Passed ham tests Wed night

yup, that is a Fail! Congrats and hope you like your call sign - or at least "learn to love it".

Ill be up there tommorow sometime, I'll know later today or tonight about when, to do some toy shopping. Dunno if you want to meet up or have plans for lunch. Also, they are still needing some bodies down here for the hill climb, if any of you are avail that sunday, let me know, I'll forward you to the right people.

The Call Sign isn't all that bad. I think, however they gave me all the letters of the alphabet that are hard to distinguish over the radio. I'll be doing a lot of phonetic spelling to folks.

The guy I talked to said for the repeater we were using there were no dues required. How can I tell if a particular repeater requires dues? I don't want to be using some repeater and not supporting it like I should.



Sorry Singlestack, i hope I haven't hijacked your thread, if I did just let me know!

Beau - I sort of consider this thread to be "all things ham radio" - which is what you were talking about - so I consider it the same topic.

Street - which Sunday is the hill climb?

Looks like 6/30/2013 singlestack. Needing 10 more people at least from the roster.

Is it worth it to request a vanity callsign, or does everyone just take what they get? I don't have anything in mind, but was wondering if I should bother trying to come up with something...

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Originally Posted by Singlestack

Thanks Sroz. BTW, becoming a ham is pretty darn cheap. The exam (however many you are able to pass in one sitting) costs $14. The radio (Baofeng UV-5R) with accessories (antenna upgrade, additional high capacity battery pack, rainproof speaker mic with cord, USB programming cable) cost $114. Then this morning bought an up-to-date sheet with all of the state of CO repeaters on it ($3). Thats $131 for everything, including tax and shipping.

Russ at Ham Radio outlet said that he would be happy to talk to any of you guys looking to get into ham and walk you through what you need to do. Although I went the cheap route on the radio, Russ does recommend some better Yaesu models that they carry at the store. I wanted to go cheap, since I didn't want a lot invested if for some reason it wasn't for me.

One thing he suggested was starting a COAR-15 radio net and prepare to use it if SHTF. Might be useful to find out who is interested, and maybe schedule a meeting to figure out how involved people want to get and what the net should be used for.

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Just received my UV-5r as a fathers day present from our daughter. She got me the extra battery, usb cord / cd, taller antenna and ear piece for $60. The usb and antenna is in transit. Not to get reading and learning.

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Originally Posted by Brian

Is it worth it to request a vanity callsign, or does everyone just take what they get? I don't have anything in mind, but was wondering if I should bother trying to come up with something...

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Some people get vanity signs, some of which are kind of funny, others just fits the holder of the license. I saw one down here that said N0MUD. Yep it was a big 4wd. Sometimes you end up with a cool one. I've had a couple of gamers ask if mine was a vanity. Only reason I'd upgrade to extra and get a vanity, would be to drop a letter from my callsign.

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Originally Posted by jim

Just received my UV-5r as a fathers day present from our daughter. She got me the extra battery, usb cord / cd, taller antenna and ear piece for $60. The usb and antenna is in transit. Not to get reading and learning.

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Jim, if you haven't already gotten a bunch of stuff, what worked for me was to read the book by Gordon West. It was short, to the point, and did not have any extra information in the book to confuse me, plus I am easily bored when I am reading something, so the book was real short and I thought that was good. It started off with a few pages of background, then it got right into each question. Gave the question, 4 possible answers, a brief very brief description along with key words, and finally the answer, then on to the next.

Whenever I had free time in my phone I would take the practive test over and over again at: http://www.eham.net/exams/

I also had flash cards I got from the Ham Store off of Iliff for 20 dollars, and I would carry 20-30 of them around with me. I passed the test pretty easily.



The best upgrade for my Baofeng (I have two and tested all the 'upgrades' side by side) is the 14" antenna which is the best, the extra capacity battery, and the external microphone.

Ohh! And I got a radio belt clip cup holder mount for in the truck. Works really nice.

Hey Jim - nice Dads day present! The tests are really not difficult and you will pass easily if you drill on the practice tests, if nothing else. Welcome to the club. The UV-5R is a very capable dual band HT, and an absolute steal for the $$. Amazing they can create, market, and sell something that awesome for about $50...