Been licensed about 8 years, and am in a very busy club. That is the fastest way to learn and gain needed help, mentoring and development. antenna building, and analysis, Senior guys with EE degrees, and shops full of the right tools, mentors with the same rigs, who can show you the tricks, and an organized group that practices Emergency Communications (Weekly net), maintains a tower and Repeater, and is associated with the Sheriff Dept Emergency Management. We have MOU’s with Red Cross, and. CAP, and the County, plus’s train for ARES and RACES.
WE also work with Scouting USA, for their merit badges and Jamboree on the air.
Since for some reason, lots of parts, gear and used but serviceable radios keeps stacking up in. Our storage closet, we have periodic sales of tested radios. Great way to get good radio cheap. For instance a Baofeng is a bout 20 bucks. I got a Yaesu FT65, for 15. Put an antenna on it and it works great.
Licensing as mention above, is easy. ARRL.org has the entire manual, including test bank and answers, all annotated, accessible on their web site, free, no membership needed. Once you are ready to go, get your FRN number, and show up for the test, or take it online as well.
right now i am building a power box, sinimalr to my Go-box, (which has an HF radio, Tuner, detachable face, and a two meter radio, with antenna, extra coax), that will have a 100 Amp/hour lithium battery and all the plugs for a 200 watt solar panel, charging ports for phones, iPad, et, and meters for monitoring amp/volts, plus a solar power input and charge controller. I used an extra battery of the same sort, loos for three years, and never use more than 20% charge on a field exercise, or while camping in Elk Camp, but I wanted to make it safer for transport, so it is in an Apache rolling box, with foam padding, and I’m building the board to mount all the electronics, now.
That basic load wil be the radio box, the power box, a folding compact 200 watt panel, and the antenna, which slots into a mag mount that stays on the truck.
or emergency deployments (practice for SHTF) I also have a large cargo bag with a portable dipole antenna and two different wire Dipole antennas. I may take out one, wire dipole and replace it with an end fed wire. That last bag doesn’t go to park activations, or Scout work, as my Australian multi-port stick antenna works great as is.
We deployed an 8 man team of radio operators to Sisterdale, from kerrville, to relieve the Kendal County club for a shift, in order for them to organize a move down river. we accompanied Search Teams on the River in isolated areas with poor radio signal, that their radios couldn’t reach. We used our handhelds with long antennas and the repeater at the VFD. Worked perfectly.
A note to the guy who bought a Baofeng for SHTF. It is just a walkie-talkie, and of little use, unless you are logged into a repeater, and practicing the weekly net with the local ham club. The myth that in an emergency there are no rules, is just that. The CC won’t do anything, but locals will freeze you out of the repeater very easily. Get the license, get the training, work with the guys who are already trained up, and practiced. One Baofeng isn’t much use, and you won’t get any useful information on it. Good luck.
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