First radio suggestions??

You'll never regret buying a $23 Baofeng or two or three, there is no downside to it. If you are just getting started, it's perfect. If yiu graduate to a better radio, the Baofeng just becomes a spare or something to monitor.

Grab an antenna connection adapter, some coax and make yourself ( or buy ) an outside antenna, put it as high as you can. You'll be surprised.

This is THE answer for someone just starting out. LEARN on the throwaway equipment. You'll either find you want/need a pricier radio or thank your stars you didn't spend a grand, instead of $30. And as Uzi2 says, it's an awesome backup even when you DO have better equipment.
 
Obiden's swamp that put him in place will be banning this topic, for non off-shore use, so why waste your time and money?


That's from Nov. 2019. That had to do with the State of CA wanting repeaters removed from public land.
 
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Any mentors in Souhegan valley?
(Unless you live way in the upper reaches of the valley, somewhere west of Brattleboro),
you should do what it takes to get hooked up with the Nashua Area Radio Society -
at least for licensing classes and other introductory stuff. They live for that.
 
(Unless you live way in the upper reaches of the valley, somewhere west of Brattleboro),
you should do what it takes to get hooked up with the Nashua Area Radio Society -
at least for licensing classes and other introductory stuff. They live for that.
I already have my license, just need some guidance setting up my UV5R
 
I already have my license, just need some guidance setting up my UV5R
XLNT.

Someone at NARS will have lived the hell that is your life (as a Baofeng owner),
and can advise on it.

Plenty of advisors on NES too.
I just thought you were looking for a clubload of Elmers...
 
(Unless you live way in the upper reaches of the valley, somewhere west of Brattleboro),
you should do what it takes to get hooked up with the Nashua Area Radio Society -
at least for licensing classes and other introductory stuff. They live for that.

Some of the Nashua Ham events and bootcamp classes have offered free "bring your Baofeng HT's " and they will program all area repeaters into them for free.

Just thought I'd mention that as an incentive for some to consider.
 
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I have a baofeng, runs fine. Hits the boston repeater from 2 miles away no problem. But if I was buying a new HT/VHF/UHF I'd go alinco or yaseu. Alinco has a real nice dual band out right now with a remote head I want for my truck
I broke out my old Wouxun kg uv3d Friday and hit the Derry NH repeater from Lowell I thought that was pretty good and I'm sure that's a good ten miles.
 
Repeaters can have really good receive antennas.

(I hope I remember this right).

I once heard some of the techno-trustees for CMARA's W1BIM/R/2m/FM
Paxton repeater talking about how it had much better ears than you'd think.
The transmit power was deliberately not cranked as high as it could be.

Now part of that decision can be dictated
by the repeater's coordination permission
(so many watts ERP at so many feet Above Ground Level at lat/long),
to avoid stepping on neighboring machines. And like all repeaters,
over the years W1BIM has had its ups and downs with antenna or feed line troubles -
you can't just jump on a tower and start wrenching or metering.

But IIRC the trustees liked that random mobile stations would hear the repeater
transmitter getting ragged, and think, "oops, I must be on the edge of the
coverage, I wouldn't want to sound like crap - I'd better sign off until the commute home'.
Not to keep the machine underutilized or anything. But to incentivize people
to get off before the machine actually couldn't hear them clearly. Because...

You can't tell how crappy your signal is - just everyone else's.
And plenty of people won't tell you that you're so far away
that you sound like crap - even though people can't really make out
what you're saying. Or it'll take them a few minutes to work up to it.

But if the repeater signal gets hard for operators to hear
right before the fringes, it dissuades people from using it
all the way out to the point where they're annoying to work.

No one begrudges you making a test call from a challenging place.
I once worked Paxton mobile from the top of the Charter Oak Bridge in Hartford.
You can get surprisingly good results.
 
This is all great info. Some of it is getting dated, like the Baofeng is now 8 watts. I'm trying to put together several of the different learning sites for the testing, so will assemble some of that soon, and post back here. Just jumping into this with both feet, and trying to learn a little along the way.

Quick questions about how some of this works:
1) You need to study, then take a test to get "Technician" license. This gets you the 6 digit license number, and the ability to "legally" broadcast?
2) When you take the test, do you get your license on the spot if you pass, or do you have to wait for something else to happen?
3) Do people just talk through repeaters, or can they talk directly to one another? I've only had experience with the former on ham, but seen plenty of the latter with walkie talkies when skiing, only it is not "just one another", it is a bunch of people on same channel sometimes.
4) How do you test if reception is working, other than just zoom around the dial looking for something? Got a radio and built an antenna, but have not heard a whole heck of a lot this afternoong. To be fair, the Baofeng is programmed with 20+ repeaters, and that hasn't picked anything up either.

