Ham Radio Questions ?????

[igofshn]

Going to get my Ham license. What is a good hand held radio to start with???

[spearheadbill]

I'm sure you will get lots of input on this! My opinion is get a Dual band 2m/70cm and stick with either a Yaesu or Kenwood in your budget range. Play with it until you find it lacking and then add it to your collection or sell it and upgrade. Good luck.

[OU812]

In my opinion.... buy a cheapie Wouxun hand held. Then you cans spend your money on a good mobile unit for your Jeep. Check out www.wouxun.us

[Roger]

I recommend against a hand held for your first radio. Buy a mobile rig first and a mobile high gain antenna. With 45 to 60 watts, you will really appreciate what ham radio can do.

Be sure to get the programming software & cable. Trust me on this!

[troyboy162]

the wouxons HT's are a super cheap way to get in to it and work very well for a HT, but like Roger said with 45-60 watts and a decent antenna you will really see what ham is all about. the range is amazing in simplex and with range means long range hits into repeaters. 2m/440 is really worth it just for the winsystem in cali. either way prepare to hate CB from now on lol

wouxon KG-UV920R mobile is coming and is likely to be great bang for the buck

[Materdaddy]

If you have an andriod phone, or iPhone, check out Echolink. (There is PC software too).

Once you have your license, and you get "verified" with echolink, you can use many repeaters around the work by simply connecting to the repeater using the echolink application and talk on the air.

My opinion is similar to Scott/Roger. Mobile units are nice, but I enjoy my HT. If I were starting fresh again, I'd go for the ~$120 wouxun HT and spend a little more on a good radio for the Jeep.

[sarah]

Going to get my Ham license. What is a good hand held radio to start with???

Congrats! There should be a linked repeater near you that we can talk on! Rick and I got the Yaesu 6R because it's water-resistent, dual band and has lots of neat accessories.

[Materdaddy]

I have a VX-7R (similar to the 6R that Rick & Sarah have). I bought it because I found it used for quite a deal. The 6R/7R/8R are all very capable HTs.

[Matt2001TJ]

Another day...

[Materdaddy]

Kb6mat/ag

Congrats!

[Matt2001TJ]

Thanks,... today I will be putting up my inverted V and put my Alinco DX-70 HF rig to work...
http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/109 I wish I could have got a nicer radio but for 300 bucks for something I can take in my jeep as well this was about as good as I could afford.

[Matt2001TJ]

Congrats!

I am working 20 meter all over the USA,... fun fun fun...

[Materdaddy]

Awesome. The closest to an HF contact I had was sitting around on a 25 watt solar rig working 10m two friends and I made a contact in FL. I don't have an HF rig, nor any antenna setup yet.

[Matt2001TJ]

!0 meter is still lots of fun. Start looking around for a used HF rig and an antenna tuner. After that you can just make a dipole. The G5RV I have is just to dang big for what very limited space I have to deal with. So,...yesterday morning I put up a post on the QRZ "wanted" section of the forum for a used multi band vertical. I had several people reply one was a guy right here in Apple Valley with a Hustler 5-BTV that I got for 40 bucks last night. Problem is the ground radials that is required with that antenna which I do NOT have. If I can not get that working rather quickly to my satisfaction then I will just make (ill make one anyway what the hell) a 20 meter dipole 16 ft. 5 in. wire on each side with your connector inverted V and to my tuner and go on 20 meter and play.