After 23 years as a Technician, and my son getting his Technician ticket, I took the test for General last night and passed it.  My upgrade will show up in the ULS tomorrow morning, since the VEC uploads electronically to the FCC.  

Now to slowly save up for an HF radio....

73,

Whit

Congrats, I'm studying for my general now!!

If you have a tech license, you don't need to wait until your general license posts in FCC ULS. You can simply say your call sign followed by "Tempory AG" when using general privileges. Once it's in ULS you can drop the suffix "temporary AG"

Get on there and ham it up ??

Congrats Whit!!!!!
Now bring the son up to speed and get him a general..
Of course this means you gotta go for the extra.
You can do it if you push yourself. Hell... I did...

Congrats on the /AG!

Congrats on the upgrade

13 years a technician studying for my General right now, hope it goes well for me too!

Congratulations! Now you can get on HF where all the fun stuff happens.

While you're accumulating funds for a rig, now's the time to be planning your antenna(s) because they are the most important part of a station. Pre-assembled wire antennas can be bought, but you'll most often save money (and learn a lot more) by building your own.
Here's a few DIY links to get you started.
Ladder-line Dipole: http://www.arrl.org/random-length-multiband-dipoles
Fan Dipole: http://www.hamuniverse.com/multidipole.html
Off Center Fed (Windom) Dipole: http://www.buxcomm.com/windom.htm
Loaded (shortened) Dipole: http://www.k7mem.com/Electronic_Notebook/antennas/shortant.html
Detail explanation of propagation, transmissions lines, and antennas: http://www.hamuniverse.com/n4jaantennabook.html
One source of antenna components: https://www.thewireman.com/

Thanks everyone.  I was amazed at how much I remembered when I was studying for General.  I checked the FCC's database this morning, and my new class is showing up!

I'm leaning toward a full wave horizontal loop antenna.  I don't have any trees or structures to support a dipole, and the legs would be too long on 80m for my yard.  A loop would just make it.  Plus, I made a loop antenna for 11M CB 20 years ago when I lived in an apartment.  Even though the polarization was wrong, it worked great!

Its going to be a while before i'm on HF.  The last 8 years have not been kind to my family or me.  A pay cut to keep a job followed by another pay cut to take a more stable job mean almost no money left over for comm related stuff at the end of the month.

Since i'm between projects at work now, i'm going to start studying for Extra!

73,

Whit

New GENERAL in tha house!

Congrats and welcome to the madness (a.k.a - Black Radio Disease ) !

Used HF radios can be found relatively cheap. Just try to stay away from older hybrid rigs unless you can fix them yourself. Something like a Icom IC-718 can be found for around $350-$400 used. A simple wire antenna does not cost much and will get you on the air.
Good luck!

Congrats on General, @dreiwhit !!!

This! A used IC-718 and a fan dipole for 40 and 20 will put the world at your fingertips. A little careful trimming will make the dipole resonant in the middle of the SSB segments of both bands and an antenna tuner won't be necessary.

Another alternative would be to find a local radio club as they may have a station you can use. Field Day is the last whole weekend in June, and that would be an excellent chance to get on the air with the club. You can also learn a lot about setting up and taking down stations under less than ideal conditions. Volunteer for other duties, too, such as cooking, manning the generator(s), and general site maintenance. Bringing along a gas can with a few gallons for the generator will help a lot.

Congrats on the upgrade!  If you're looking for a budget option to get you on HF, take a look at the BITX40 kit from hfsigs.com.  It's a fairly simple kit, requiring only a little soldering, some minor construction to put it into a case of your choosing, and can be upgraded a bit with some other accessories along the way.  While it is QRP at ~7W, you can feed the PA circuit independently with 24V and get around 20W out.  Not bad for a kit that's under $60 shipped to your door.  Just build a simple 40M resonant dipole to go with it and you're on HF.

 

Looking forward to working you on HF, dreiwhit.  Congrats!  

Wednesday digi net is a good place to play digi modes for a n00b and arfcom will hep you out.