Someone push me...

[Deltaboy]

Cool idea I might look into.

[Flightmare]

It sure makes my new "free" car license plate easy to remember, I can remember my name after two Whiskeys
( I don't drink, but it's funny)

Apparently, you can get multiple license plates with your call sign too if you have more than one car, and get them for trailers too, I have a flatbed and a boat trailer, ...

That is true! As long as I do not move out of Texas, I never have to memorize another license plate ever again.

[RoyGBiv]

others remember me too after I tell them I can remember my name after two Whiskeys

Lol..

[cheezit]

Visit aa9pw and do the practice test there.
The tech exam shoul d take less then 10 hours of study time.

[strogg]

The license plate is a neat thing. You never have to remember another plate ever again. I have two sets: one on each of my cars. Yes. you got that right. two identical plates on two different cars. I also have an easy to remember call thanks to the vanity program, so that makes it super neat.

The Gordon West books are pretty good. Definitely give those a shot. Ultimately, though, you'll want to take practice tests online to make sure you know what all the questions are in a test environment (scrambled questions with scrambled answers). I'd say just do it. $14 to get your foot in the door. Equipment will cost extra and can be cheap if you play your cards right. If you can't get the equipment now due to financial reasons, you can always wait. Unlike shooting or driving, it doesn't cost money to maintain your hobby.

[TexasJohnBoy]

No reason not to... I used the ARRL study guide, and also almost passed the General exam on the first try, but was just a couple questions short of passing. I got my license and haven't done a ton with it just because of time, but if I need to I can get on the airwaves and be completely legal.



If the forum has a net with Allstar links, I'm game!

[The Annoyed Man]

A. When do all these nets become self-aware?

B. I know the sky is the limit, but how hard is this on a wallet, for someone on a fixed income who doesn’t want to blow thousands on it. I’m talking a basic setup.... enough to get started.

[Flightmare]

A. When do all these nets become self-aware?

B. I know the sky is the limit, but how hard is this on a wallet, for someone on a fixed income who doesn’t want to blow thousands on it. I’m talking a basic setup.... enough to get started.

You can buy a HT (handy talkie) for $30 quite easily.

[The Annoyed Man]

A. When do all these nets become self-aware?

B. I know the sky is the limit, but how hard is this on a wallet, for someone on a fixed income who doesn’t want to blow thousands on it. I’m talking a basic setup.... enough to get started.

You can buy a HT (handy talkie) for $30 quite easily.

Is a $30 unit worth a cup of warm spit? I ask because I actually bought one a couple of years ago .....I think on Amazon......I’m just not licensed to use it yet, so I having.

[Flightmare]

A. When do all these nets become self-aware?

B. I know the sky is the limit, but how hard is this on a wallet, for someone on a fixed income who doesn’t want to blow thousands on it. I’m talking a basic setup.... enough to get started.

You can buy a HT (handy talkie) for $30 quite easily.

Is a $30 unit worth a cup of warm spit? I ask because I actually bought one a couple of years ago .....I think on Amazon......I’m just not licensed to use it yet, so I having.

I can reach all the Collin county repeaters with mine, as well as many of the Dallas repeater. A good antenna helps ALOT...but you can make those for cheaper than the radio if you want

[Charles L. Cotton]

A. When do all these nets become self-aware?

B. I know the sky is the limit, but how hard is this on a wallet, for someone on a fixed income who doesn’t want to blow thousands on it. I’m talking a basic setup.... enough to get started.

Most new hams start with 2-meter (VHF) and 70 cm (UHF) and many stick with those bands. As noted, you can get a handheld (HT) for $30 - $60, but using an HT means very limited range. You need to be close to a repeater or use your own node. However, you can get 2-meter mobile rigs for less than $150 to greatly increase your range. Dual band mobile rigs can be had for $350 or less. Mobile rigs make excellent base rigs with a 12 volt regulated power supply.

