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I got my license, now what?

Tallman

Tallman

KW4YJ Honorary Member Silent Key
May 1, 2013
5,121
6,019
573
Louisville, KY
I just got my General license and I have a three radios to use but have not fired any of them off. I have one, four channel Maxon for the 440 MHz range, a TYT TH-UVF9 HT, and a TYT TH-9000. All of these are brand new with the exception of the Maxon. I know I need a cable to program the frequencies on the Maxon and would happily buy one if somebody has one laying around. The question I guess these radios are good for local use but not long distance that I know of. So many choices and so little cash. Where do I get the most bang for the buck? 10, 20, 40 meters? Any information or tips are welcome.
Thanks in advance,
Tallman
 

You seem to have the same as our Novice license here.
Best bang for the buck? i think in your study material there must have been a part over the specific amateur bands and their propagation for the band.

10 is not much open, though now we are in the top of the sunspot cycle and some openings will come up giving nice DX.
20 is mostly open in the daytime, as is 40 but we had some CME's that spoiled the bands a bit.
Having a full license here ot your extra license gives me all bands and max power and modes.

Depending what you consider as bang for the buck i.e. most DX at most of the time, 20/40 is what to aim for.
Digital modes or C.W. wil get you around the globe with 5 to 25 watts easy been there done that got the T shirt.

See what antenna(s) you can string up, the most important part of your station, recieve and transmit, nothing will be better as a good high antenna set up, beams if possible.

Before we can give more advise we need to know more about what you want and expect.
2/70 is nice for local contacts or repeaters, but only H.F. will give you daily worldwide contacts cndx depending.
 
Just got your ticket? Time to start saying hihi, fine business and talking smack about lowly CB'ers :p
 
Tallman said:
I just got my General license... Where do I get the most bang for the buck? 10, 20, 40 meters? Any information or tips are welcome.
Thanks in advance,
Tallman
Click to expand...

just about any fairly modern HF rig will give you 10 thru 160 meters.

best bands?,.. I use 40 a lot and 20 a little,... YMMV.

congrats on the ticket/upgrade**Jump_im**
 
The reason I asked this question was if you noticed in my original post
"So many choices so little cash" I'm looking for efficiency in my spending.
I tend to be cautious in my expenditures. I just want the best value for the money spent.

I got both my Tech and General on the same day. I don't know anybody in the ham bands so I guess I'm sort of living in a vacuum.
 
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license

Congratulations first of all.
Bang for the buck, try a basic radio, go to qthdotcom, saw some alnico radio 6 through 160 for $385 etc., I have one for a 2nd rig for years and it is basic not 60 buttons..it does a fine job and not expensive.
MAXON I had one put channels in for 440..had a shop do it for $45.



DOCTOR
 
Tallman said:
I just got my General license and I have a three radios to use but have not fired any of them off. I have one, four channel Maxon for the 440 MHz range, a TYT TH-UVF9 HT, and a TYT TH-9000. All of these are brand new with the exception of the Maxon. I know I need a cable to program the frequencies on the Maxon and would happily buy one if somebody has one laying around. The question I guess these radios are good for local use but not long distance that I know of. So many choices and so little cash. Where do I get the most bang for the buck? 10, 20, 40 meters? Any information or tips are welcome.
Thanks in advance,
Tallman
Click to expand...

I think that Maxon is only 25 watts, cables are common on ebay, $20-$40 depending on the season.

When you say what bang for the buck, my question is, how much "bang" do you want and how much "buck" are you willing to spend.
 
Yeah, we really need some idea of budget to make good recommendations. But with that General license, HF should definitely be in your plans.
 
Personally I woulnt waste my time with any 10 meter monobander. Its too much like CB (propagation wise), only the band is open less.
I would go with all mode, all band HF if in budget. If not, an older SSB/CW radio with coverage on all or most bands.
The other option I might do, although your license privileges exceed VHF bands, is 2 meter SSB. There is just something cool about SSB on VHF, thats range contradicts all popular misconceptions of propagation.
Its not in my budget, I can only imagine having virtually no noise floor to contend with working the weakest of signals over hundreds of miles reliably without any obvious atmospheric propagation
 
Heyya Tall !

With the general class ticket try to find a all mode HF radio of some kind that covers 160 to 10 meters..$300 to $500 should get you into a radio,an antenna tuner of some kind and a simple dipole antenna that covers at least part of the HF bands will get you all the action you will crave.

the antenna.....if it were me I would stay away from the G5RV type of antenna,not very effective ..it was really made for 20 meters ...go with an off center fed windom/dipole or a fan dipole ....I have an off center fed that a built in tuner with the radio will tune ,under a 3 to 1 swr on all bands I run...Fan dipole will have a radial for each band that is resonate for that band,usually no tuner needed

10 meters has been pretty quiet ,I do hear it open once in a while,but it is a hit and miss thing

12 meters is about the same as 10 but when it is open there are some pretty good contacts to be made


15 meters is doing pretty well,hearing stations from all over the states and a few from Europe/South America

17 meters is really good ( and my favorite band ) opens up about 7 to 8 AM my time ( centeral time zone ) and is open till after dark most every day ...I do hear Europe/Africa/Russia in the mornings and fading to stateside midday for the most part and long path to Europe/Russia as well as Japan during the evenings till band fades

20 ...well it is a nuthouse for me really strong stateside stations and is open till well after dark and alot of the time is open late night

30 ...is a CW/digital band ,no voice allowed , and will be open 24/7 alot of the time

40 .... for me is somewhat a night time band ..when it is open it is really open world wide contacts are possable,....during day time good regional stateside stations and several nets to check into

80.....for me also night time ....alot of nets to check into here as well off and on throughout the early morning and late afternoon ...the two nets I try to check into are on 3.987.5 starting at about 5:30AM cenetral and again in the evening with prechecks starting again at about 5:30 PM( the 3987.5 nets are the same bunch,Centeral States Traffic Net ( morning) and The Arkansas razorback Net ( afternoons)... and 3.916 starting at about 8 PM centeral till whenever ..The Tailgaters /Freewheelers nets

160...I cant really say since my antenna dont like 160 meters


There is my run down for the bands I run for what it is worth.

Hope to hear you on the air soon !!

Chris


edit...

as I am posting this I hit the 20 meter button,hearing Italy,Africa and South America fairly strong at 2:15 AM

Yet another edit :

man I hate it when I cant sleep.

OK I looked at your first post again.I see you have VHF/UHF radios.... Have a look at radioreference.com ,they have almost every vhf/uhf repeater in the country listed there .Go to their site,click on your state,then county,then the amateur radio tab....if no repeaters in your county start moving out from your county.I can almost promise you there are repeaters not very far away from you,program those into your radios and then start listening,most of the repeaters will have a net of some kind .Check into those nets to get your call sign out there and before ya know it you will be chatting away...and try to get a HF radio when the dollars will allow it,then you will be spoiled
 
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I would recommend the Yaseu FT 450. Gives 160 - 6 meter,with 100 watts on 6. Has all the latest bells and whistles. i have one, and several friends have them too. Can had for around 600 bucks.
Rich
 

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