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New HAM with lots of questions....

Sniper308

Sniper308

Member
Mar 13, 2013
83
10
18
Columbia, SC
Hello everyone. My name is Louis. I have been a member of these forums for a while now but until today my only radio experience has been on the CB radio bands. Yesterday I took my first HAM radio license exam and passed both my technician and general tests. I am now ready to take my first plunge in to the world of ham radio. My only problem now is that I have no idea what I want or need to get started in this new hobby as I have absolutely no experience of any kind in the ham radio bands. I do not really know what the different bands have to offer as far as contacts so I do not really know what type of equipment I need to be looking for. I'm hoping that some of you here can give me some insight in to what is out there and what to expect from the different bands available to me.

I am interested in meeting and talking with people local (by local I mean local/statewide/regional) to me but I would also like to eventually branch out to talking with others all over the world. At this time I feel that I am mostly interested in general "rag chew" type contacts. Any advice on bands or equipment to accomplish this would be greatly appreciated.
 
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if rag chewwing is what you want then get a dual bander and get on a local repeater and get after it
or get on the southwest link

i would not suggest getting a HF rig and getting on a skip talking freq then want to talk local
alot want to make contacts and send qsl cards and move to the next station they have not worked yet

might try out the ic-2820h
 
For local contacts try 2 meters and 70 CM bands,there are usually repeaters in the area that people hang out on,contacts can range out to about 70 miles or so

statewide/regional contacts 160,80 and 40 meters are a good place to start..I personally like 80 meters,can get contacts from local area out to around 500 to 700 miles ( and sometimes out a bit farther) and there are nets you can check in with

for nation wide and world wide 20 meters up to 10 ...i am a huge fan of 17 meters,hear europe,africa and all over the states almost every day

12 and 10 meters are hit and miss for contacts ..they have been pretty quiet but when they are open world wide contacts are very possable

6 meters is a neat band,when the band is open all over the states is very possable and on rare occasion other countries,when not open there are repeaters out there that can be accessed in some areas

Equipment ...for 2 meters/70 cm bands there are alot of good duel band vhf/uhf radios out there for this ...and you can either make a j-pole antenna that will work pretty well or buy a simple ground plane ( I have a Jetstream ground plane I really like and does a good job

for the hf bands I use an off center fed windom antenna for 80 meters to 6 meters that I am very pleased with ....for a radio Icom Alinco and Yeasu all make nice entry level HF radios that are easy to set up and operate.....I would advise getting an antenna tuner as well ( some radios come with a tuner built in but they are rather limited as to their tuning range)

I like to keep things simple personally ,the off center fed windom is a pretty good antenna,easy to get into the air and I was surprised as to how well it does work,have no trouble making contacts all over the world and for me the built in tuner within my radio will tune all bands the antenna is rated for without any trouble

and last but not least ...welcome to the world of ham radio......
 
NEW HAM

KD5BGT made the good comments,I agree 100 percent.
Since you are new and want to get on , I would not invest in just a vhf/uhf radio, and then buy a hf radio, lot of money.
I would pick up a YAESU FT857D myself it covers all of this, easy setup and easy to operate, all modes, bands etc.
an antenna tuner is a must for HF bands, I use an auto tuner and a MFJ hf tuner, your preference.

Antennas your preference, make or buy a dipole for 80 meters and then antenna tuner will let it cover other bands..vhf/uhf a dual band antenna example a Jetstream dual bander, I have one on the roof, average coverage 50 miles with the YAESU FT857D...
WELCOME to a new experience..ham radio

DOCTOR
 
2 meters and above are OK Simplex...Have no use for repeaters except SKYWARN....Takes a decent antenna with some good height 40ft+ to get 50-60 miles...
Rag chewing your game then 80/40 meters are your bands!...160 also but antennas get long and take some thought to keep them up.

