Hello from PA, the state of confusion

Started by medic photog, September 07, 2013, 08:19:34 AM

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IT Tech

Hi,

You need to BUY or Borrow the ARRL or Gordon West - Technician Class License manual and the General Class License manual.

The problem with most people today is that they get into such a big hurry to get on the air that they only memorize the questions and the answers just long enough to get the license and then they quickly forget even the most basic of things that they had to put into their short term memory to pass the exams.

The CB radio had no license requirements, the early license just required you to buy a license and ID every 10 minutes.

The amateur radio has a whole bunch of rules, which they call the Part 97.
It is a good idea, if you want to become an amateur to read the Part 97.
You can find a downloadable copy online.

At least one forth of everything that is on every license exam pertains to the rules!

IT Tech

The radio part of the equation should be the least of your worries.

A good ham, that never was a ham once said to me, that a good ham listens about 90% of the time and only talks 10% of the time.

My first radio when I got back into the hobby was a old Uniden BC 890XLT and a old television antenna and rotor.   It has a decent amount of sensitivity and is programmable from 6 meters to 999 MHz.
As with many transceivers, the only thing necessary to receive the cell frequencies was to remove a blocking diode or resistor.

The most common CB radio would be the Cobra 29 - which does not require any license, does not do SSB - from what I remember and only produces a couple of watts.

The Ham radio mobile options - 847- 857D Yaesu, 706 - 7000 Icoms etc... will listen to the CB radio frequencies but will not transmit on them.  I would opt for a transceiver with a built in antenna tuner.

The Tarheel / Tarheel jr antenna is a good option for both  HF operations in your mobile.
The Larsen 2/70 antenna is a very highly regarded mobile whip.