit on it.
A word of warning, no handheld device will scan all the amateur radio bands for traffic, upgrading to something that might and also be able to transmit will require a higher class license.
They’re 3 levels of Ham License...
Technician Class - the first and most restrictive.
General Class - what most casual users think of when they think about Ham Radio the ability to use a antenna and talk to people over great distances
Amateur Extra Class - basically gets you more privileges
Then if you want to move up to a General Class Ham License, that requires a jump up in expense, a radio and antenna are required and can be a headache to figure out.....
I have my Technician and General Class license.
The tests are not difficult, you do have to study a little to get the license....
Try Palstar in Piqua, Ohio. Paul makes the best equipment in the world, period. He has many patents and famous customers like Joe Walsh. Most of the others are made overseas like MFJ.
Ping
What is your budget for a radio?
Hey FRiend,
It’s about $1400 with tax, but the very best thing there is that checks all your boxes is the IC-705.
It has it’s own battery, and is about the size of a small brick. It’s very light by any standard of radio and it is an ‘all-band’ radio.
All you need to do is hook the right antenna to it and it does the rest no matter what band you are on.
It’s got a visual display that allows you to actually see where there is a radio transmission and it allows you to lock onto it.
It’s a TRANSceiver, meaning it receives and transmits.
You COULD get a scanner for cheaper, but when you get your licenses you’ll want to transmit too.
Also, if things go dark for a while, the FCC isn’t going to be going after non-license holders, per se.
If you are transmitting person to person on a frequency that is not a repeater, chances are nobody is going to say anything.
Illegal, yep, but so will a lot of things be illegal that frankly were legal, like being a conservative. Or being a white male Christian.
VHF/UHF radios are fine, but they are line-of-sight. The 705 can do it all.
I think the repeaters are going to be targeted pretty quickly. A lot of ham clubs are coming up with band plans.
You can come up with one for your family and friends - a band plan and a check-in comms plan (Look up the frequency for each day of the week and contact your family each day at the same time is a good, simple, band/frequency plan).
Simplex (press the button and talk, then take your finger off the button and listen) is easy to do. Locally you can do this with handheld radios (they are called handy talkies, or HTs).
A cheap one that you can also tune to Marine VHF is the Baofeng UV82-C. I bought them by the dozen for my Scout Troop and gave them to kids when they passed their Tech exam.
Yup, Chinese. Who cares at this point, and this is a radio, not a phone with a tracking chip.
Buy a five pack and you can give them to your family members.
I bought a piece of software that allows me to program a band plan in there, plus all the marine VHF channels so I can use them on boats (also not legal, but I don’t care).
About $50/copy out the door, or cheaper in packs of 5. They used to sell them in packs of 10 and 12, but apparently you can’t buy them that way anymore.
You can use the UHF bands to receive satellite, by the way. Building a satellite antenna is not hard, and it is interesting. There are a ton of ham radio satellites in the sky (the ham community has been very successful getting satellite payloads on just about every shuttle launch back in the day).
I would assume that if all hell breaks loose they will be coming for the hams. Better not to advertise.
7.299 LSB by day,
3.999 LSB by night. (Esp. after midnight)
Exactly — no tuning around.
If bizzy, wait for clear air. Stay spot-on.
Get an EXCELLENT plain old AM receiver.
It’s amazing what you’ll receive at night
from hundreds of mils away. All the big
cities have 50,000 watt major blowtorch
stations. Most decent ham radio “low-bands”
or “HF” rigs de an excellent job on plain
old M broadcast. A decent antenna is a must.
-73-
People should do some research on the Internet.
There is no one simple answer for what kind of radio or antenna you should obtain to get started.
As I have stated on this site before, the design and erection of a good antenna is more important than the radio. A good antenna can be made simply out of wire and insulators. Wire cut to the proper length to “match” the frequency of the desired band is very important but not hard to learn.
There is a whole section of the ham radio hobby that focuses on “QRP” radios. These are very low power radios which, when properly matched to an antenna, can transmit over VERY long distances.
Nobody can advise, in a couple of paragraphs, everything you need to know. In fact, ham radio is a lifetime hobby of experimentation with various radios and antennas. Many operating radios are tube-type antiques that STILL work very well.
Radio can be very tricky, and it can also be very easy.
This is why getting licensed is so very important: The training you get.
Three levels of licensing. Each license level brings more frequency bands and more capabilities to the license.
