Announcing the QRZ New Ham Jumpstart Program

I'm glad to see a program like this for some people. But I'm really amazed at how some people, who can obviously afford a radio will take advantage of this. I see some of the QRZ pages that are set up for some of these "hams in need of a free radio." Pictures of radios, and other expensive hobbies. It's like a well-off person applying for food stamps. My old ham friends were right all along - Hams ARE cheap!

 

For some reason it is saying I am ineligible even though my license was just activate on 9/27/22 can you please help me resolve this so I can apply for the radio? Thanks KQ4DMB

 

The latest CHIRP release (as of Oct 2, 2022) shows support for this radio. When downloading or uploading under CHIRP's "Radio" menu, use the selections:
Vendor: Explorer
Model: QRZ-1

I haven't tried it yet.

 

Ok Thanks
K1JWM

 

Thank you so much for this amazing little radio. It works fantastically. I am very impressed.

 

You are on point. I’m just as excited or maybe even more excited than you. As I share my excitement with others, I too am looking forward to in turn gift the free radio to a friend or relative if the program is no longer available. I’m glad that your old friends are just as excited as you are. It so exciting to finally be among you and your old friends.

 

Thank you de KD2ZZJ, Robbie, this will be gifted to local club or Junior op that might have recently passed their exam!

 

I got this and its a pretty great deal. I'm brand new to this and fresh out of the Army and the people i've met through HAM have been tremendous and always willing to help me learn new things.

 

Got my Technician license last month and happened to hear about this program on a Ham radio podcast. Put my order in and hope to have the QRZ-1 soon. I'm excited to see what the radio will do as the reviews I've read so far have been pretty good. The design looks similar to my Radioddity GM30 GMRS handheld, which is a breeze to program through the on-board menus and performs quite well. Looking forward to the same ease-of-use and good performance with the QRZ-1. Sounds like the folks at Gigaparts and QRZ have gone the extra mile to design a user-friendly radio that's perfect for new Hams starting out, not to mention offer it at no cost.

 

Are we feeling bitter? Or maybe you're the one paying for this; then again, maybe NOT. I think you'd benefit from watching Notarubicon YouTube videos. He has a program for "sad HAMs".

 

????

 

Let me see if I understand correctly what you've suggested. Instead of awarding the radio to the new ham operator, just give them a $15 credit to buy an antenna for a radio that they don't have or a book to study to upgrade their license. After all it wasn't "work" to study and pass the exam to get the license or pay for the test and FCC license. Right?

 

Perhaps you should re-read the ENTIRE quote as I suggested that instead of a particular item they give those who qualify a gift certificate of equal value that the recipient could spend on a ham radio item of interest. Not every new ham wants an HT

 

Just remember: if something is free, you are the product.