The technician class license isn't terribly difficult to get if you have any understanding of basic math and can memorize some facts. I've thought about going for my general but never really saw a reason to do so.
I've always thought that if there truly was an emergency, no one is going to pay attention to licenses, and I'm going to be handing out pre-programmed Baofeng radios to friends like they were crack samples down on 6th Street.
I've always thought that if there truly was an emergency, no one is going to pay attention to licenses, and I'm going to be handing out pre-programmed Baofeng radios to friends like they were crack samples down on 6th Street.
This has been my approach as well. Something about asking permission to communicate just irritated the shit out of me.
No one's going to pay attention to license information in a real, all-hands-on-deck emergency. That's a point I have to stress to people, if we need to communicate and I have a bag full of handies, everyone I know gets one.
Everyone and their mom is getting into radio.
Not really, amateur is kind of fading just like chickenband is.
I thought this way too. But radio communication isn’t easy, it takes practice to get it right, learning the time of day to broadcast, the band conditions, the sun weather, the correct antenna, setting up your antenna correctly dealing with radio interference, and much more. If you try to practice without a license, the hard core experienced Ham Radio Operators have a fun little game called Fox hunting. They will find you and turn you in to the FCC for a hefty fine and and a possible license ban.
What's the point of "fox hunting"? Who's harmed by unlicensed broadcasts?
In my little experience, the unlicensed operators are people who buy a $25 vhf/uhf baofeng radio, and drive around with their transmit button pressed, or shout obscenity’s, interfere with repeaters and generally cause trouble. They don’t know the customs and courtesy’s of radio communication. Don’t care and enjoy the disturbance they cause.
It’s a pleasant experience to contact good ham radio operators. If an unlicensed operator did follow the standards, most experienced ham operators would realize it quickly but their reaction would be to encourage them to get their license and offer to help.
I'm talking more about getting the license itself, not how radio propagates during different times of the day. The license is easy to get, but I've never bothered using mine. No need, I have a pocket comms device that I can talk to anyone in the world, and if SHTF it's going to be fuck licenses. A technician license is good for mostly 2M and 70CM anyway, and it's just a title to add to your name at this point. Sure, you can pop 1500 on 6M, but why?
They will find you and turn you in to the FCC for a hefty fine and and a possible license ban.
So they say. That didn't stop someone from blasting crap over the talk-in channel at Dayton. You'd think one of the larger Eastern conferences would have someone just waiting to take care of people like that. When I used to listen to 2M years ago, it would happen quite frequently.
The last two shows I attended, there were very few people selling modern transmitters, and only one had a new dealer - but even that I don't remember seeing much more than those shit all-banders that will splatter on every frequency and let you transmit on WB.
I haven’t been to a show, they where all canceled. But the radios I did buy have served me well. I bought a Hammocan from Quicksilver Radio while drinking and downed an ambien. The radio showed up and I had no idea I ordered it. (No more ambien for me.) that led me to get my license. After my license I bought a Yaesu Ft-891, complicated menu system but good fun. Then I got a pristine ICOM ICR-75 for a very low price. It’s a receiver but really good at teaching me how to pull in a signal. I have it hooked up to a magnetic loop antenna, that I can rotate remotely. I installed a Yaesu FTM-400 in my truck.
What I’m trying to say is I’m having fun and I enjoy this.
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