-
You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.
Hello Newbie here!
- Thread starter kazz330
- Start date
Hi Jared, Welcome to the site...which is itself a great place to start to learn a lot. Radio communications for fun and hobby enjoyment is cool. I've been a CB'er since 1976 and a ham since 1993. It's all good.
All I will suggest is buy the best equipment you can even to start with. Cheap junk doesn't work well and you won't be happy with it and you'll be driven to buy better stuff. Then you're stuck with the cheap junk that you've spent money on and find that it is hard or impossible to resell and you've wasted some money.
There's a wide variety of good equipment on the market these days. Don't be afraid of good used gear necessarily. Get assurances from the seller that everything looks and works as should or that they will take it back if it doesn't. You can save a lot of money by getting used gear. Prices are low on ebay right now with the rough economy. If you use ebay....that's a good place to look around.
Technology has come a LONG way in the last 10-15 years. I would get newer stuff rather than something that was considered good 30 years ago. And very old radios may or will be hard to get parts for.
Welcome aboard and good luck !
All I will suggest is buy the best equipment you can even to start with. Cheap junk doesn't work well and you won't be happy with it and you'll be driven to buy better stuff. Then you're stuck with the cheap junk that you've spent money on and find that it is hard or impossible to resell and you've wasted some money.
There's a wide variety of good equipment on the market these days. Don't be afraid of good used gear necessarily. Get assurances from the seller that everything looks and works as should or that they will take it back if it doesn't. You can save a lot of money by getting used gear. Prices are low on ebay right now with the rough economy. If you use ebay....that's a good place to look around.
Technology has come a LONG way in the last 10-15 years. I would get newer stuff rather than something that was considered good 30 years ago. And very old radios may or will be hard to get parts for.
Welcome aboard and good luck !
Thanks for the quick response weasel! I was looking at galaxy's as they seem to be very popular. Any recommendations? I am going to look into if I can place an antenna on the roof (I currently live at home while I go to college), and if not, run a mobile setup.
I like the Galaxy radios myself and own 3 of them. There are many choices with differing features. You need to determine which features you would like to have....power levels, want sideband?, echo effects, roger beeps, bigger or smaller meter ect....
No; you do not need a license for CB/SSB operation.
But I would heartily advise that you get a SSB radio; they are just plain more useful and versatile than a non-SSB radio - IMO
Did you mean the Galaxy 959 AM/SSB radio? They are OK; they tend to drift off-frequency on SSB - kinda annoying. I have a Galaxy DX-99V; it drifts a lot until warmed up. Other than that it is an XLNT radio. The Magnum radios like the Magnum 257 or Magnum OmegaForce S45 don't drift at all - or very little at the most. Cost more - tho - but worth it - IMO...
Heyya Kazz !! Welcome to the Boards!! It is always good to have more folks getting into radios be it CB or amateur....
Robb has you pointed in the right direction.Alot of good advice there
I am a ham ..aka amateur general class...and it was the best move I ever made in radios.
Here is something to get your radio juices flowing....I was on 2 meter a few weeks ago scanning a bunch of preset frequencies and I heard a call on one that is normally quiet...I stopped the scan and listened for a few minutes and low and behold the International Space Station was calling for any contacts.Needless to say I was surprised to hear them ...so I grabbed the mic and called back and on the second call he replied to me...I was floored to say the least....Not to bad for a 65 watt radio and a home made j-pole antenna.... my best contact ever on 2 meters
You have found a good site here,and most folks here are happy to answer and questions that you might have....and most of all have fun !!
Robb has you pointed in the right direction.Alot of good advice there
I am a ham ..aka amateur general class...and it was the best move I ever made in radios.
