Hi there! My name is Josh and I’m new to Ham radio. Growing up I was involved in the scouts and earned the rank of Eagle. I worked at summer camp for about 10 years and one of the merit badges we taught in our program area was radio. It always intrigued me watching the local hams come in to show scouts how the radio worked. A friend of mine at camp was an operator himself and would tell me about the hobby. I actually took the novice test (I think it was called novice back then) a few times and failed. I was more worried about having fun with my friends than studying. That was 15 or so years ago and I never did go back to get my license.
All this time has passed and I haven’t really even thought of radio. So what gives now? I spend a lot of time on YouTube watching a variety of content. One of them falls into EDC, outdoors, guns, etc. It seems that amateur radio is gaining steam within these groups of people. The YouTube algorithm started popping radio videos in my feed and I would click them from time to time. The spark was igniting once again and I said…”why not get my license?”
One of the main channels I ended up gravitating to was Ham Radio Crash Course. As I jumped around from video to video I noticed he has a technician study playlist. That was stop one for me. I went through each video, which basically went through the question and answer pool, and hopped on HamStudy.org to do some practice tests. Now, I won’t lie. I very much just memorized the answers to a lot of the questions. The only ones I felt like I really had to dive into were the electrical questions with all of the formulas. Math has never been my strong point so I had to spend some time on those.
I probably only studied a week or so and found a local club that did tests. I signed up for their free test a few days out and decided to throw in to join the club as well (since most tests charge you anyways…why not give back to the people donating their time to administer the test?). I was a bit nervous as it had been god knows how long since I had taken a test, but I thankfully passed! I stuck around for their meeting afterwards and met a lot of people. The group seemed pretty nice and I think I could find a good home there within the club. I plan on going to their monthly meetings and participating in events going forward. It feels good, because other than drinking beers with the boys I don’t have a regular 3rd place or activity year round.
So what are the next steps?
- Buy a better HT. I have a Baofeng that I bought to use during my motorcycle racing escapades to listen to the track frequencies. I’ve been playing around with it, but I know I’m going to want something better. I’m currently leaning towards the Yaesu FT 5DR. I’m also going to buy a Signal Stick from Signal Stuff as a thank you for providing such an amazing study tool over at HamStudy.org. I also want to install an antenna on my truck for mobile operations.
- Start studying for General. I already know I want to do POTA and jump on the HF bands in general. I might as well get the general out of the way. I have parched the ARRL study book and have been thumbing through it each night. My goal is to be ready for the next club testing session in the upcoming month.
- Purchase HF radio and antenna. I was going to get a cheap 10m radio so I could hop right on HF, but I think I’m going to wait until I pass my general. Then I can grab the radio I really want. For the antenna I plan on buying something that I can use for POTA and at home (I live in an HOA so having a nice permanent antenna isn’t really an option). I also really want to dive into making my own antennas. If you have an opinion on this let me know at KF8DEF@gmail.com.
- Have fun. Once I get through these steps I’m just going to get out there and do the damn thing. When I find something that intrigues me I’ll dive into it and document my journey here on Hamateur Hour.
Thanks for reading my ramblings!