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New Ham,, lots of questions

THier

Member
May 9, 2010
8
0
11
58
Reisterstown MD
Hello all,
Just got my Tech ticket,, going for my General next month, shouldn't be a problem,, I hope.

So,

Gear,, picked up a Kenwood TH234 for a REAL good price, (less that a dinner out) so I have 2m HT kind of covered for now. BUT the club I am looking into (first year free for new hams that tested there) BARC does a lot of public service stuff,, and uses DCS CCTC ect, which this radio does not have. Now,, how should I go about getting gear, Yaesu FT-60R was recommended to me, ok I can pop for that, but should I also go for mobile rig? If so,, should I look into a quad band rig to take advantage of the pwr output? Or is the HT with maybe an external ant good enough? We do have repeaters setup in the area.

Base station:
If I go mobile,, should I not go remote face, so I can bring the rig into the house to use as a base?

Thanks,
 
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depends how far your away from the repeaters. i dot like handi's at all, i really like mobile radios but im so far from the repeater i need a beam with a fair amount of power just to trigger the repeater.

a good mobile will do enough power usually 60watts or better. a quad band would be good if you want to work some dx, it wont work any better for local use though. low power 10m or 6m dx is great.
 
Tom,
I think your TH234 will be sort of a 'chore' to put those tone in. There are ways of doing that that aren't too difficult, but by the time you're finished, that FT-60R may be looking like a very nice way to get around things.
Before jumping in too deeply with VHF/UHF stuff, you might want to consider HF also, after passing that General. I'm of the same opinion about HT's as Carl, I honestly don't have much use for them. Not that one wouldn't be handy occasionally, but that really does mean occasionally for me. I'd rather have a mobile or a base radio, I just have more time to use those sort of radios. I also would rather do HF stuff than VHF/UHF stuff. I just have more interest in it. Different strokes for different folks, right?
There's no particular hurry about any of this, so take your time and do a lot of comparing before buying. (Yeah, I know, but do as I say, not as I do, you know? :))
Good luck with the General and have fun.
- 'Doc
 
I'd get a mobile first, put quick disconnects on it and move it from the house to the car until you figure out how you'll use it most. Of course from home, a roof antenna is a good idea too to make good use of it.

I have a few HTs, they are fun when you are within solid range of repeater coverage, handy if you work support events etc. but I almost never use them and use a mobile in the house 99% of the time.

The FT-60R is a great HT, dual band, solidly built, good value.

5W into a mobile antenna on a car or into a roof antenna....it's still an HT and they don't like to be keyed up for higher duty cycle use if you get to chatting with people.

FT-7900R is the mobile 'equivalent' with bang for the buck, similar to the FT-60R, I highly recommend that one for dual-band on a budget. I have a 7800R and an 8800R, like them both.

I don't recommend the 8900R unless you specifically know you have 6m and 10m repeaters in the area to use it with, and you need to be a general for the 10m FM use anyway.

In general, people dislike hearing noisy signals. You will make more contacts if you have a nice solid signal into the repeaters you use. A mobile unit and a decent antenna will help with that by a mile.
 
get yourself a power supply and a duel band radio 2/70cm and either build or buy a duel band vertical. Or look into a HF/UHF/VHF rig like the 706. That way once you pass your general class you will have HF capabilities.
 
Thanks everyone for the input. Like I said in my first post,, BARC does quite a lot of PS events where a HT is needed, so I do plan on getting a modern HT,, probably the FT-60R.

So,
I guess I will focus on a decent mobile rig, and use it for the house as well. I used to use a mobile CB for a base station many years ago, and still have my regulated power supply, so I guess my next area to research will be antenna systems. I live in a single family house, on about .25acre,,, BUT have overhead EL service cutting diagonally across my property. How well would a "screwdriver"
work as a base station antenna for HF?

Thanks,
 
I think you have many more antenna choices than you might think even with the power lines across your property. I would seriously consider something simple like a dipole to start with. They do very well. something like a screwdriver antenna is not exactly a super first choice. Besides being expensive, and while they work well as mobile antennas, they are not your best bet for fixed use. Sure, they will certainly work, and as well as they would on a mobile, which is not saying much at all. I think you will find that the most common antenna for HF use is horizontally polarized, and probably that dipole.
- 'Doc
 
I think you have many more antenna choices than you might think even with the power lines across your property. I would seriously consider something simple like a dipole to start with. They do very well. something like a screwdriver antenna is not exactly a super first choice. Besides being expensive, and while they work well as mobile antennas, they are not your best bet for fixed use. Sure, they will certainly work, and as well as they would on a mobile, which is not saying much at all. I think you will find that the most common antenna for HF use is horizontally polarized, and probably that dipole.
- 'Doc

(y)(y)(y)

Most versatile first HF antenna....that I still use as my main antenna.

A good manual tuner..dont' be cheap Palstar is my brand of choice, it's worth the spend, to spend once.

Some window line (balanced line) a current 1:1 balun, and coax from the tuner, outside to the balun.

Attach the window line to two pieces of wire of equal length, as long as you can make it for a half wave length on the lowest band in frequency.

That antenna will work from that lowest frequency up to 6m depending on the tuner you get.

You have to learn your way around a manual tuner, but it really is no big deal.

The tuner investment will cover you for LOTS of experimentation from that point on.

This is what is referred to as a 'balanced doublet' The window line feeder can even be run directly from your tuner, but that can be a pain. it is important as balanced line is what you want for wide-band tuning like that to cut your losses down to a point where they don't much matter.

tuner -> coax (short run, just outside the house) -> 1:1 current balun -> window line up to your antenna center point. The balun helps isolate the coax line and prevent common mode current causing RF issues in the shack.
 
Oh,
I forgot to mention, I have been shopping, got a VX-6R and an icom 706mkii used, both for great prices. Got a J-pole and a 5btv for the house, and for now a 2meter ant for the truck.
 

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