Ham Radio

Thanks for the response guys. Yea I’ve been watching YouTube beginner videos and there is a lot more to it than I ever expected which is fascinating. Unfortunately I don’t know if my HOA will let me put up any kind of different looking antenna. I live in the Houston area so there probably is a lot of interference. I was hoping reaching my dad who lives about 40 miles away would be possible with small radios but looks like it might not. Nevertheless, I don’t wanna give up. I don’t wanna lose contact with him especially during a disaster since Houston is prone to hurricanes. Does the technician test cost a lot of money to take?

40 miles is a bit far for point to point in a metro area but I guarantee Houston has a repeater network setup, you guys should be able to hit that pretty easily. I know warhawkAVG is in Texas and is a ham, he may be able to point you to the best local resources but Idk how active he is here at BLF anymore

I’m getting my certificate (like a licence) soon, err a month or so. Can’t wait to meet all BLF hams.

You can take tests for free in many areas. If a fee is charged, it isn’t a lot. With the Tech license, you can talk on local repeaters, both in analog modes (2 Meters, 70 Centimeters etc.) and in digital voice modes which will give you access to people around the world if you have a transceiver and local repeaters that can use digital voice protocols such as D-Star, DMR, or System Fusion. There are now many handheld transceivers that can use both analog modes and digital voice modes, but you will need to: 1) find out what modes are available through the repeaters your local club offers; 2) become a member of the local club(s) so you can use their repeaters and pay to help keep them operable; and 3) buy a handheld transceiver that uses the particular analog modes and digital voice protocol(s) you can access over the local repeaters.

It is now legal for those with Technicians licenses to operate on limited portions of the High Frequency (shortwave) spectrum, in addition to the lower frequencies using local repeaters. That will allow you to contact other hams much farther away from you through direct transmissions (no repeaters involved), because radio waves with higher frequencies can go a lot farther.

If and when you upgrade your license to General Class, you get access to most of the high frequency spectrum bands that are reserved for amateur radio - so you can really focus on shortwave communications and making contacts with people in other countries and in other states, if you wish. Another upgrade to Extra Class will give you operating privileges on the entire spectrum of bands allocated to amateur radio.

There are a lot of different aspects of amateur radio you can experience now - from chatting at length with local people on “nets,” to going for long-distance contacts (“DX”), to using satellites, to transmitting television images, or even earth-moon-earth signal bouncing. Find people who are into various modes and aspects of the hobby and ask them more about what they do. A local club is a good place to get hands-on experience at field-day and other events, and to ask about equipment. You can also find helpful information at eham.net.

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Get to know your local radio people, and learn how they network to prepare for and help with disaster response.
You’ll find a community of helpful, thoughtful people much like the one you found here for flashlights — but it will be your neighbors.

Racoon, that’s hilarious!

Great advice upthread! They’ve already answered your questions.

For myself, I just wanted to be able to communicate if the grid goes down, not start a whole new hobby. This is a solid site to get it figured out and get some knowledge:
https://hamstudy.org/login

Not long back I decided to get my ham licence and it was so much fun learning all that new shit that my life nearly turned around. No joke. The end result is that I got the Technician, then General, then Amature Extra licenses in short order. Now I study electronics in my free time a bit. Which is harder than it sounds to a dweeb like me who has minimal math in the background.

Bought a cheap Paofeng (Baofeng) 5RA (and a few extra for the Faraday Cage as they were on sale for >$20). It’s shocking to sit in the office having this cheap ass radio tuned to the local FM station, then set it to scan and pick it up and join a conversation talking to some dude in Louisiana and another in New York (I’m west coast) as clear as day. If I were to do it again I’d get a descent radio to start with and pass on the Baofeng (which is an amazing radio for the price, they almost were giving them away). Anyway, I’d encourage you to get started in - check out and register on that site, it’s free and it’s very good.

enjoy!

Then get them hooked on flashlights. Perfect target audience.

Definitely. Everyone needs some solar panels and battery chargers set up and working, so you have a 12v supply at home before the big one takes down the grid.

RC’s hamming it up again… :wink:

I don’t remember the bill number. I’ll find it. It was passed quite a few years ago. Ham Radio was designated as a emergency service or something like that. HOA’s now, under this federal bill have to allow you “reasonable” antenna accommodations. HOA’s have been sued over this shortly after this bill passed. They lost or couldn’t afford to fight it so, antennas are indeed going up regardless of HOA restrictions. They can’t ban antennas all together and what you and them can come up with that’s “reasonable” seems to differ from neighborhood to neighborhood I will find that bill number so you can read up on it.

I always wanted to talk off bed springs in the attic or the patio furniture.. wrought iron fence or maybe turn the umbrella over the table out back into a satellite dish .

Trying to get a match on a chair has just cost me an arm and a leg.

Best bet would be to get a pair of Uv5r’s, find a local repeater and see if you two are getting good repeater coverage. Then maybe you can get a license and begin talking. I had got a uv5r a few years ago, just tune in to listen to local repeaters sometimes, never got a license.

I realize this is an older topic, but I just ordered a set of these:

I realize this is GMRS and not Ham, but it’s mainly for listening and maybe communicating over short distances, and having weather/NOAA bands for emergencies.

Having only owned “kid-style” walkie talkies in the past, I’m excited to play around with these.

If you only want a radio to listen just buy a Tecsun PL-330 or a XHData D-808 they are great radios and will cover most of want you want.

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Like I mentioned, it’s not only for listening. Plus neither of these two radios have NOAA/weather bands. I already have a radio similar to those you mentioned, so I thought I’d look into something slightly different.

If your main goal is to talk to your dad 40 miles away, you do not need Ham, gmrs will do, i’m sure you can find repeaters in your area to connect to. and you do not need a test for gmrs license, you buy it like a fishing license, 1 for the whole family, so you and your dad can use same license.
However unless shtf, you are better off with either a phone call, or an internet radio. i do not know much about internet radio, but with digital radios you can encrypt your communication, and no one but your dad will hear, cuz with analog, pretty much anyone on same band will hear your conversation.

Best “cheap” general purpose radios today are the Tecsun, its no Sony ICF-2010 but best today.

Example below but there any many models.

Tecsun PL680 Portable Digital PLL Dual Conversion AM/FM/LW/SW and Air Band Radio with SSB (Single Side Band) Reception Amazon.com

Consider getting some Baofengs, quanshengs or radtels. These are walkietalkies but should receive HAM radio. You can listen (Rx only) with no license. If you like it, consider getting a license to transmit and a more powerful radio.

Just don’t tell any one you are using a Baofeng when you go for your license course as you will be ridiculed lol.

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Also Retevis and Radioddity make some pretty decent super budget radios.

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