For what it's worth, I have a bunch of repeaters programmed in, hopefully programmed correctly. I asked elsewhere on here for people to check, and it sounded like it was OK. Anyhow, if you want that file as a starting point, you can copy/paste the whole thing from my file to your configuration, then save it and upload to your UV5R or equivalent, again as a starting point. Hope that helps someone.

Thanks.
 
This is all great info. Some of it is getting dated, like the Baofeng is now 8 watts. I'm trying to put together several of the different learning sites for the testing, so will assemble some of that soon, and post back here. Just jumping into this with both feet, and trying to learn a little along the way.

Quick questions about how some of this works:
1) You need to study, then take a test to get "Technician" license. This gets you the 6 digit license number, and the ability to "legally" broadcast?
2) When you take the test, do you get your license on the spot if you pass, or do you have to wait for something else to happen?
3) Do people just talk through repeaters, or can they talk directly to one another? I've only had experience with the former on ham, but seen plenty of the latter with walkie talkies when skiing, only it is not "just one another", it is a bunch of people on same channel sometimes.
4) How do you test if reception is working, other than just zoom around the dial looking for something? Got a radio and built an antenna, but have not heard a whole heck of a lot this afternoong. To be fair, the Baofeng is programmed with 20+ repeaters, and that hasn't picked anything up either.

For what it's worth, I have a bunch of repeaters programmed in, hopefully programmed correctly. I asked elsewhere on here for people to check, and it sounded like it was OK. Anyhow, if you want that file as a starting point, you can copy/paste the whole thing from my file to your configuration, then save it and upload to your UV5R or equivalent, again as a starting point. Hope that helps someone.

Thanks.
1. 6-digit is called 2x3 (i.e. 2 letters, a number, 3 letters AKA prefix, suffix). You can get a vanity call sign if you want. I forget the rules, but higher license levels can get shorter calls.
2. You have to wait for it to show up on the FCC website before you can hit the PTT. It seems to be pretty fast these days. My upgrade last fall was something like test Saturday, on FCC website Monday or Tuesday. Basically it's at the speed of mail and the VE's sending it in.
3. People talk directly, called simplex. That's typically done with known entities who are listening for you. There are also calling frequencies that are simplex, and people monitor those. 146.520 is on 2m and 446.000 is on 70cm. All bands have calling frequencies for various uses (FM, SSB, weak signal, etc).
4. If you're looking to test an antenna, I usually get on a repeater and tell people I'm testing an antenna and ask for a signal report. Or you'll hear people just asking if they're making the repeater; they could be mobile and wondering if they can reach it from where they are.

Some people feel like if you call on the calling frequency and start a QSO, you should then move to another frequency to free it up. It's used so little I don't do that. I've never had a problem but I don't use it often. But I wouldn't sit on it for an hour talking about hemorrhoids.
 
P.S. I doubt you'll find someone on 2m by spinning the dial. On HF that's how it's done, but there's just not that much activity/range on 2m for people to be out there calling CQ on random frequencies.
 
Studying by book is best. I read ham radio for dummies book one summer while camping. Then winter of 2020 (what else was there to do) I got the ham study app and made it all the way to extra in 2 months! It was a great experience and I learned alot about radio and electronics. There are way better books than ham radio for dummies, but it worked for me to get me started.

After you study and feel ready to test you will need to get on the fcc website and get a FRN number Getting an FCC Registration Number (FRN) in the Universal Licensing System (ULS)

ARRL webpage has a testing site locator which can be online or at a club Find an Amateur Radio License Class in Your Area

ARRL is a great website to visit and look around for study guides and has alot of resources for looking into ham radio
 
Ham Radio Outlet is a good one. They have stores sprinkled around.

HRO does not carry Baofeng.

If you really want to enjoy your first ham radio experience, buy a VHF or VHF / UHF mobile radio from Yaesu, Kenwood, Icom, Alinco, or Anytone. Buy a 35 amp power supply. Buy something like a Diamond X50, and connect it to the radio with enough LMR400 cable.
That will give you a setup that will give you a decent chance of being able to actually have QSOs.

UNLESS, you want to do DMR, Dstar or Fusion through a hotspot. Then an HT will work great.

Buying a Baofeng is like buying a Raven .25 as your first gun. It will shoot for a while, until the parts peen over, or it breaks. Good luck actually hitting anything with it.
 
Is the 7300 worth the grand after rebate? What does one need for accessories and antenna to get it up and running for HF/VHF/UHF?

What else should one look at? Already have a couple
BF handhelds.

Thinking about starting with the SDRPlay Rx only but it's $160 with accessories.
A 7300 does not do 2 meters or 440. An Icom 7100 does, as does a Yaesu FT991A.

For an HF / shortwave radio, the 7300 does a great job.
You'll need a 35 amp power supply with that (to convert the 110 VAC coming out of the wall into 13.8 volts DC). You'll need an antenna (which you can make yourself), and some transmission cable.

