New to this forum and got a new radio for Christmas

[Medic115]

Hello everyone.
Finally got a hand held for Christmas and it is renewing the bug to bite the bullet and get my ham ticket.
Had "Ham Band" mobile for years but it was clipped for the local Fire/EMS/PD uses When I was a active Paramedic and never Monitored the Ham bands. That was a icom 128 or 148 VHF only.
Well My son got me a Baofeng UV-5R for Christmas. Before the groans from older Hams, He is out of work and he did his best.
Before I get a lecture I know I can't TX until I get my ticket, and already checked the VE testing dates for my area.
I have six weeks before the next regular testing date.

 

[VE3JSO]

hi welcome to the site the uv-5r not a bad radio for the price for me it was a little pain in the butt to program by hand but there is some good software and a cheap programming cable that will make it easier if you have not programmed it already not sure in your area for the ham bands but i find it that 2m vhf was slightly active with local ragchew and net and the 70 cm band was quiet very rare that i will hear any transmissions on it the hf bands freq are the most active that i find with good dx so good luck on your exam and enjoy the hobby
73 de ve3jso

 

[LtDoc]

If there's a local club, or if you know any hams in your area, find out from them what frequencies and other information you need to program your HT. Then do a lot of listening to see what's going on. If you feel you want to participate then get that license and do so!
I don't know anything specific about your radio but am familiar with the general run of 'Chinese' radios. That programming cable and software is a VERY good investment! (Or you're just a #3|| of'a lot smarter than I am!)
- 'Doc

 

[AgentCOPP1]

Welcome to the hobby! I hope you can get your ticket really soon.

 

[TheSpaceMan]

Welcome aboard! While you are preparing for your exam, you may want to try building a homebrew antenna. A nice little ground plane on the roof could extend the range of your HT quite a bit!

 

[ilguy]

hamtestonline

It took me a week of hamtestonline to prep for my technician and another week for my general. My 13 year old started it right after he finished his radio merit badge and got his technician as well. It's the best web site I've found for getting your ham ticket fast.

 

[wesm1957]

Welcome to the forum!! I also have the Baofeng UV-5R and also the UV-5RC. I got both radios before I had my ticket. I used the book by Gordon West to study for my test. I am getting his book to study for my general class ticket. If your are like me you will get the fever and want to get a HF rig. I also built two antennas for my dual band radios, I built a dual band j-pole and a dual band dipole. Two weeks ago I built and put up a 10 meter dipole and have already talked to operators in Europe. The internet is full of information on building antennas, and countless reviews on equipment.

Wes

 

[kc5uta]

As a "newbie" so to speak to this forum myself...WELCOME!! Watch out for a few of the characters here! Especially LtDoc (ha ha good morning Doc!!!!) With a very rare few exceptions this has been a good experience for me joining up! Lots of knowledge and resources to be utilized here. Welcome aboard to a fun hobby! There are many aspects to explore. Public service oriented areas such as ARES, Skywarn, disaster prep, satellite, chasing DX , foxhunting and on and on. Right now just getting into the hobby most people "don't know, what they don't know". Ask lots of questions : ) Dave....KC5UTA

 

[Spankymedic7]

Another fellow medic!

Welcome to the forum. It's good to see yet another fellow medic here on RR! The Baofengs are decent radios, especially when starting out. I haven't had any difficulties with mine, with the exception of programming. The programming of these radios has been known to be a bit tricky, but once the programming is done, the radio itself is not too shabby.

Again, welcome! Good luck with your Amateur Radio endeavors.

 

[k6cpo]

The Baofeng radios are a little more difficult to hand program than, say, the Yaesu because a lot of the "pre-programming" with Yaesu is already done for you in the radio's firmware. I'm speaking specifically of repeater offset amount and offset direction.

There's a lot of good information to be found on the internet regarding programming of these radios and the best site I've found is http://www.miklor.com. Go to this site and download the "enhanced" manual for the radio and you'll find it makes things much easier.

You might want to invest in a cable and software to save some of the hassle involved in hand programming. The best software and cables are made by RT Systems (easy internet search) but it can be done with an inexpensive cable and the CHIRP software. I would recommend getting a Wouxun cable from Powerwerx to avoid the possibility of getting one with a counterfeit chip in it. The Wouxun and Baofeng cables are identical , and will also fit Kenwood.