[geeks] new HAM on the net

[Michael Parson]

On Thu, 9 Jun 2011, gsm at mendelson.com wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 08, 2011 at 08:46:46PM -0500, Michael Parson wrote:
>
>> That's been bothering me since I wrote it, was sure why until I read
>> it again just now.  I guess didn't get enough sleep last night, I
>> meant 70cm and 2m.
>
> Ok, I'm familar with the radio, I don't have one, but it's a hot
> little rig also being OEM'ed by Yaseu.  If you know how to solder, you
> can make a better antenna for a few dollars.  The standard "better"
> antenna is called a J-Pole and you can make it from 300 ohm twinlead,
> 450 ohm ladder line or rigid copper pipe (which is called a "copper
> cactus").

I do know how to solder, in fact, I kinda want to build a radio from a
kit, but that will have to wait for time and money.

> A better antenna would be a beam antenna which can be made from wire
> and a long piece of insulator, usually wood.
>
>> Gonna have to save up for an HF set, even on ebay they run more than
>> I can spend right now.
>
> eBay is probably the worst place to buy one from. You can find a
> decent HF rig without the WARC bands for around $200-$300. Looking at
> the prices on eBay for the Buy It Now rigs, you can get 2-3 of them
> for the price listed.
>
> Best thing to do is if you live in a relatively populated area, start
> monitoring the swp nets on local repeaters.

Just found the info for the local swap net, I'll lurk on there for a
while.

> Here's one I saw doing a search on QRZ.com. Heck if I had the money or
> could convince my wife I needed ANOTHER radio, I'd buy it.
>
> http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?300107-FT-817

Now that's some great info.  Thank you.

I'll keep an eye out on there once I get a better idea of what kind of
rig I want to set up.

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson at bl.org
Austin, TX
KF5LGQ