New to Amateur Radio

For those that are brand new to amateur radio, the PDF below, the slide deck from a recent presentation from Larry, provides good information as to some of the things that you might become interested in.

There is such a wide range of possibilities, it's not funny.

I'm sure there are other aspects that should / could be included, but, it's a great starting point.

One of the questions that is frequently asked by newly licensed amateur radio operators is: what equipment should I buy?

My answer to that varies widely, depending on what your interests are, and what your budget is.

For the budget minded Technician, here is what I typically suggest:

a) buy a good quality HT.

b) buy a mag-mount colinear antenna, with adapter for your HT. This will improve the reach that your HT has while operating from your vehicle. And, it softens the cost to buy

c) buy a mobile vhf-uhf dual-band radio

d) buy a power supply and base-station antenna so that the mobile can be used from home or another non-mobile location.

the above progression starts with a single purchase, and adds useful additions that can be used immediately with the equipment you already have.

what a 'good quality HT' consists of depends greatly on what you can afford and whether you're wanting dual-receive and/or APRS capability. The same thing applies to the mobile transceiver.

don't be surprised if you end up purchasing multiple transceivers. eg: you might start out with non-APRS equipment, and then decide you want to participate in APRS by way of a dedicated transceiver, or, upgrade what you have to a transceiver that has APRS built-in.

APRS is a digital packet technology, part of which allows your location to be shared with others, and viewable using tools such as http://aprs.fi