Radios & Antennas For Technicians

Gotcha. I wasn't referring to those (or the preppers who buy a Baofeng in case the phone system collapses), but the ones who get licensed in order to experiment with radio. Those are the ones who, upon getting their Tech, are immediately inundated with suggestions they upgrade and get on HF. Nothing wrong with HF (it represents half to two thirds of my on-air time), but there's also nothing wrong with VHF either.

The others are probably better suited to GMRS.

Chris

 

I meant cheap as in 100 bucks or less....... no hf rig is gonna be cheap like that. you can buy HT's all day long for 25 bucks but not a HF rig. Here in the states a HF rig in decent condition goes as low as 250 bucks but that's not normally the case ,usually 350 on up. Building antennas is cheap especially wire antennas.
What amazes me is the people that shell out 50 to 350 dollars for a antenna made of wire...... not a beam not a vertical but a wire antenna. So of course the DIY crowd can do this with their eyes closed, the new Tech...... maybe not so much.I built my first dual band ground plane out of wood and #8 uninsulated copper wire. It was really ugly but it worked great.I am getting off topic. Just need to say that for a lot of new Techs, they aren't exactly interested in building their own. Just buy and try ..... then their stuff ends up listed for sale on here

 

Let's compare oranges to oranges. We cannot compare portable 5 watt single-band FM radio to a 100-watt multi-band CW/SSB/AM base radio. What can be compared with Baofeng? QRX. Voila!

 

FT8: Midnight Designs Phaser at less than $100 with enclosure. There's a Phaser II out now that covers 10m. Techs have data access in 10m.
CW: Rockmite at less than $30 without enclosure, but folks frequently stuff them in mint tins. Techs have CW privs in the HF bands.

I'm sure there are others, but those came to mind immediately.

As for HF SSB, for a Tech that means 10m only. There's a Radio Shack rig that does 10m SSB+FM+AM and frequently sells for about $100. While 10m isn't the most active band, there are openings and the antenna requirements are modest.

That's a failure of the ham community. We focus on getting Techs upgraded to General or Extra in order to get onto HF without encouraging exploration of their existing privileges. We treat the Tech license as a license to use repeaters and then wonder why they get bored and leave or use their HTs as primitive cellphones.

Chris

 

I forgot all about those kits...... they still make them?

 

Yup, I found both for sale online before my post.

Chris

 

A few things:

The original video made it clear that it was for VHF/UHF, but the obvious question was what about HF? I pulled out my Technician Exam Manual and I was surprised how little there was about HF operating and propagation. It’s really up to the Technician licensee to explore it or another ham to introduce it. The cost to operate HF? Buying all new you probably need $1,000 for a 100 watt rig, power supply and basic antenna & tuner. You could spend less with used gear, but you probably need advice from an experienced amateur to make smart purchases. I think QRP would be challenging for the average new op and not everybody will be good at kit building.

I have a Xiegu G90 and with a power supply/battery and a basic antenna you can be on the air for around $600 and be capable of portable operation.

I wouldn’t look down on ops who want to work VHF/UHF for local contacts. If they’re n the hobby, they can stick with that, or branch out.

 

I have watched clubs turn out Tech wholesale. They needed or wanted manpower for public service. Some stayed. Many did not. Same club used to have a Novice class that had a build class with it. You finished with a transmitter if you wanted too. Most of those guys stayed. Dad and I mentored several Hams. All of them except two are still Hams. One lost interest real quick but got a job in electronics. The other worked DXCC and went on to the next challenge.

FT8 has changed 6 meters. Plenty of DX with a modest setup. Plus many areas have SSB nets. In 1963 6 meter AM was the place to be! Dad stayed a Tech for years because all he did was 6 meters. Then he wanted to get on 10 meters and upgraded. Did not go back to VHF until we got a repeater.

There is still CW in the Novice sub-bands. Listen around 7.110

If there was no repeaters or DMR Tech would go where the action is. Many of us had to put away 2-meters to get that CW speed up to upgrade.

When you struggle and grow together you form life long friendships. Some of them will change your life!

I had 23 channel SSB rig converted to 10 meters. It was a fun radio. I jumped on the Radio Shack 10 meter radio. Still a fun radio!

 

I just got a technician class license (December). I had a Kenwood TS-440 that I bought on Ebay many years ago when I was first interested in amateur radio. I built a 10 meters dipole and tried to make some contacts; I was disappointed (the TS-440 had some issues which I am working on fixing). When I finally got a hold of some people on 10 meters they said my audio was bad (I think I have fixed that issue on the 440), but I also got a Xiegu G90 which you mentioned, and that has been a really fun radio. After having learned much more about ten meters, and understanding that in the lower parts of sunspot cycles 10 is only open during favorable E-skip events, I have been having a blast with G90 (sure, much of the time there is nothing on 10). The waterfall display is great, I get good audio reports, and when 10 meters is "open" it's amazing what can be done with 20 watts. I've occasionally switched over to the TS-440 (now that it is working better) a few times when I needed more power, but mostly I use the G90. When I want to upgrade, the G90 is still perfect for portable use etc. so I don't look think it was a bad choice.

