HAMsters: "Just got licensed, now what?" (Radios / Skills / Articles)

[Otter]

I just received my call sign today. Even though I got the license, everything is still foreign to me. Been reading a lot of about what I should look for in a radio for my truck. I'm interested in APRS and using it to transmit my location to APRS.fi so family can see where I'm at if I choose to enable APRS. Is that something that's viable?

Congrats!

 

[LongDuck]

@Highway Romping what do you want to do with your license besides APRS? Sure, it's great to have comms on the trail with the guys you're running alongside - but you've done that by listening in the past. Any other interests in terms of long distance radio (DX), antenna design / test / tune? How about just talking to HAMs local to you on their net meetings?

All of these things are fun ways to use your license. Reply back and that will help with radio selection, antenna selection, and probably get you pointed in the right direction,

 

[Somebodyelse5]

@Highway Romping what do you want to do with your license besides APRS? Sure, it's great to have comms on the trail with the guys you're running alongside - but you've done that by listening in the past. Any other interests in terms of long distance radio (DX), antenna design / test / tune? How about just talking to HAMs local to you on their net meetings?

All of these things are fun ways to use your license. Reply back and that will help with radio selection, antenna selection, and probably get you pointed in the right direction,

I would love to have a radio themed meeting one of these days.... some of the DX stuff would be awesome, some high level discussion on SWR, maybe some QRP (I have been wanting to build one of these!)

 

[LongDuck]

Well, there are Radio Clubs for stuff like that which is beyond the purview of CSC - but getting licensed is an important part of doing it the right way.

Everything I do is on 2m. I enjoy net meetings with my local club every day (usually, sometimes 2x a day), I talked to a guy in Belfast, Ireland once (*he was using EchoLink), and I run mobile and QRP Milliwatt (less than 1w total power) from a handheld radio just to fool around when I hike the mountain by my house. Oh, I've also done an AutoPatch call via repeater and talked to my mom in Colorado over the radio.

That's just on 2m telephone, also. Digital has come along way, if you're into that. You can do a lot with a $100 radio and antenna, and a Technician license.

 

[Highway Romping]

Sorry for the late reply, I've been on the GWT and had very little reception until today. My current goals with ham is trail communication, location tracking with APRS, sending messages would be nice, how to contact emergency services on the trail, and how to connect to repeaters to extend my range. I was able to use my handheld for weather updates on the GWT and it was very useful.

@Highway Romping what do you want to do with your license besides APRS? Sure, it's great to have comms on the trail with the guys you're running alongside - but you've done that by listening in the past. Any other interests in terms of long distance radio (DX), antenna design / test / tune? How about just talking to HAMs local to you on their net meetings?

All of these things are fun ways to use your license. Reply back and that will help with radio selection, antenna selection, and probably get you pointed in the right direction,