Get your budget set and give us a number, we'll help you along the way...
Listen for awhile, even the best of us had to shred some OLD habits!
I am stopping after work Monday to help look over a new Hams location to give him ideas for antennas and how to set-up his shack...
He has a few myths I am going to bust, once past those I think He'll make a fine operator....

Welcome to a whole new world in radio
Congrat's and looking forward to working a new operator
All the Best
Gary/W9FNB
 
So far the equipment that I have been looking at is as follows....

Yaesu FT-857D
Yaesu FT-897D
Kenwood TM-V71A
ICOM ID-880H
ICOM IC-2080H

I would like to buy a full featured radio such as a Yaesu FT-DX1200 but that will have to wait for my year end bonus at work. For now, My budget is roughly $600-$1000 to get me started. Id prefer to stay at the lower end of that scale if possible but to be honest after looking at some of the prices I'm sure that wont be easy to do.

I think for the time being I will go with a 2m/70cm dual band radio. Although I will be running it as a base, the mobile format of most of these radios is a plus as once I buy the larger full featured radio for my base the dual band radio will simply slip out to the truck along with my 10/11m radio so its not really a waste of money as a starter unit. I have quite a long way to go as far as general ham knowledge goes. I think the 2m/70cm will be a good starting place for me to get my feet wet and to learn as I go. Hopefully as my confidence grows, I will feel better about investing $2k-$5k in a radio setup.

So far I think I like the Icom IC-2080h that Mudduck suggested above. It seems like a nicely featured radio for a reasonable price. I also prefer the design of it over the other comparable radios I have looked at. So far at this point I am leaning towards the 2080h.

Can anyone suggest a decent base type antenna for the IC-2080h. I have looked at several different designs but to be honest my knowledge of yagi's / beams is minimal. Reading reviews on eham.net two highly praised antennas for the 2m/70cm bands were the Arrow OSJ 146/440 J-Pole antenna and a Cushcraft AR-270B vertical antenna. Again, I can only go by reviews as I have no personal experience with either. I think I like the size design of the J-Pole antenna as I would mount it to the top of my house. Its size would make it much more acceptable in my HOA neighborhood but I don't want to give up performance for size/design. My current CB/10m antenna is an Imax 2000 mounted in the rear corner of my yard. Another concern will be how well these antennas coexist. Do I need to keep them a certain distance apart from each other. Will I be able to run the 10/11m radio at the same time as the 2m/70cm without them causing interference to each other. I run a 200w linear on the 10m portion of my current radio. Just wondering.
 
WOOOOOT!

Unrelated to the direction of this thread but something I wanted to share. I just received notification of my passing the technician and general tests. Looks like I'm official now. :D

From this point forward I will be known as...........

DRUM ROLL PLEASE.........

KK4SSB


Yahooooo!:D
 
That was just the luck of the draw on the callsign. I was kind of hoping I'd get something cool. I like it. It has a nice ring to it, its easy to remember, and SSB being short for single sideband who could ask for more. Guess I got lucky after all.
 
Ok. I took the leap and ordered some radio equipment. After speaking to a few of the local hams here in my area and talking with some reps at Gigaparts and AES, I decided to go with a dual band setup for the time being.

One of the deciding factors for me was the fact that I live smack in the middle of 3 DSTAR repeaters here in my area.

l ordered the following equipment this morning....

Icom IC-2820H 2m/70cm dual band radio with the DSTAR/GPS option
Icom IC-2820H - RADIOS>RADIO TRANSCEIVERS>MOBILE RADIOS>VHF/UHF RADIOS

Arrow OSJ-146/440 Jpole antenna
Arrow Antenna J Poles 2m 146 70cm 440 OSJ

and of course 50ft of RG8u coax


Is there anything anyone could suggest I may have overlooked to get me started? I noticed some inline lightning arrestors for coax. Ive never used one before? Good idea? Do they actually do anything if lightning hits an antenna dead on anyway?

Now if UPS would just hurry up and get here. I feel like a heroin addict waiting for my next fix lol.
 

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