I am now a Ham.................... :)

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Curmudgeon

Curmudgeon

In Remembrance Jan 2024
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Nov 28, 2017
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The Wolverine State
Made it official today. Passed the Tech level just waiting for my call sign to appear.

I attempted the General and I managed to get 17 out of 35 correct (dang it, 9 more and I would have passed), what the hey I didn't have anything to lose, lol.. With a bit of study I should be able to pass it.

There was not one question that made any sense as I was only studying from the Tech pool of questions.
 
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Nice work, Curmudgeon! Tech is great and gets you on the field - you'll find there are a lot of things you can do.
 
Caribou said:
When I saw the title my first thought was, "I always thought he was a bit of a ham."
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I ham, just don't spread it around.
 
bkt said:
Nice work, Curmudgeon! Tech is great and gets you on the field - you'll find there are a lot of things you can do.
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Thanks, now I just have to learn that part, lol.

If all else fails I can ask one of my Grand kids.......... :D
 
Curmudgeon said:
I ham, just don't spread it around.
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Ham is the last method of communication we have left that is not controlled by Big Tech, Big Media, or Big Brother.
They can't censor antennas.
Pretty soon, being able to actually hear the truth will be priceless! :thumbs:
 
Congratulations!
applause.gif
 
Curmudgeon said:
Made it official today. Passed the Tech level just waiting for my call sign to appear.
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Good job. Congratulations!

Get yourself a good first radio. And a good antenna. If you go too cheap, you will be disappointed. If you are in an area where there are repeaters (and hopefully amateur radio clubs) you will be served well by a handheld. If you're further out in the boonies you're going to need a better antenna (like the J-Pole mentioned below) and more transmit power. For more power you're going to have to move to a mobile rig rather than a handheld. Be aware that for a mobile rig (that you use at home and not in your car) you will need to buy a separate power supply for it - which may cost you almost as much as the mobile rig itself.

With a handheld, you have everything you need right there in the box. These come with rubber ducky antennas that are generally worthless however, so you will probably need to buy a better antenna (see the SignalStick mentioned below). With a mobile rig, you'll need to buy the transceiver, the power supply, some cable, and an antenna. So when you're browsing catalogs and looking at prices for a mobile radio, figure on doubling that amount to cover buying all the other things you'll need to make it work. If you don't have a specific family/friend use for your new radio planned, and you don't have actively used repeaters in your area, plan on listening to a whole bunch of silence most of the time. Find yourself an actively used repeater that hosts a few "nets", and jump in there!

My personal choice for my first radio was this:

Yaesu FT-60R

And my first antenna for the above radio was this:

https://signalstuff.com/product/super-elastic-signal-stick-sma-male/
And a more stationary antenna (but it can still be moved) that I picked up was this:

https://www.jpole-antenna.com/shop/2-meter-break-a-way-j-pole-antenna/
You will need to buy some cable to connect the J-Pole, but the decision on that (what specific type of cable, what length) will vary with your personal installation.
 
Congrats Cur on the new ticket.
The Yeasu FT-60 Haertig mentioned is the same HT I have. It's 12+ years old and never had an issue. Great handheld. I would recommend a mobile rig to. Can go between the vehicle and house. You can use a power supply, or a 12v battery. A solar panel would make it cheap to operate. Antennas and good quality coax will make much more difference to distance and quality than the radio will.
 
Bacpacker said:
Congrats Cur on the new ticket.
The Yeasu FT-60 Haertig mentioned is the same HT I have. It's 12+ years old and never had an issue. Great handheld. I would recommend a mobile rig to. Can go between the vehicle and house. You can use a power supply, or a 12v battery. A solar panel would make it cheap to operate. Antennas and good quality coax will make much more difference to distance and quality than the radio will.
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Hubby and I were just talking about the walkie talkies you got ,are they still working ok?
 
dademoss said:
You can't go wrong with an FT-60 :)View attachment 56626
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Thanks DadeM, are they expensive? I know one place had like 6 packs or more of them and I think BacP bought them and wondered if they were what he thought.
I was thinking maybe have a couple extra to give to neighbor if shtf.
Lately we have gotten some bad orders,like today our personal steamer Jim aka Phideua suggested is not what we ordered at all it is just a regular steamer without mask. Other things too have not been what we ordered.:Thankyou:
 
Meer I ordered 2 handhelds that are very inexpensive. I've not used them to amount to anything. But for the cost they are great back up radios, or for handouts to trusted folks you know. The thing about handing out radios, it's easy to give away the game plan should they fall into the wrong hands.
 
Bacpacker said:
Meer I ordered 2 handhelds that are very inexpensive. I've not used them to amount to anything. But for the cost they are great back up radios, or for handouts to trusted folks you know. The thing about handing out radios, it's easy to give away the game plan should they fall into the wrong hands.
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BacP we to at least have one extra but that is if we get any at all now since I'm about done with ordering online unless its a have to or a company somebody else has used and had good experiance.
Like I put up that farmplasticstore because they were so great.
 