Antennas are cheap and you can easily make your own. (I enjoy building antennas.) An external antenna with a mobile rig gives you excellent range.

Chas.

Kenwood TM-V71A dual band (I have two)
Kenwood TM-281A 2-meter rig (Excellent 65 watt rig)
Yaesu FTM-7250DR dual band (not dual receive)
Baofeng UV-5R dual band HT

[The Annoyed Man]

A. When do all these nets become self-aware?

B. I know the sky is the limit, but how hard is this on a wallet, for someone on a fixed income who doesn’t want to blow thousands on it. I’m talking a basic setup.... enough to get started.

Most new hams start with 2-meter (VHF) and 70 cm (UHF) and many stick with those bands. As noted, you can get a handheld (HT) for $30 - $60, but using an HT means very limited range. You need to be close to a repeater or use your own node. However, you can get 2-meter mobile rigs for less than $150 to greatly increase your range. Dual band mobile rigs can be had for $350 or less. Mobile rigs make excellent base rigs with a 12 volt regulated power supply.

Antennas are cheap and you can easily make your own. (I enjoy building antennas.) An external antenna with a mobile rig gives you excellent range.

Chas.

Kenwood TM-V71A dual band (I have two)
Kenwood TM-281A 2-meter rig (Excellent 65 watt rig)
Yaesu FTM-7250DR dual band (not dual receive)
Baofeng UV-5R dual band HT

Thanks Charles. I actually have a pair of little Baofengs .... the BF-F9-V2.....which I bought on sale at almost half-price. I forget where I bought them, but I’ve had them for at least 2 or 3 years. I bought them to have for disaster preparedness purposes, but other than turning them on to make sure they worked, I’ve never actually used them. It has been my intention to get at least a technician license, but each time I sit down to study for it, some distraction or other (grandkids, whatever) intrudes, and I have never struggled so hard to say on task! It doesn’t help that I’ve never been tech savvy when it came to electronics and such. As a kid, I always fiddled around with the more creative side of things - photography, art, etc. Electrons are voodoo to me. (I suspect that my liberal arts professor parents went out of their way to try and steer me in that direction as a child rather than the technical.) Anyway, for me, it means starting at absolute ground zero, but I would REALLY like to accomplish this. My son and daughter in law gave me a “Ham Radio for Dummies” book for Christmas. I have studied a bit on the HamStudy.org website each time I’ve tried to get started, but wow.....even that kind of goes over my head. It really just boils down to rote memory learning - the kind I’m not so good at. I have to be able to conceptualize what I’m learning. I’ve always been that way. So I’m ashamed to say that this has not been as easy for me as maybe for some others. If I could just take a class somewhere, where someone could explain why and how it works, I might do better. But I really want to do it.

I like the idea of a mobile station in my vehicle, and maybe a base station in my home. But I am concerned about cost, and it’s not something I can just throw money at. The units you listed seem pretty affordable, so thanks for that.

[troglodyte]

I am not very active anymore but still have my Yaesu HT and mobile. I used to be a storm spotter with the South Plains Storm Spotting Team out of Lubbock. I had my HT and mobile hooked up in my truck so I could monitor the net and use the HT to communicate with other spotters near me without having to switch freqs. I could also use the HT if I needed to run into the Stop-and-Rob or if we were just hanging out on the tailgate waiting for directions from the weather center.

I need to get everything hooked back up, if for no other reason than being able to monitor the spotter net during bad weather, for reasons state previously. I may convert my mobile into a base and carry the HT in the vehicle with a magnetic whip. As long as I stay close enough to the repeaters the HT works pretty well as a "mobile" rig.

One thing about the one license plate for all vehicles. My oil change place used to have fits with my two trucks with the same plates since they used the plates as the identifier in the system. One time I showed up in my F-250 crew cab 4x4. The attendant ran the plate and I could see the puzzled look on his face. When he came to the window he said the plates showed a Ford Ranger. I replied that the truck had gone through puberty since the lastoil change. I though it was funny but sadly it was lost on him.

