recomend first radio
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DirtyLarry
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I started out with a 2 meter hand-held and a home made antenna strung 50 feet up in a tree. I could hit like 30 repeaters on 5 watts. I was fortunate to have a big tree and lots of repeaters around. That made all the difference for me. If you are in the car a lot a mobile unit might be the way to go. If you are gonna operate from home mostly of course a nice base unit with all the bands would be great. A lot depends on your budget and what you want to do. A single band hand held is $100, a good single band mobile is $150, and a nice multi-band base set up is $1000+ so a lot depends on your budget.
pasadenamd
Member
I am also a beginner, I would like to get a cheaper hand held. Any ideas?
I always recommend an Icom handheld as a first radio. It has a BNC connector, which can be connected and disconnected many, many times, without the center connector spreading.
1. You can use it as a base, with an outside antenna, and make many machines.
2. You can use it as a mobile, with a mobile antenna, and make many machines.
3. And of course you can use it as a handheld.
A handheld is much easier to move from car to house than a mobile. And even with just 5 watts, you'll get into all the local machines just fine.
I don't recommend a handheld with a SMA connector, unless you go and buy a SMA to BNC adapter. While the SMA is a superior connector over the BNC, you can't connect and disconnect it a bunch of times before the center conductor contacts start to spread and get intermittent.
1. You can use it as a base, with an outside antenna, and make many machines.
2. You can use it as a mobile, with a mobile antenna, and make many machines.
3. And of course you can use it as a handheld.
A handheld is much easier to move from car to house than a mobile. And even with just 5 watts, you'll get into all the local machines just fine.
I don't recommend a handheld with a SMA connector, unless you go and buy a SMA to BNC adapter. While the SMA is a superior connector over the BNC, you can't connect and disconnect it a bunch of times before the center conductor contacts start to spread and get intermittent.
Here's my two cents worth:
1. Find out from your local amateur radio club (ARRLWeb: ARRL Home Page) where the nearest repeaters are located....from your home, work, commute, school, etc. If you live underneath a popular repeater, or travel in sight of one, a portable radio will do fine.
2. Why not do both? Depending on which type repeater (e.g., VHF or UHF) is more prevalent in your area, you could buy both a VHF mobile and portable for about $300. I like Yaesu equipment, as they tend to have more channel storage and wider receive ranges (ok, not compared to every radio....but this is MY view over the last ten years).
3. With an amateur radio, what will you do? Chat on the daily commute? Participate in ARES, SKYWARN, RACES, etc.? Listen only, as you learn??? The answer to these questions may help you decide which type radio best fits your needs today....
A dual-band mobile and portable radio would be the ultimate collection, unless you don't have any UHF repeaters.....I've owned ICOM, Kenwood, and Motorola radios. Pick one that makes sense to you....visit your regional Ham Radio Outlet, Amateur Electronics Supply, or equivalent store to play with all the toys. Check out the dealers' booths at your neighborhood ham fest.
One smart way is to buy the same radio as others in your club/area. That way, you may have local experts to help you if you have a programming or operations question. Someone may have a used radio for sell..........
In my view of amateur radio, I use two mobile radios (one for APRS, one for scanning & monitoring 146.52 when commuting/traveling) and two portable radios (one UHF, one VHF) here in Jacksonville FL. On a good day, the UHF portable is the minimum required for keeping up with my fellow hams. On a busy ARES/SKYWARN day, you could potentially use all four radios.
Enjoy the hobby,
1. Find out from your local amateur radio club (ARRLWeb: ARRL Home Page) where the nearest repeaters are located....from your home, work, commute, school, etc. If you live underneath a popular repeater, or travel in sight of one, a portable radio will do fine.
2. Why not do both? Depending on which type repeater (e.g., VHF or UHF) is more prevalent in your area, you could buy both a VHF mobile and portable for about $300. I like Yaesu equipment, as they tend to have more channel storage and wider receive ranges (ok, not compared to every radio....but this is MY view over the last ten years).
3. With an amateur radio, what will you do? Chat on the daily commute? Participate in ARES, SKYWARN, RACES, etc.? Listen only, as you learn??? The answer to these questions may help you decide which type radio best fits your needs today....
A dual-band mobile and portable radio would be the ultimate collection, unless you don't have any UHF repeaters.....I've owned ICOM, Kenwood, and Motorola radios. Pick one that makes sense to you....visit your regional Ham Radio Outlet, Amateur Electronics Supply, or equivalent store to play with all the toys. Check out the dealers' booths at your neighborhood ham fest.
One smart way is to buy the same radio as others in your club/area. That way, you may have local experts to help you if you have a programming or operations question. Someone may have a used radio for sell..........
