I have been considering licensing up and buying a hand held. I tried the tech exam at QRZ, got 15 right with no prep, so not as hard as I thought.  Looks like the Baofeng and Yaesu are pretty reasonable bang for your buckwise.  Jay

Do it! I took the eham exams for a week and passed my tech easily.

ETA: I went with a Yaesu FT-60R, no regrets there.

Do eeeeet!

Tech is a cake walk, and general is possible with some studying.
As for radio, you cant go wrong with the Yaesu FT-60r or the FT-8800..

Test. pass. We spend your money for you!
Fo!

"I have been considering licensing up and buying a hand held."

No.  For your first rig, if VHF/UHF, a base station.  This is the same rig as mobile, but powered
with a power supply instead of car battery.

Learn to operate the radio.  Learn how to operate YOU on the air.  Participate in local nets.

An HT is very limited as compared to a base or mobile rig.  You should not be fiddling with
the radio, trying to figure it out, while driving.  Please, you'll take out a carload of nuns or a van
full of soccer kids.  Just don't do it.

Jup

I am with Jupiter on this.



First, go for general, it really is no more difficult than the tech, and there is so much overlap, that it is easy to get both--and the general opens a whole new world.



Also, HT are of very limited use in most cases. Unless you know there is a lot of traffic you are interested in on UHF/VHF very close by enough to get with a HT, you may become bored with HAM--wonder what all the hub bub is about . Personally, I think you are much better going for HF.  Just get a used rig for a reasonable price and throw up a simple antenna to see if it is what you are interested in--you will get a much better idea of what the HAM world has to offer by going that route.


 

...and as someone who got licensed 6 months ago, I'll add:

Completely agree on getting a decent mobile first, rather than an HT.  I live in an area where there's lots of repeaters / traffic & bought an HT first.  It worked, but of course I wanted moar, so it was only a few weeks before I bought a mobile.  The mobile is what gets used 99% of the time now..

Completely agree on studying both the tech & general, at the same time, and doing both tests at once.  I didn't, and now I know I missed an opportunity.  I didn't think I'd have any interest in HF, so I rationalized there was no need to take the test.  Then, I was exposed to HF, the bug bit hard and I had to go back and take the test. Turns out, HF is what I like better and I spend most of my time there.

You've come to a great forum where you'll get lots of help & straight answers!

Agreed. I was able to pass both tech and general simply by using an Ipad app to memorize all the answers. This is not the best way to gain knowledge, but it will get you your license in short time. I had to drive almost 2 hours to get to my testing site, so i wanted to at least get a couple licenses to make up for the drive.

I already had some basic electronics knowledge, so i didn't really need to study much for tech.

Everybody beat me to it.

Aim for General. There is about 60% overlap between the tests of Tech and General. If you can pass Tech, you can pass General. What we have been suggesting for years is to study for Tech. When you get a consistent 85% or better on the online practice test then study for General. When you hit 85% average on the online tests then go knock both of them out at the same time. You'll thank us later. The privileges afforded with the General ticket is a huge step up from Tech. With the General ticket you get the HF bands which can mean global communications. That is where the fun is.

Although a HT in the mix is not a bad thing, it is a utility limited item. I went there as a new ham and very quickly found out that 5w just doesn't do much on VHF. I've got two HTs and the only time they get drug out is when I'm doing public service events. Hot ticket is a mobile-as-base unit such as the Yaesu FT-7900 with a Samlex SEC-1223 power supply. The power supply has enough poop to run a HF rig when you go there.

The vast majority of candidates at my VE test sessions that pass the Tech, also pass the General even without being prepared for it.

I stress that they have already paid the test fee, take as many as you can. Again most go from zero to General.

Thanks guys, off to study Jay

Good luck to you, hope you get that ticket soon!

As for HT vs. mobile rig, I will say back in 1982 when I first made Technician (actually a little before, I knew I was gonna pass) I bought a brand new state of the art 2M mobile rig - and by the time I was licensed and on the air it was only a couple weeks and I knew I HAD TO have a HT, which I purchased at the earliest opportunity.

