Any Ham radio operators out there?

steve

steve

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Dec 11, 2013
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I just got my Technician license. I figured it'd be a good thing to have for backcountry trips and for emergency situations. I'm actually really enjoying the hobby and finding myself tuning in almost every evening. Anyone else out there into Ham?
 
Got my Technician a few months ago and lucked out on a raffled off dual band handheld through the class I took. I don't tune in much yet, check in on a weekly neighborhood ERC net once in a while for a little participation practice. I was listening to a western states net off a repeater on Navajo Mountain loud and clear from near the Collins Gulch trail head a couple weeks ago.
 
Cool. I've been listening to the Lake Mountain repeater a lot in Eagle Mountain. We'll be in Moab next week, and I look forward to using the Sinbad system to chat with my friends in SLC.
 
I got my Tech license in high school (KC7FEQ here!), and some of my friends and I used handhelds for a couple of years. This was before cell phones were affordable, so we got quite a bit of use out of our radios. I lost interest in about 1998 or so and hadn't used a radio until a few years back when a friend recruited me to help out with communications for the Moab Century Tour.
 
I took some classes in high school but then the internet started becoming more readily available and I ended up messing with that instead. I would like to look into Ham again. I would like to start off with something small and go from there. I had some family members that had the giant antennae sticking out of their roof and a basement full of gear when I was younger. I thought it was so awesome but at the time most of my friends just thought sitting in the basement with a radio was weird.

Edit - I just realized you no longer have to know morse code to get a technician license. Not sure when that changed, but pretty sure in 1992 I had to memorize morse.
 
yeah, it's a lot easier to get your license now. In fact, none of the licenses require CW. I'll be getting my general license in a couple months, and @Tess will be getting her technician license.
 
steve said:
yeah, it's a lot easier to get your license now. In fact, none of the licenses require CW. I'll be getting my general license in a couple months, and @Tess will be getting her technician license.
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I remember hearing a news report a couple years ago about the decreasing number of HAM radio operators and if there was an emergency that effected the grid they would be the front line. I wonder if they made it easier to encourage more people to get licenses. The people I knew when I was younger that had licenses also build and modified all of their own equipment. Just looking through a few websites it seems a lot easier to pick up entry level equipment at a reasonable price.
 
I think it's a dying hobby, so they had to do SOMETHING to encourage people. Cell phones can do so much more than a ham radio, but when you're out in the middle of nowhere with no cell service, they're pretty handy. I have a cheap, junky Baofeng handheld I got on amazon for $30. It allows me to talk with friends and hit a few repeaters that are close by.

I just bought a little kenwood handheld unit, and I'm excited to test it out.
 
you can at least listen in without a license, just don't hit the PTT transmit button. :)
 
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