In my view of amateur radio, I use two mobile radios (one for APRS, one for scanning & monitoring 146.52 when commuting/traveling) and two portable radios (one UHF, one VHF) here in Jacksonville FL. On a good day, the UHF portable is the minimum required for keeping up with my fellow hams. On a busy ARES/SKYWARN day, you could potentially use all four radios.
Enjoy the hobby,
BuffaloJustice
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So I'm in a little late, but I'll give a couple pennies worth anyway. I started with a mobile, Icom V-8000, because I spend a lot of time in the car. My second radio was a VX-170 and my third a Yaesu FT-8900 for base operation. The only thing I would do differently is skip the 8900 and save up for a 706 or similar. I use a car battery and battery maintainer to power the base rig and it works well. From the house I can hit 2 repeaters on the HT and I can work all the area repeaters, about 20 miles, if I hook it up to the main antenna. The base rig will hit repeaters 60 miles out on 50 watts. If I hook the HT up to the car antenna I can get everything within 20 miles but I work 30 hilly miles away so the extra power of a mobile is nice. On the mobile I can get into the club repeater from 40 some miles on the hilly side and I've not been far out on the flat side so I don't know how far it gets that direction.
If you live in flat terrain the HT on a mounted antenna is certainly doable, but if you live in hill country and/or travel long distances to work the HT may be frustrating. Moving a mobile back and forth from car to shack may be more frustrating. Just some things to think about.
Oh and until I was able to buy a radio for my shack my car was the shack, which kinda sucks in the winter.
If you live in flat terrain the HT on a mounted antenna is certainly doable, but if you live in hill country and/or travel long distances to work the HT may be frustrating. Moving a mobile back and forth from car to shack may be more frustrating. Just some things to think about.
Oh and until I was able to buy a radio for my shack my car was the shack, which kinda sucks in the winter.
K2QI
Member
Portables are fine if you live in an area with active repeaters.
Otherwise, study for the tech then study for the general. Get either a mobile or base after that and have fun on HF.
Echolink can be fun too while you're at it.
Otherwise, study for the tech then study for the general. Get either a mobile or base after that and have fun on HF.
Echolink can be fun too while you're at it.
kc9gld
Member
After reading through these posts, I guess I'll throw in a couple comments as well. I'm obviously new to the forum, (nice by the way), My name is Harley and I live about 20 miles NW of Indianapolis and when I first became a ham in 2004 I owned a radio shack 2m handheld and immediately discovered I needed a mobile radio for the house. So I bought a dual band 2m/440 Kenwood hooked to a copper J pole at about 25' and was good for about 30 miles on simplex, and varied depending on the which repeater I was on. It was at this point in 2005 I made a HUGE mistake. I bought a used power supply 20 amp and one evening it shorted and sent ac voltage into my Kenwood and my new Icom 718. Since then I focused more money into the power supply (currently Astron 35 M) which by the way hasn't been shut off in 3 years, and focused in on vhf. I love the Icom V-8000 because of it's user friendlyness. I live in a unique position, in that I have full access to my apt. building roof for any antennas I want. Heck, it's like a football field up there! Actually 1/2 of one. I've never bought a store-bought antenna, and currently use a copper co-linear J-pole of sorts with a few mods on my own. Right now simplex I'm good for 50 miles out and hit repeaters consistently about 120 miles out. Keep in mind that as you upgrade equipt. you may need more amperage with multiple radios. I considered high end radios but personally want vhf seperate from mf- hf- and uhf. I plan in the near future to purchase the Icom 910H for final vhf/uhf but never let go of the v-8000. I guess I won't go into the 720+ foot wire on the roof for mf/hf! And again, NICE forum here. And nice to see Tim, w9nes here as well. '73 gld
BuffaloJustice
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Wow my post was a little convoluted, sorry I broke my ankle and posted while on pain killers.
This is the point I was making with the skipping of the FT8900R for an Icom 706X or similar "all band all mode rig". I could have waited a couple of months and had a more versatile radio, instead I'm stuck in fm mode and limited to a few band options. I will add a good ABAM radio but now I have to wait a bit, and then I have to wait till my foot heals to put antennas up.
kc9gld, welcome to the forum. I agree with your assessment of power supplies, don't skimp. I was already working on some back up power stuff so I used batteries as my supply and it works pretty well.
This is the point I was making with the skipping of the FT8900R for an Icom 706X or similar "all band all mode rig". I could have waited a couple of months and had a more versatile radio, instead I'm stuck in fm mode and limited to a few band options. I will add a good ABAM radio but now I have to wait a bit, and then I have to wait till my foot heals to put antennas up.
kc9gld, welcome to the forum. I agree with your assessment of power supplies, don't skimp. I was already working on some back up power stuff so I used batteries as my supply and it works pretty well.
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