The Tech license is easy enough to get and the equipment can be reasonable. No reason not to do it if you're interested.

[oohrah]

Just be aware that your callsign is searchable in the FCC database and will reveal your personal info including your station address.

[Charles L. Cotton]

A. When do all these nets become self-aware?

B. I know the sky is the limit, but how hard is this on a wallet, for someone on a fixed income who doesn’t want to blow thousands on it. I’m talking a basic setup.... enough to get started.

Most new hams start with 2-meter (VHF) and 70 cm (UHF) and many stick with those bands. As noted, you can get a handheld (HT) for $30 - $60, but using an HT means very limited range. You need to be close to a repeater or use your own node. However, you can get 2-meter mobile rigs for less than $150 to greatly increase your range. Dual band mobile rigs can be had for $350 or less. Mobile rigs make excellent base rigs with a 12 volt regulated power supply.

Antennas are cheap and you can easily make your own. (I enjoy building antennas.) An external antenna with a mobile rig gives you excellent range.

Chas.

Kenwood TM-V71A dual band (I have two)
Kenwood TM-281A 2-meter rig (Excellent 65 watt rig)
Yaesu FTM-7250DR dual band (not dual receive)
Baofeng UV-5R dual band HT

Thanks Charles. I actually have a pair of little Baofengs .... the BF-F9-V2.....which I bought on sale at almost half-price. I forget where I bought them, but I’ve had them for at least 2 or 3 years. I bought them to have for disaster preparedness purposes, but other than turning them on to make sure they worked, I’ve never actually used them. It has been my intention to get at least a technician license, but each time I sit down to study for it, some distraction or other (grandkids, whatever) intrudes, and I have never struggled so hard to say on task! It doesn’t help that I’ve never been tech savvy when it came to electronics and such. As a kid, I always fiddled around with the more creative side of things - photography, art, etc. Electrons are voodoo to me. (I suspect that my liberal arts professor parents went out of their way to try and steer me in that direction as a child rather than the technical.) Anyway, for me, it means starting at absolute ground zero, but I would REALLY like to accomplish this. My son and daughter in law gave me a “Ham Radio for Dummies” book for Christmas. I have studied a bit on the HamStudy.org website each time I’ve tried to get started, but wow.....even that kind of goes over my head. It really just boils down to rote memory learning - the kind I’m not so good at. I have to be able to conceptualize what I’m learning. I’ve always been that way. So I’m ashamed to say that this has not been as easy for me as maybe for some others. If I could just take a class somewhere, where someone could explain why and how it works, I might do better. But I really want to do it.

I like the idea of a mobile station in my vehicle, and maybe a base station in my home. But I am concerned about cost, and it’s not something I can just throw money at. The units you listed seem pretty affordable, so thanks for that.

Thanks to my Dad, I was no stranger to electronics even as a kid. However, when I got my license (1977), we didn't have the pool questions and all exams were given at the FCC office. We had to buy electronics theory books and learn the material. That took several weeks. Upgrading to Extra (~ 2013) after the code requirement was dropped was easy using Gordon's book and his computer practice software. I'll explain my procedure that worked well for me and others.

The exam question pool has multiple questions on the same topic, but they are not sequentially numbered. This means that studying the questions in sequential order will result in you dealing with the same subject matter several times, but scattered throughout your studying. This format is designed to test your knowledge, not teach you the material. Unlike many software programs and exam study guides, Gordon groups all questions on a given subject matter and you cover that subject only once. He gives a brief explanation of the topic, then gives you all of the pool questions/answers. I read the entire book once, then started using the software to practice for the Extra exam.

The software will allow you to take random practice exams (35 questions for Technician Class), or you can opt to take all questions on a given topic. I took a few practice exams to identify any weak areas. I re-read that section of the book and then used the software to take all questions in the pool for that subject. I passed the 50 question Extra exam easily using that method of study.

I hope that helps.
Chas.