In my circumstances it worked out that the mobile rig usually stayed in the mobile, and the HT was used from home and (of course) when walking around.   I did use an outdoor gain antenna at home and i did buy a 30W brick amp but I used the amp so little I ended up selling it.  Mind you,  high power on a 1982 state of the art HT (IC-2AT) was 1.5 Watts.

For a HT I would echo what has been said here, the FT-60 is a great way to go and I use one myelf.   Costs more than the Baofengs & such but it really is a better radio and it is much easier to program & operate.

I'm not very active on VHF/UHF these days I must admit, and the FT-60 is about the only thing I ever use.

 
























 

Fuck yes +1 to this post.

Congrats on making the decision to get licensed. It's totally worth it.

Don't get a baofeng as a first radio. They're disposable radios, I keep one in my go-bag for just that reason. The Baofeng/Pofung radio is like generic ketchup packets you get with chinese take-out, it almost works, but leaves a funny taste in your mouth and the rest of your friends sneer at you, and you get the runs afterwards.

That was one hell of an analogy.

Don't do an HT. I just made that mistake. Mobile or base.

Lots of good advice in this thread. I would like to add that when you pick a VHF/UFH mobile rig, go for a dual band radio that will handle 2M and 70cm (unless there are no 70cm repeaters in your neck of the woods). For example, I live near Philly and if I had a 2M-only rig, I'd be missing out on half the repeaters around here. I have an older Yaesu FT-7800R (current model is the 7900R), but the equivalents from Kenwood and Icom are also good.



Supposedly, the TYT mobiles are a step above Baofeng/Pofeng, and the other Chicom brands, but they don't have the support base of the Japanese rigs.

Good advice to get a dual band mobile.  That said sometimes you have to do what is in your budget.  I started with 3 Baofeng HTs.  Didn't buy them all at once.  In fact bought one received two, then bought the third, different mode,  awhile later.

I have since added two Kenwood TM-281A mobiles.  I still use the HTs for UHF and to listen to the local PD.

Still have to put an HF antenna up for the FT-100.  Again, just getting what the budget allows.

Definitely go for the General when you do the Tech.  It really is not much more difficult.

 

If you're going for an HT I don't think there's more bang for the buck than this right now.

You get APRS and a digital mode (C4FM and eventually SystemFusion), full dual channel VFOs (xmit and receive) and it's IPX5 (submersible to 3' for up to 30 min).  Anything else I've seen that remotely competitive, feature wise, is well over $400.

I totally agree with your decision, Go ahead and get your license.  Do you have a local ham club in your area, They might have the classes and give the tests there where you live.  They might even have some used equipment that you can purchase or try out.  Amateur radio is a lot of fun.

After getting my tech and general,  I bought a used ft-897d. Didnt have a way to setup an antenna,  so it sat in the box.  Then I got a good deal on an ft-2900r. We were about to move to our new place,  so I didn't set it up.  So,  it sat in its box.  Then we moved.  But,  I  desperately wanted to get on the air,  so I bought the vx6r. It was a whoot!  But the bug bit me and one day while visiting hro in Portland,  i saw the ft-60r.  What a tank!  Fell for it.  Bought it. Due to me being very lazy,  I only used the ht's.  Learned about their limits. They worked splendidly.  Then about 2 years later,  I decided to get on the air with the base units.  Took about 2hrs to set things up and get some wire in the air. Wow! That's fun! But in reality,  i really enjoy my ht's.  They go everywhere with me and fhey keep me comfortable with my morning coffee.

Great advice above from the lads.  But,  do what is best for you. I would stear away from the Chinese as your first rig.  At one point I bought one in the mix,  but it vexed menso much after having purchased the vx6r, i gave it away.  Buy quality if you can.  But beware if you cant.

KF7HCZ