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Congratulations on your ticket! And BJradionut nailed it... keep studying and get your General. Unfortunately your timing for DX wasn't the best. Propagation on 10 meters is very low right now, and that's just another reason to get General (to get more bands that are less affected by the solar cycle changes). I like the idea of the 857D and the 450. Price wise, they do a lot for little money. If you go with the 450, you'll want to get something to cover VHF/UHF. Not sure where you are located, but if you have repeaters near you, a Baofeng/Pofung HT is extremely cheap, and will get you on VHF/UHF in a pinch. I think I paid all of 28 bucks for my UV-82, and I can hit my local club repeater from about 5 miles away from inside my house. You can also look around for dual band mobiles like the FT-8800R and run it as a base with a power supply. If you have a local club, a lot of times you can find a used dual bander fairly cheap. Research where the action is in your area, and you might just need a single band rig. 220 is virutally non-existent in my area, but 2 meters and 70cm is pretty busy.

Antenna wise, you can get away with a small antenna for VHF/UHF, and a j-pole is probably the easiest to make. Google it! For HF, if you're on a second (or higher floor), it would be interesting to see if you could put up a wire antenna from your balcony and run it out to the property behind your apartment. If you're tight with the apartment manager/maintenance guy, you might get lucky and be able to mount your antenna on the roof of the apartment.... it never hurts to ask. An end fed half wave or random wire might do the trick for the HF bands, and depending on where you can mount the antenna, could be a flat top, or a sloper. A 10 meter dipole is extremely cheap to make, and will get you on the air quickly for SSB with your current license. Best of luck, and keep on studying!

73,
Brett

<blockquote data-quote="2RT307" data-source="post: 563074" data-attributes="member: 22879">Congratulations on your ticket!&nbsp; And BJradionut nailed it... keep studying and get your General.&nbsp; Unfortunately your timing for DX wasn&#039;t the best.&nbsp; Propagation on 10 meters is very low right now, and that&#039;s just another reason to get General (to get more bands that are less affected by the solar cycle changes).&nbsp; I like the idea of the 857D and the 450.&nbsp; Price wise, they do a lot for little money.&nbsp; If you go with the 450, you&#039;ll want to get something to cover VHF/UHF.&nbsp; Not sure where you are located, but if you have repeaters near you, a Baofeng/Pofung HT is extremely cheap, and will get you on VHF/UHF in a pinch.&nbsp; I think I paid all of 28 bucks for my UV-82, and I can hit my local club repeater from about 5 miles away from inside my house. You can also look around for dual band mobiles like the FT-8800R and run it as a base with a power supply. If you have a local club, a lot of times you can find a used dual bander fairly cheap.&nbsp; Research where the action is in your area, and you might just need a single band rig.&nbsp; 220 is virutally non-existent in my area, but 2 meters and 70cm is pretty busy. Antenna wise, you can get away with a small antenna for VHF/UHF, and a j-pole is probably the easiest to make. Google it!&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> For HF, if you&#039;re on a second (or higher floor), it would be interesting to see if you could put up a wire antenna from your balcony and run it out to the property behind your apartment.&nbsp; If you&#039;re tight with the apartment manager/maintenance guy, you might get lucky and be able to mount your antenna on the roof of the apartment.... it never hurts to ask.&nbsp; An end fed half wave or random wire might do the trick for the HF bands, and depending on where you can mount the antenna, could be a flat top, or a sloper.&nbsp; A 10 meter dipole is extremely cheap to make, and will get you on the air quickly for SSB with your current license.&nbsp; Best of luck, and keep on studying!73,Brett</blockquote>

[QUOTE="2RT307, post: 563074, member: 22879"] Congratulations on your ticket! And BJradionut nailed it... keep studying and get your General. Unfortunately your timing for DX wasn't the best. Propagation on 10 meters is very low right now, and that's just another reason to get General (to get more bands that are less affected by the solar cycle changes). I like the idea of the 857D and the 450. Price wise, they do a lot for little money. If you go with the 450, you'll want to get something to cover VHF/UHF. Not sure where you are located, but if you have repeaters near you, a Baofeng/Pofung HT is extremely cheap, and will get you on VHF/UHF in a pinch. I think I paid all of 28 bucks for my UV-82, and I can hit my local club repeater from about 5 miles away from inside my house. You can also look around for dual band mobiles like the FT-8800R and run it as a base with a power supply. If you have a local club, a lot of times you can find a used dual bander fairly cheap. Research where the action is in your area, and you might just need a single band rig. 220 is virutally non-existent in my area, but 2 meters and 70cm is pretty busy. Antenna wise, you can get away with a small antenna for VHF/UHF, and a j-pole is probably the easiest to make. Google it! ;) For HF, if you're on a second (or higher floor), it would be interesting to see if you could put up a wire antenna from your balcony and run it out to the property behind your apartment. If you're tight with the apartment manager/maintenance guy, you might get lucky and be able to mount your antenna on the roof of the apartment.... it never hurts to ask. An end fed half wave or random wire might do the trick for the HF bands, and depending on where you can mount the antenna, could be a flat top, or a sloper. A 10 meter dipole is extremely cheap to make, and will get you on the air quickly for SSB with your current license. Best of luck, and keep on studying! 73, Brett [/QUOTE]

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