1. Technician. Very easy to get. Get the book ($25), two weeks study, and you’ll do fine. Even 7-year olds can pass this test, literally, 7-year olds do it. Gives basic radio capabilities. A nice taste of ham radio but not much in the way of capabilities.
2. General. This license is tougher to get but really opens up ham radio, especially the long distance stuff. This is perfect for what you are seeking in being able to knowledgably talk to others long distance. It also introduces digital capabilities for computer use on the air and other very interesting state of the art things.
Depending on your prior electronics experience, this may require a few months or more to get up to speed. If you have electronics experience, then this license level may be a breeze for you. I hold degrees in electrical engineering and took two weeks to prepare. I imagine anyone with even electronics technician (not engineering) level experience will be able to do the same.
3. Extra. This license is much tougher and fully opens everything. General is perfect for the majority of people and Extra is nothing that is needed. Besides, very few people have an Extra class license so who would you talk to anyway? I have an Extra class license but outside of some very unique things, the General level license serves my needs more than the Extra.
I HIGHLY recommend studying and getting a General license. It will teach you all kinds of great things about communications that is useful in peace or in war. Wait until you get into studying for General before buying anything. You’ll find your choices of equipment will be guided by that knowledge.
To other poster’s points, An Icom IC-7300 transceiver at $1,100 is the best bang for the buck goin. The gives a nice baseline for cost and performance. Price can be as low as $300 for a lesser, yet capable, transceiver, or as much as $12,000 for the top of the line.
You’ll need an antenna based on the frequency band you intend to use. There are many bands, so you’ll often see 6-12 antennas at a ham’s house. Some of these are very large, some merely wires. All, cost money, from $50 to thousands.
Again, just baselining costs for you.
Why would you bother to get an FCC license?
Since we no longer have the rule of law....F’em. No need to do anything like that.
We are in a brave new world in the post-constituional democRAT dictatorship. I expect there to be a re-institution of the “Black Codes” on conservatives. It’s coming, you can hear it already in what they are saying.
Seems a lot of people are missing the point that this radio would be for listening only.
I too have been considering that it might be good to have alternative ways of getting the news and while ham radio sounds like the option, it sounds very complicated.
I like the idea of getting a receiver only, something with which just to listen for the time being.
If you actually get an answer to that question, could you please ping me?
IF you want to send me a list by PM of what frequencies & bands that you would like to listen to (and later transmit upon) I will try to help you.
FOR STARTERS, go get your TECHNICIAN license, which is really EASY to do.
(I studied by listening to tapes, commuting to/from work for about 10 days.)
Once you have your “TECH”, then buy any quality TWO METER transceiver OR a 2M/440Mhz (usually called a DUAL-BAND) transceiver.
A personal note: After you have “been active” as a TECH for a while, you will better know what you really want to acquire.
(MOST of my equipment is converted COMMERCIAL/INDUSTRIAL GEAR by MOTOROLA, MIDLAND, ICOM or GE.)
Yours, ex-cadet
Get Licensed first!!!!!
I was at his house in Spokane one day when he was talking to (now deceased) Tom Christian (ham call sign VR6TC) who was a descendant of Fletcher Christian of the "Mutiny of the Bounty." He was known as "the voice of Pitcairn Island."
We could hear the man's clear voice transmitting from Pitcairn Island WAAAAY down in the southern Pacific Ocean.
To this day, Pitcairn Island has no airport and receives supplies only by a boat dispatched from a nearby ship as there is still no harbor at the island.
The wreckage of The Bounty, burned by the mutineers, still lies at the bottom just off shore where it sank.
Tom Christian died July 7, 2013, at age 78. When a fellow ham radio operator dies, he becomes a "Silent Key" (key referring to a Morse Code sending key).
That radio conversation was an inspiration for me to join the amateur radio hobby.
The IC7300 is the Best Buy on the market for the money.
Kenwood TS-520 ie, is a great rig, built like a brick “outhouse”, will allow you to actually understand how radios work a bit, instead of just pushing a button and talking....Check out eBay or Craigslist- look for that older yaesu or kenwood. These kenwood radios built in the 60-70’s are workhorses, have amplifiers “built in”, and will set you back maybe $300-400, tops
. Maybe not all the whistles and bells you mentioned, but a great way to start ham radio and SWR (short wave radio) If you find the intro rig really spurns the interest in ham radio, good on ya! Resell em, they maintain a pretty good resale value; and move on up to the $1200 rigs..
So, in closing, using these suggestions, you’ll get a taste, and bonus! Plenty of extra cash to get a good antenna, the most important part of your system.