Newcomer

[OutlawHeaven]

Good evening all!

Lately I've had my interest piqued in amateur radio, and I'd like to get started, but I have no clue about study material or beginner radios. I've emailed my local club about this and awaiting a reply.

So short story shorter, hey, I'm a noob, how do I get started?

 

[n9zas]

Check this site.

ARRLWeb: ARRL Home Page

Good luck.
n9zas

 

[Moleculo]

Check out many of the online study guides for your license. Some advertise here and you'll see their ads pop up on the left side. Ask questions on forums like this one To get started, it's really just a matter of a little basic study and playing. If you can find someone in your area to let you play with their equipment and help you get started, then do that. A local ham radio club will work great also.

Once you pass the first license test, get on the air on your own!

 

[OutlawHeaven]

Do you have any recommendations for starter equipment? I was thinking about getting a hand-held since it would allow me to use it in my vehicle as well as home.

 

[kd-5-bgt]

Welcome to the forum!! And you did choose a good place to ask questions! Chances are someone here will have the answeres you are looking for...even if we dont have the answer we will make something sound good *grins* no really this is a good forum and the folks here are great

First off,what class of ham license are you going for?

Tech will be basically a VHF ticket with a sliver of a few of the HF bands and only a small part of 10 meters for voice,the remainder of HF slots are for morse code only

I would suggest going for general class,that will give you a good chunk on all the HF bands for voice .....I hold a general class ticket and I am having a good time on HF.Made contacts all over the states and several countries in Europe and Russia just with a bare radio( 100 watts) and a wire antenna

Radio....I would have to say to pass over the HT,they do have their place but their range even with a good antenna is very limited...go for a mobil radio...a mobil radio will cost about what a decent HT will and you will get alot more range out of it,you will be surprised how far you can talk with a 50 watt VHF radio and a good antenna.

Just get a power supply to power radio when in the house...and mount radio in car to where it is easy to pull to take in house..I have my VHF radio mounted in my truck with L brackets ( aka... small shelf brackets..say 2 inch or so) from Lowes and I can pull radio from truck and set up for home use in under 10 minutes

 

[OutlawHeaven]

I don't have any licenses yet so I'll be going for Tech at first. I have about 3 months until my EMT class starts up, but I should still have enough time for Gen and Amateur Extra Class. There's a local club around me that meets every 2nd Thursday of the month, I'm just googling around for answers to my questions while I wait for the meeting time.

I'm looking for a radio that I can take with me wherever I go, home, car, plane. Got any good model suggestions that can help me with all that, and could let me talk with air traffic control? My budget unfortunately isn't that big, probably a couple hundred at best.

 

[KF7IUH]

I used the pod classes available for download and the tests on qrz.

Started a tad over 4 weeks ago studying and tonight I passed the Tech and general in one sitting. really not that hard if you can use a ipod or laptop everyday to play the podcasts.

They gave me the extra test and I really made a mess of that one. now the wait begins for the call sign to show in the database