I think it comes with a stock hand mic.
 
So if SHTF (for real), you're telling me I'm going to upset the Ham Community by asking if anyone knows what's going on, because I don't have a call sign.

Also, I did say it's probably worth just taking the test and being done with it. Sounds like an awfully fickle community though if they're going to report me to the Feds for asking what's going on in an emergency situation, because I don't have a special piece of paper issued by the government saying it's okay for me to do something.

(This has swayed much too far from the topic - apologies, that was not my intent)
If they don't remain sticklers, zillions of unlicensed CBers will start operating everywhere, and the ham bands will turn into CB. Hams don't want the yahoos to get their noses under the flap of the ham radio tent if they aren't licensed.
 
I bought two for emergencies. I’ll eventually get a license but not until buy a place where I can mount an antenna.

Any idea what the point to point range is on these?
It depends.

If you are atop of Mount Wachusett, and have a decent antenna (and the stock rubber duck on a handheld is not a good antenna), you might be able to talk to someone atop of Mount Washington. Or Saddleback Mountain. Or Greylock. You can do this because you have elevation that raises your antenna above buildings, trees, hills, rocks, and other stuff.
If you and the other person are walking around the average neighborhood with trees, houses, cars, walls, etc, then maybe 5 miles. The main problem with HTs is crappy antennas.
 
Welcome to the hobby. I started with an ICOM T-70A handheld. Never regretted it, ICOM makes a newer handheld now. Well worth the money in my opinion if you can afford it. Check out the ICOM 7300 when you start looking for a base station. My Elmer is a big ICOM guy so I was “guided “ in that direction. There are other good radio MFGs out there.
If you stick with Icom, Yaesu, Kenwood, Alinco, or Anytone, you won't go wrong.
 
Caveat:

Normal turnkey ham HF shortwave transceivers are band-restricted
in a way that I don't think (more expensive for very similar innards?) Marine SSB rigs are.
However, Marine SSB rigs may last longer when installed in a boat.

At least one ham has been willing to skinflint with a merely kilobuck
HF transceiver (Yaesu FT-897) even though it means they can only talk to hams in a pinch.

Which is reasonable, because while there must be some dedicated yachtsmen
who mount a meaningful radio watch on their SSB gear, there are plenty of
ham yachtsmen and their hangers-on who definitely monitor traditional
maritime mobile ham frequencies and hold periodic nets. So there are lots
of hams trying to listen for ham boats in trouble.

But I've read of a guy who installed a ham rig in his boat,
totally protected in the cabin -
perhaps never even unboxed until going inside the cabin.
He discovered after only one summer that the radio was ruined
just from the salt air - the PC board had turned to green crap.

So I wouldn't drop a lot of coin on a ham shortwave transceiver for boat use
without a cunning plan to protect it from atmospheric corrosion.



Many sailboats with Marine SSB install insulators at both ends of their mast backstay,
and use that as the antenna.

Then again, sailboat topsides are busy enough that no one's mounting a whip antenna
on the cabin top. Depending on what else is going on, either top of the mast
or some monstrosity hanging off the stern, like where they mount most radomes.
Most modern ham radios can be opened up to operate anywhere on the HF bands. It's not technically legal, but they will do it.
I had an Icom 706 MKIIG mounted on a 40 foot sailboat down in the cabin for two years. I never had a spec of trouble with the radio.
 
This is THE answer for someone just starting out. LEARN on the throwaway equipment. You'll either find you want/need a pricier radio or thank your stars you didn't spend a grand, instead of $30. And as Uzi2 says, it's an awesome backup even when you DO have better equipment.
The receivers in an HT (ESPECIALLY the Chinese stuff) were not designed to be connected to a decent antenna. They cannot handle the enhanced signals that will come in via a decent antenna. Things like paging bases, public safety, broadcast transmitters, and commercial 2 way radio users will overload the front end of the HT, and get in the way of hearing what you want to hear. In fact, if you drive through RF alley in Needham or near the Pru, even decent ham radios will overload.
Add to the fact that the Chinese engineers had to cut a shitload of corners when bringing that radio to the market for a $30 retail price, the circuits inside are going to be barely adequate.

Decent receivers and clean transmitters cost money to design, and build. A $23 Beofeng is NOT the same as a $160 Icom, Yaesu or Kenwood. To be honest, a Yaesu, Icom or Kenwood is not a Motorola either. Motorolas cost big money compared to the Japanese companies.
 
P.S. I doubt you'll find someone on 2m by spinning the dial. On HF that's how it's done, but there's just not that much activity/range on 2m for people to be out there calling CQ on random frequencies.
Repeaters tend to be busy during commuting times, or just after supper. If you listen at 11 at night, they are probably going to be quiet, unless they have a digital, Internet connection. My hotspot connected to DMR, Fusion or D-Star is busy 24 / 7 on popular rooms / talk groups.
 
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