Why Radio?

I don’t know if I’m the best person to answer this question, being new to the hobby. An elmer that’s been doing this for years might better explain all of the various facets of radio. The best I can do is give you a few of the reasons I decided to take the time to study and get licensed:

Electronics

What better way to get acquainted with electronics than to do something practical like radio? Not only do you get to play with various electronic equipment, but there’s still a strong homebrew mentality in the ham radio community.

Morse Code

It’s no longer required to get into the hobby, but I’m still interested in learning it. When was the last time you met someone that knew Morse code? You never know when that might come in handy

Emergency Response

There are several local organizations that one can be involved with to help out with emergency management, such as ARES and RACES.

Weather Spotting

On a related note, there are organizations like SkyWarn, which is part of NOAA, where ham radio operators can help keep an eye on the skies and report on inclement weather.

Socializing

I’ve been on the internet since it became available to the average man (ca. 1993-ish), and a huge part of it is just keeping in touch with other people. Radio, however, was around way before anything like instant messaging, e-mail, or even IRC was available.

These are just a few reasons, and I’m excited to discover more!

My “Rig”

My biggest problem after getting licensed was getting my hands on a radio. I didn’t want something too restrictive, but I didn’t have a lot of extra cash to blow on something that, let’s face it, is pretty much a luxury. It is a hobby, after all.

Everything I read recommended that new hams pick up a decent mobile rig that could at least handle two bands. The rationale, as I understood it, was to get new people onto the air with equipment that offered decent power and didn’t keep them stuck on the 2m band (most of the more inexpensive radios are 2m only). Some folks did recommend handhelds since they’re so portable, but more experienced people seemed to suggest that a handheld may not be powerful enough and may get a newbie frustrated.

My personal thought was that a handheld (commonly called an HT) would be the most convenient since I wouldn’t need a power supply and a separate antenna. I live in the KC metro area, and there are many repeaters I would have access to. Because of that, I figured the relatively low power output of an HT wouldn’t be too much of a problem. Plus, I found quite a few dual- and tri-band options out there in HTs that weren’t all that expensive.

After reading a lot of reviews on eHam.net, and other web sites, I decided to go for the Yaesu VX-3R. There were two main motivations: for one, it’s a dual-band radio (2m and 70cm). Second, I was able to pick one up for around $150.00 which allowed me to get in with very little investment.

So far, I’ve been pretty happy with the little thing—and it is little. I’d say it’s about the size of your average cell phone. In fact, it’s smaller than my iPod Touch, not including the length of the antenna. It’s packed with several features I’ll never use, but for what I’ve done so far, it’s been great. I plan on grabbing a better antenna, since I don’t think the stock antenna is all that great.

I’m sure I’ll get myself a better mobile rig at some point, but for now the VX-3R is doing the job just fine.

Contact!

I had my first real contact yesterday with W0DLJ on the K0ECS repeater at 145.470 MHz band! It was a simple radio check, but it was fun to actually talk with someone rather than just listen.

Welcome to KD0FRY.com!

I’ll be posting something useful shortly… just trying to get things off the ground. Stay tuned!