Here is something to get your radio juices flowing....I was on 2 meter a few weeks ago scanning a bunch of preset frequencies and I heard a call on one that is normally quiet...I stopped the scan and listened for a few minutes and low and behold the International Space Station was calling for any contacts.Needless to say I was surprised to hear them ...so I grabbed the mic and called back and on the second call he replied to me...I was floored to say the least....Not to bad for a 65 watt radio and a home made j-pole antenna.... my best contact ever on 2 meters
You have found a good site here,and most folks here are happy to answer and questions that you might have....and most of all have fun !!
No; you do not need a license for CB/SSB operation.
But I would heartily advise that you get a SSB radio; they are just plain more useful and versatile than a non-SSB radio - IMO
Did you mean the Galaxy 959 AM/SSB radio? They are OK; they tend to drift off-frequency on SSB - kinda annoying. I have a Galaxy DX-99V; it drifts a lot until warmed up. Other than that it is an XLNT radio. The Magnum radios like the Magnum 257 or Magnum OmegaForce S45 don't drift at all - or very little at the most. Cost more - tho - but worth it - IMO...
yeah I meant the 959. I'll look at the magnum 257. and thanks KD! That is an awesome contact! I can't get my license until september (thats when the test is here), and hopefully I'll see you on either the ham bands or the 10 meter!
Any good recommendations for online shops? sadly here in the north east we don't have any nice local CB/ HAM shops (I'm in Albany, NY)
also sorry if I'm not using the lingo correctly, I'm, trying to figure it out and I think by trying to use it I'll get it eventually lol
So here is what I have picked out so far:
Magnum 275-HP (Alligned from Wallcot)
Pyramid PS21KX power supply
Solarcon Imax 2000
3ft. tripod antenna base
5 ft. antenna mast
besides Coax (which I'll figure out as soon as I find out where I'll be mounting the antenna and where I'll be putting the station), What else should do I need/ should get?
Magnum 275-HP (Alligned from Wallcot)
Pyramid PS21KX power supply
Solarcon Imax 2000
3ft. tripod antenna base
5 ft. antenna mast
besides Coax (which I'll figure out as soon as I find out where I'll be mounting the antenna and where I'll be putting the station), What else should do I need/ should get?
A good swr meter such as the radio shack pwr/swr meter would be a good idea. Also don't buy cheap coax you will regrete it in the long run. I personally would choose the maco 5/8 over the imax 2000, all though it takes about an hour to assemble and tune it it's worth it. The imax 2000 is still a decent antenna, all you have to do is take it out of the box and screw it together, but it will not perform as well as the maco 5/8.
go with the maco, the imax works well but will get brittle over the course of its lifetime, it will also eat you alive if you have to take it down in a few years.
i would also use 3 computer power supply's with the 5v rails tied together (old free ones) or a newer cheap one like this .
i would also use 3 computer power supply's with the 5v rails tied together (old free ones) or a newer cheap one like this .
the reason for 3 is older power supplies had pretty poor 12v amperage. you tied the 3 5v rails for better performance and it also gave you about 14.5v so you got a little more wattage from an amp or a little less drop from a radio. a good 12v would supply around 11.8-12.1v so if we took 11.8v x18amp draw you could get a maximum of 212 watts at 100% efficiency (ya i know just pretend). take the same 18amp draw at 14.5v (14.5v x 18a) could get a maximum of 261 watts.
one modern supply would work well as long as the 12v rail was solid and large enough. switching supplies god a bad rap long ago fro being dirty or noisy but that is no longer an issue. modern computers need an ultra clean signal to operate these day's.
wiring the 3 supplies is a little harder because you have to make 2 of the grounds floating or else they psu's would die when you tied the positive and negatives together.
one modern supply would work well as long as the 12v rail was solid and large enough. switching supplies god a bad rap long ago fro being dirty or noisy but that is no longer an issue. modern computers need an ultra clean signal to operate these day's.
wiring the 3 supplies is a little harder because you have to make 2 of the grounds floating or else they psu's would die when you tied the positive and negatives together.
Jetstream makes power supplies that are reasonably priced...get one that puts out about 20 to 25 amps ...that will handle up to about 100 or so watts without any trouble