« Review of Note-Taking Apps 2023 September | Main
Getting Started with Ham Radio
By Derek | September 11, 2024
Before you get into ham radio, you’ll want to determine what you’re going to use it for.
Do you want a(nother) hobby? Are you worried about communications during an emergency, maybe if or when the cell network goes out? Do you just want to learn the basics of signal propagation or electronics? You can do any or all of these with ham radio.
The rest of this article will help you understand a bit more about how to get started.
Some people mistakenly think that they’ll just buy a radio, and then use it in an emergency situation. Honestly, that was my thought, when I first started.
Certification
The truth is that without at least the Technician license, you won’t really be able to utilize and practice with your radio gear, which means you won’t really know how to use it in an emergency situation. Using a ham radio is not like using a cell phone. Normally, cell phones choose the frequency automatically, provided they are in range of a tower, and you don’t need a license to use one. Plus, making a phone call — even on a smartphone — is relatively simple. But I digress.
There are three levels of certification. From easiest to hardest, they are currently Technician, General, and Amateur Extra. Each license level builds on the previous one. For each level, you’ll need to study and pass a test.
Most people can take Technician & General on the same day if they are willing to study for both of them. Technician is mostly a bunch of memorization, while General adds more memorization and a little math. However, with General you get access to a lot more “bands” — which means you can talk on a bunch of different frequencies. It’s not just talking, either, there are also a ton of ways to do digital communication on ham radio.
Now that I’ve convinced you to get at least the Technician license, how does one go about studying for the tests? Well, depending on your learning style there are video courses, books, or simple test-taking apps to learn and study with.
Learning & Studying
My favorite place to learn is HamRadioPrep. HamRadioPrep gives you full video courses. The presentation is high quality, and they focus on the concepts you need to learn to pass the tests, which is great for beginners. HamRadioPrep courses are not free, but they are fairly inexpensive overall, and they do have sales periodically. You can also share the courses with your entire family, once you purchase them.
https://hamradioprep.com/
If you prefer a study app, or prefer a free way to study (or both) you can use HamStudy. They have an online app, as well as both an iPhone and Android app, and a Mac app, depending on your preference.
https://hamstudy.org/
If you prefer to learn using a book, there are multiple books you can buy. Check out Amazon, and search for “ham radio technician book”, or “ham radio general book” depending on which level you are targeting. Even if you prefer to learn using a book, you probably want to use the aforementioned HamStudy app to validate your knowledge.
If you join a local ham club, discussed below, they sometimes have live on-line training courses, as well.
Regardless of the method you choose, you study until you are getting 85% or better consistently on the practice tests, and then you schedule your certification test. This can be done online if you can’t find a location near you. Depending on your technical aptitude, you’ll probably need a few weeks to learn everything you need for Technician, but might need a couple of months for General, unless you really apply yourself.
Gear ( Radio Recommendations )
Depending on what class you are targeting will also give you an idea of which radio to buy. If you are only targeting basic comms, as a Technician, you only need a UHF/VHF radio. These are typically smaller, cheaper and have far less range. However, they also require far less expertise to get working (they are more beginner friendly). Typically these are $30-400, depending on whether you want a handheld (similar to a walkie-talkie) for only a few miles range, or you want a vehicle radio. A UHF/VHF vehicle radio paired with a good antenna can give you ~20 miles or more of range.
If you are targeting General class, you can then move up to an HF radio. Typically these are much more expensive — $400 up to thousands of dollars — not counting a bunch of accessories and a large fancy antenna. Remember, if you do get General class, you can still start with a smaller, less expensive radio as you are learning, and upgrade to a better unit later.
If you want to “play” while you are learning, buy a Baofeng UV-17R and start listening. Make sure you do not transmit — do not press the transmit button — until you have your license. There is no license required to listen.
~$35 Baofeng UV-17R UHF/VHF Handheld Ham Radio with 1800mAh Li-ion Battery
This Baofeng radio is an example of an inexpensive “starter” unit. Note that this radio does not have any form of built-in digital communication, it’s an analog-only radio. This certainly isn’t a bad thing, after all, it’s very inexpensive, just know that its capabilities are limited.
An inexpensive handheld radio that includes both analog and digital capability, is very popular, and a great value for what it delivers is the Yaesu FT-70DR.
~$209 Original Yaesu UHF/VHF Digital/Analog Handheld Transceiver with 3 Year Manufacturer Warranty
There are, of course, other options for starter radios, these are just two great choices, and each of them can be fully utilized with just the first level Technician certification.
Get Involved
Regardless of which radio you start with, you’ll need to eventually learn how to program it. This is one particularly sticky point that is truthfully a bit tough when you are first starting out.
Honestly, you can buy two similar radios, tune them to the same frequency, and then talk back and forth across them without too much difficulty, however, the world really starts opening up once you learn how to program your radios with “repeater” frequencies. Connecting to a repeater in your local area allows you to talk with people that are farther away than you could reach with the radio alone.
Learning to program your radio is one reason I strongly recommend joining a local ham club. While there are tons of resources available via the internet, a good ham club will have regular meetings, will usually have tons of friendly, knowledgeable folks, and can also help you find like-minded people. You can find local clubs in your area using the ARRL website.
https://www.arrl.org/find-a-club
So, in summary, choose your favorite method to learn and study for at least the basic Technician class license, go take and pass your test, then get involved. Somewhere in there, buy a radio!
Have fun, and 73!
Saying 73 is a way ham operators show respect to each other when they are done talking, or signing off. It essentially means farewell, or best regards.
Topics: HAM, Me | No Comments »
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.