Meerkat said:
Thanks DadeM, are they expensive? I know one place had like 6 packs or more of them and I think BacP bought them and wondered if they were what he thought.
I was thinking maybe have a couple extra to give to neighbor if shtf.
Lately we have gotten some bad orders,like today our personal steamer Jim aka Phideua suggested is not what we ordered at all it is just a regular steamer without mask. Other things too have not been what we ordered.:Thankyou:
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Meerkat,
An FT-60 runs around 150 bucks. There are less expensive alternatives, but you get what you pay for. The Baofeng UV-5r or it's many derivatives are capable radios, with some advantages over the FT-60, and some disadvantages. My first radio was a UV-5R, and with it's programming and capabilities would be a first choice for SHTF. For Mission critical public service on amateur radio frequencies, the FT-60 is the goto radio.
 
dademoss said:
Meerkat,
An FT-60 runs around 150 bucks. There are less expensive alternatives, but you get what you pay for. The Baofeng UV-5r or it's many derivatives are capable radios, with some advantages over the FT-60, and some disadvantages. My first radio was a UV-5R, and with it's programming and capabilities would be a first choice for SHTF. For Mission critical public service on amateur radio frequencies, the FT-60 is the goto radio.
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I'll keep this in mind and thnks DadeM.
 
Haertig said:
Good job. Congratulations!

Get yourself a good first radio. And a good antenna. If you go too cheap, you will be disappointed. If you are in an area where there are repeaters (and hopefully amateur radio clubs) you will be served well by a handheld. If you're further out in the boonies you're going to need a better antenna (like the J-Pole mentioned below) and more transmit power. For more power you're going to have to move to a mobile rig rather than a handheld. Be aware that for a mobile rig (that you use at home and not in your car) you will need to buy a separate power supply for it - which may cost you almost as much as the mobile rig itself.

With a handheld, you have everything you need right there in the box. These come with rubber ducky antennas that are generally worthless however, so you will probably need to buy a better antenna (see the SignalStick mentioned below). With a mobile rig, you'll need to buy the transceiver, the power supply, some cable, and an antenna. So when you're browsing catalogs and looking at prices for a mobile radio, figure on doubling that amount to cover buying all the other things you'll need to make it work. If you don't have a specific family/friend use for your new radio planned, and you don't have actively used repeaters in your area, plan on listening to a whole bunch of silence most of the time. Find yourself an actively used repeater that hosts a few "nets", and jump in there!

My personal choice for my first radio was this:

Yaesu FT-60R

And my first antenna for the above radio was this:

https://signalstuff.com/product/super-elastic-signal-stick-sma-male/
And a more stationary antenna (but it can still be moved) that I picked up was this:

https://www.jpole-antenna.com/shop/2-meter-break-a-way-j-pole-antenna/
You will need to buy some cable to connect the J-Pole, but the decision on that (what specific type of cable, what length) will vary with your personal installation.
Click to expand...

Lots of good info......... and thanks.

I have a base unit and a mobile unit that has been in dry storage sealed in a tote, I also have a tower, cable and external antenna. I have a very nice inverter as well that I bought several years ago. I need to pull the mobile unit and have it gone through to "blow the cobwebs out" lol, in fact I may do both just to make sure they are healthy.

At the moment my handhelds are Baofeng UV 5R Pro units, 8 watts. I did get some longer antennas for all of them because I found a bunch on ebay that were "blemished" and got a great deal on them at 2 bucks each, I already had the 'Signal Stik' site bookmarked as I saw it on here in another thread. This was a group buy so we went with these until we familiarize our selves with mobile operation.......and I got a pretty good deal on them at 25 bucks each with free shipping. Personally I will upgrade shortly as funds allow. I am also considering a mobile unit that is much higher wattage that is small and light enough to secure in a backpack.

I have two repeaters that are close even though I am rural. One is about 2 miles away (as the crow flys probably a little closer) and the other about 5 miles. The closest one is a guy that has a massive set up in his house based on all of the antennas he has up. Drive by and it's large antennas and guy wire city.

I am now in need of fiddling, I don't learn well just reading, I MUST be hands on to actually learn it in a shorter time frame. Been that way all my life, lol.
 
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Well done! I did the same and just missed by a few also. Good for you on going for general! I kind of stopped talking on it so I am going to stay at tec.
Hahaha another baofeng fan. My first was crap but they did updates on my model and the other ones work much better.......for $22 for 2m and 70cm. (UV-5R)
 
If you're not planning on getting a license, what would you want to pass the test, the sole purpose of which is to get a license? Why even take a class?

A license does not give the government a way to silence you on a radio. I'm not sure where you got that thought from.
 
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