Caught the Bug

[HometownWarrior]

I took my test in December. I was licensed a General as KK4FYS on December 30, 2011. I've been following here and QRZed, tried Echolink a few times but it feels kinda "Skypeish" to me, But I had never made a radio contact. So tonight I went to our school club shack and check into my local community net and I was excited. I had jitters for a hour waiting to check in. I throw out my call sign and the Net control verified it, I was off.

And then it was dead. The played the Amatuer Radio newsline report and closed the net. I was very underwelmed, but because I can now claim I am an operator and not just a licencee.

I came home a promptly bought a Yaesu FT-60R with a Diamond SRH77CA SMA Anntenna. (I did get the correct antenna for this radio, Didn't I?)

I'm a HAM.

Justin
KK4FYS

 

[Rt169Radio]

Cool,and yes that antenna will work fine with the FT-60R.

 

[GrumpyGuard]

Justin Welcome to HAM Radio. With your General there is more to HAM than your local club net. You purchased a good radio, but you will find that you might have trouble hitting some of the local repeaters with only 5 watts. There are other areas of the hobby you might be interested in, such as RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service). I will assume that you belong to the TN. National Guard from your Forum name, as such you might want to try Army MARS. When your finances allow you might want to invest in an HF radio and talk to the world with out that "Skypeish" feeling.
Again welcome to Amateur Radio

 

[K9WG]

You might try some of the HF "rag chew" nets. Some nets have lively round table discussion. Also depending on location time etc. you can get into round table discussions on the local repeater during drive time to work. I use to get in on a group every day. It got to be if you didn't show up they were calling your house to see if you were still alive....

 

[bakechad]

I have a Yaesu FT-60R with a Diamond SRH77CA. Great combo. The stock antenna on the FT-60R is horrible, but the Diamond really makes it shine.

I also suggest a programming cable and software. The FT-60R is quite painful to program by hand.

 

[HometownWarrior]

Follow up Question

I came home a promptly bought a Yaesu FT-60R with a Diamond SRH77CA SMA Anntenna. (I did get the correct antenna for this radio, Didn't I?) I'm a HAM.

Ok this be might be a dumb question but: The local repeater is on 147.21+ if while waiting to receive my FT-60R, I wanted to tune in on my Pro-164 what is the repeater output? Is it 147.21 or since 2m repeaters have an offset of 600 kHz is it 147.16 or 147.71. Or am I just way over-thinking the whole issue. (which is a common occurrence by me)

Justin

 

[WX2CIB]

To listen to any 2m repeater on your Pro-164 you program in the output freq. Example is one of my local repeaters is 147.255 so that's what I would program in to my scanner.