 

Congratulations and welcome to the hobby. Glad you are enjoying the G90, but the perfect accessory is a General license. If you have enjoyed 10 meters, you would have access to bands which are open all day (although not at the same time). Go for it!

 

My first "rig" was an FT60, but not surprisingly the new-car smell and limited (FM v/uhf only) capabilities were not feeding my hunger for HF phone. HF is what fascinated me on 11m so long ago and continues to do so today. Soon after the FT60 purchase, I picked up a used Realistic HTX100. Ah, now we were talking... and It's only spiraled out of control since then, LOL.
I may be wrong, but I like to think there are a lot more techs and want-to-be techs out there who are attracted to amateur radio for the same reasons...HF to talk to the world without repeaters or the internet.

 

I need this. KD2VQG

 

Agreed. Local comms don't attract new users. CB will do local comms AND they can work "skip" when it's in. Or the hobbyist can use MURS if they're too cool for CB. Ham radio VHF/UHF privileges aren't much of an incentive to be a ham. Technicians operating VHF/UHF is about as exciting as calling your mother-in-law on a cell phone. Most repeaters are dead now, anyway. Recent cross-country trip I had CB and 2m/440 running simultaneously. CB was active the whole way, while I only heard ONE active ham repeater in over 1500 miles of highway. I can see why Techs would quit the hobby before getting the chance to explore HF. They're not going to dump a big chunk of money into a hobby if they're not sure they'll like it. Entry level VHF/UHF cost is negligible, when you can get a dual-band Baofeng for $30 but an entry level HF rig will cost $600 and up -- and the HF antennas present a new set of challenges, too (a rubber duckie won't do). VHF/UHF is utilitarian (like a cell phone) but the magic is on HF. When a new ham can toss a wire into a tree and tune up a 40m SSB contact with 2.5 watts and talk to a station halfway across the country, he'll be hooked! I'd like to see manufacturers come up with some entry-level QRP radios designed to get the techs hooked on HF. Right now the Yaesu FT-818ND is a great choice, but at around $600, it's not quite cheap enough to be a technician fishing lure. I wonder if Baofeng could be convinced to build an inexpensive little SSB handheld that'd cover 40/20/10 meters... ;-)
73,
- WB1CDG

 

You start with an incorrect assumption that Technician+VHF must equal repeater.
How often did you listen to the simplex calling frequencies? I hear activity on 146.52 often around here, especially if I'm in the mountains and SOTA activators are out (I'm one and frequently talk to mobile users while activating a summit).

If a tech will break away from the repeater mentality and attempt to take advantage of directional antennas, elevation, etc, they can get into relatively long distances with a mere 2m HT. Is it a cross-country contact over HF? No. Is it "boring"? Depends on how much you're trying to stretch the mode and hardware. I personally find stretching "utility" radio to near triple digit distances quite exciting even after years of using HF. I still use HF, but VHF has its own charms and is pretty accessible to most.

While HF goes further and there is a thrill in using "2.5w and a wire" to talk across the country, sometimes it's nice to just pull out an HT and handheld Yagi, and get into the next county or two counties over. Check out some of the FM SOTA videos on Youtube. There are guys there stretching the capabilities of an HT, experimenting to see what works better between j-poles, yagis, etc (the results might surprise you), and doing more than just talking to their neighbors on the local repeater.

Chris

 

I've never assumed that Tech plus VHF equals repeater (you must be referring to someone else). On my cross country trip, I'd pre-programmed all of the repeaters along the route (from the ARRL Repeater handbook) and included the old standbys of 146.52 and 146.94 (common simplex frequencies) as well. Didn't hear a single simplex signal at all. CB radio was MUCH more useful.
Above, I just agreed with the general proposition that there a lot of fun in HF contacts that you can't match with local VHF contacts. Sure you can take a 1.5W handie and rubber duckie up a mountain and make impressive contacts a hundred+ miles away (I've done that), but it's hard to do that from your den after a long day of work and you only have an hour of "ham time" before bed. You can get into a daisy-chain repeater network and talk to someone a great distance away, too, but that's as exciting as a cell phone contact. But being able to flip a switch and play with HF propagation from the convenience of your man cave makes it a lot easier to be a ham. Congrats on your VHF successes! If a new tech finds it more exciting than VHF, all the better! But I suspect more new hams would find HF more "magical" -- at least I did. Fortunately ham radio is big enough to accommodate HF operators, SOTAfans, and all the crazy new digital modes. We're a broadband bunch. Group hug!
73!
- Dave