this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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No other ham radio nerds here besides me? It always starts with a $35 Baofeng hand-held...
I'm in the beginnings...and yes, with two Baofeng handhelds lol. Then I got a little SDR kit for receiving. Of course I also needed some cable adapters and ferrite cores, while I was at it. Oh, and the ARRL license manual to study for my technician license (I knew nothing about amateur radio prior to this rabbit hole, so it was actually really interesting to read)
Was supposed to have my technician license already, but life got a little chaotic. Was passing all the practice exams easy and just needed to sign up for the real exam. Hoping to get it done soon, but I have to brush back up a little. Then I'm hoping to move quickly to my general class, while the basics are still fresh.
Even started learning morse code and was getting better at it. Had the alphabet and numbers, could read it just fine, but the listening is what's hard... but still kinda fun. All the Q-codes and slang are what I think will take the longest if I really start getting into CW, but I know that'll be time/experience more than anything
But for now, I just listen-in on my SDR around my area when I can, and have maybe looked into how to grab some NOAA satellite images lol
So yeah, I can see this becoming a bit of a thing for me, because I keep learning more and more, and it all just seems so cool to me. Using the ionosphere to propagate, tropospheric ducting, or even using freaking meteor scatter! So much cooler than I ever thought when I knew nothing
I was considering getting licence to have something that isn't 0.5 W walkie-talkie on summer camp.
But decided against it because no one wanted to do it with me. So having one high power radio is pointless.
You should still go for it though! You can contact people on radio, you don't need to necessarily have anyone local join you to achieve that. At most times of the day, there are hundreds of radio contacts being made. Now actually receiving those, and reaching those stations yourself as well in order to make a contact, that's the challenge. And there are many different ways to achieve that with different gear on different frequencies in all sorts of different conditions. You can do much more than just a bit higher power walkie-talkie, you can reach the other side of the world if you go at it well :).
My main motivation was game coordination around our camp. We didn't have decent phone coverage until recently and phones aren't practical for it.
As for reaching and connecting to other people it is fun but I don't want to do it alone. It is better to have someone to share this hobby. I am homebrewer and my friends can at least enjoy my beer. This wouldn't bring that enjoyment.
One option is to see if there's any GMRS repeaters, and especially any repeater groups, in your area. The license is cheap and you can still go 50w with it, but it's not as popular as the HAM bands. There's a few really good, but simple enough, mobile stations. Pick up a better antenna (height is king!), and you'll be able to listen & talk with the locals.