Ham radio questions?

Question

I'm planning on getting my ham radio license this summer. All my family members are into it, and now I want to as well.

I feel so dumb, but I don't know what the different equipment is, or what it does. Could some hams out there please explain to me in simple language the equipment?

Also once I get my license, what is the basic equipment I'll need to start off with? I live in an apartment and have roommates so I can't have a huge setup right now.

Thanks!

Answer 1

The problem is, you almost have to start off your question with a question as in what do you want from amateur radio?

There is no one size fits all basic equipment list to start out with as each person is different.

As someone who is into talking distances usually start out with a big HF rig, power supplies, wire antennas etc etc.

However if you are in a apartment with roommates, you may want to start off with a simple 2 meter HT (handie talkie) as it's small ,light , doesn't take up more space than itself and usually allows you to talk to the local ham populace.

Most hams start off like this as it's a first baby steps, and getting to know the local ham people can give more ideas, like your family can ... of what way you want to enjoy the hobby.

Best thing I can suggest is PMing me on here and I can give you some ideas on what you need or want. Another website to check out would be http://www.hello-radio.org/index.html and http://www.arrl.org

Answer 2

Aren't you talking to your family members?

There are many branches of Ham radio.  There's shortwave, where you rely on layers of ions in the atmosphere to bounce your signal around the world. (this is what the girl in the diet mountain dew ad is doing in the middle of the thunderstorm).

There is VHF which uses walkie talkie like radios to talk to other people, usually in the same city via a repeater.  A repeater is a station with an antenna in a tall building or mountain.  You transmit of one frequency and it rebroadcasts on a second frequency, This extends the range you can talk using the walkie talkie.

There are satellites, which act like repeaters...they fly by pretty quick, so you need software to predict when and where in the sky they will be and you need to aim your antenna at them and keep moving it as the satellite flys by.

Some people bounce signals off the moon.

There are zillions of books on each of these topics.  look at the book store portion of www.arrl.org.  You can probably borrow some of these from your library.