well, don't do what I did...
I knew very little about the Ham field. Had always been vaguely interested in the abstract and used radios when I was flying, but it's the guys here (mostly Andy's reviews of ham on the trails - thanks) who convinced me to go ahead with it for wheeling. The main reason by far I did it was for emergency commo in the boonies.
What I did was a minor bit of perusal of web sites mostly about radios, and I took the exam without much reading. (Also asked a bunch of premature questions here
, thanks for the info.) Fortunately, I did do a bunch of review reading (here and on various sites) before buying the equipment and I'm quite happy with the choices. Then read a couple of sites about ham etiquette, and tried on the air, but altogether I got into this without knowing very much about it (and felt uneasy about that lack of knowledge).
Now, I just got the book "Ham Radio for dummies" and concluded that I went about this all wrong. I should have gotten that book or a similar one before I did anything else. A book like that covers all the generalities that you can't normally find on the web, and most importantly puts things in perspective as to what you need, what you can do, what it's for, what's the basis for lots of things etc. I'm only a couple of chapters in the book but it seems like a very good intro to the hobby and technology. Only $25 or so. Well worth it.
So, IMHO, get an intro book at the first notion that this is something you may be interested in at some point in the future, and certainly long before you take the exam and buy equipment. Surely most of you were smarter than I was, but it's easy to get in a rush to take the exam and buy equipment and get going without enough background.
my 2c, HTmayH somebody else...
I knew very little about the Ham field. Had always been vaguely interested in the abstract and used radios when I was flying, but it's the guys here (mostly Andy's reviews of ham on the trails - thanks) who convinced me to go ahead with it for wheeling. The main reason by far I did it was for emergency commo in the boonies.
What I did was a minor bit of perusal of web sites mostly about radios, and I took the exam without much reading. (Also asked a bunch of premature questions here
, thanks for the info.) Fortunately, I did do a bunch of review reading (here and on various sites) before buying the equipment and I'm quite happy with the choices. Then read a couple of sites about ham etiquette, and tried on the air, but altogether I got into this without knowing very much about it (and felt uneasy about that lack of knowledge).Now, I just got the book "Ham Radio for dummies" and concluded that I went about this all wrong. I should have gotten that book or a similar one before I did anything else. A book like that covers all the generalities that you can't normally find on the web, and most importantly puts things in perspective as to what you need, what you can do, what it's for, what's the basis for lots of things etc. I'm only a couple of chapters in the book but it seems like a very good intro to the hobby and technology. Only $25 or so. Well worth it.
So, IMHO, get an intro book at the first notion that this is something you may be interested in at some point in the future, and certainly long before you take the exam and buy equipment. Surely most of you were smarter than I was, but it's easy to get in a rush to take the exam and buy equipment and get going without enough background.
my 2c, HTmayH somebody else...
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