Need some info about ham radios.

[RedNeckSCOUT]

Thinking about getting a ham radio set up but can not figure out were to begin. Any help would be great.:flame:

[valen7961]

The first place to start is your local ham radio group.

[hiker]

Go to www.arrl.org and click on the local club link. I would recommed you go to the next meeting and talk to them. Most of them will be more than willing to help you.
They are 3 levels of license;
1-Technician
2-General
3-Extra
And the higher you go the more bands and frequencies you can get on. Also you can go to www.qrz.com and scroll down and on the left of the screen there is a link that you can take practice tests. You have to take the tests in order but you can take the General after you pass the Tech at the testing session etc.
It is a fun hobby and I have met alot of interesting people.

[RedNeckSCOUT]

thanks as soon as i get dont with this school i will check it out.

[C-ya]

Look at this (http://www.hello-radio.org/) website. It is the standard "Welcome to ham radio", but it will show a lot of what we do.

Start with finding a ham club as suggested. Talk with some folks there, and you can start learning what hams do. There is quite a bit to the hobby. You can work events (marathons, charity events, etc.), be a weather spotter (well, you can do that w/o a ham license), and just generally be able to talk a whole lot further than CB.

I'd suggest getting your Tech license and find a handitalkie (HT) to play around with. Once you get the feel for it (even tho it is just over repeaters mostly), you can decide if you want to upgrade. You also have access to voice on 10 m and CW (Morse code) on several HF bands, but you won't be able to that with your HT. I'd suggest at least get to General. Of course, you'll need to supplement the HT with another radio to use the General class privileges (darn the luck!). Look at the chart here (http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/bands.html), and you'll see that as a General class, you have use of all the bands, and Extra class will fill in ALL the holes.

Here is one site that has both Tech and General study guides. If you want to PM me an email addy, I'll email a couple of other study guides in .pdf format.

http://kb6nu.com/2006techstudyguide.pdf
http://kb6nu.com/2007GeneralStudyGuide.pdf

Here are some Power Points that you may find interesting. If you don't have Office, you can download Open Office from http://www.openoffice.org/.

http://www.hamradioinstructor.com/powerpoint.html

Practice tests can be done here - http://www.qrz.com/xtest2.html. You can select which element (Tech, General or Extra) as well as a test number. What I did was take a few tests (35 questions for Tech and General), and the next time I went back, I would start where I left off . Say I took 3 practice exams and came back later. I would put test 4 in the box where it says "Choose a test". You can also take practice tests here - http://www.eham.net/exams/.

Good luck and have fun with it!

[randyb]

Godon West's tech no code book is what got me through the test. Meet up with some local hams and start doing it.

73's

kb9lzd

[lostinthewoods65]

If society as we know it colapses, are the classes even relavant anymore?

[wy0mn]

License classes, or the information contained in them? I'd say yes to both.

As I told someone in another thread, if SHTF most local hams will band together for mutual aid/support.
Any idiotic broadcasts by unlicensed, or uneducated, morons that endangers the welfare & safety of that clique will likely be dealt with harshly, maybe fatally. You must know that we hams can triangulate co-ordinates, and build "fox-hunt", snooper antennas that can find you? The same applies to CB, FRS and all the other bands.
Radio can be a lifesaving tool in many instances, but you gotta understand that each & every broadcast is a beacon, a flare in the night, for good guys & bogeys alike.
I'm not trying to talk anyone outta using radios, just pointing out the benefits of doing things the proper way. Education is always beneficial, and friendships & associations with other hams can prevent you from giving yourself the dirty end of the stick.

[alpmco]

If society as we know it colapses, are the classes even relavant anymore?
As the law roughly states, you can uses any frequency necessary regardless of license (or lack of) in order to protect life or property.
That said, if you don't know what you are doing you are screwed. It my look like it is as simple as picking up the mic and talking into it (and on repeaters it is pretty much that simple) but on HF it is not that easy. It's not CB or FRS. You don't have 40 pretuned channels in your rig to choose from. You have thousands of frequencies and many different transmission modes (AM, FM, LSU, USB, plus ... plus) available. If you don't know what you are doing you may not be heard.

[dblnaught]

"kb9lzd"
2X3 Been working commo for 33 years. First radio to rebuild KWM2a. Not a HAM. Do it 10, 12 hours a day last thing I want to do is have it at the hooch. If things went south,
A non ham Came up on 10 meter band no pl You would not answer QSL. LOL

Worked SLF to SatCom