Interested in getting started with amateur radio? Read on.  My goal is to present to you a concise overview of the different aspects I find appealing, and to share with you a few lessons I learned along the way.

Getting you license

I wish I had discovered ham radio earlier in life, but regardless, I’m happy that I discovered it at all. Amateur radio as a hobby is so vast to the point that if someone were to ask me what you can do with it, I would have a hard time narrowing down a particular area one could focus on.  Perhaps this characteristic of the hobby also makes it overwhelming to get started.

That’s where I found myself a few years ago– interested in amateur radio, but clueless how to get started.   It didn’t take long though to discover that there are handful of resources that can help you get started.  Perhaps one of the best places to start is on the ARRL website.  The ARRL is the national association for amateur radio and not only do they advocate for the amateur radio hobby, they play a vital role in the licensing process.  I won’t repeat the same information that you can find on there, but below are some things you’ll definitely want to keep in mind.

• In order to transmit on the air legally, you need to apply for an amateur radio license that is administered by the FCC (Federal Communication Commission).
• There are currently 3 classes of operators (Technician, General, Extra), each with a particular limitations on transmission privileges, and each with an accompanying test that you need to pass before you are legally allowed to operate on each particular frequency allocation.  Each test gets progressively harder but every time you upgrade your license class, you get less and less restrictions on what you can and can’t do on the air.
• Tests are generally taken at a local ham radio club but there may be other  venue opportunities too.  For testing locations and times, the ARRL offers a search tool where you can find the nearest test site with dates when they are offered. http://www.arrl.org/find-an-amateur-radio-license-exam-session
• Most test sites have a test coordinator that you can email ahead time to confirm your attendance and answer any questions prior to the exam.
• The test itself is based on a pool of questions that are freely available for study and the tests are multiple choice.  The ARRL offers a free exam study website that you can practice taking the exam, but there are other options for study such as local study group sessions, online review websites and some really good study guides.
• Something I missed while preparing for the exam is that you can take all three exams in one sitting (also bring cash).  You have to pass the exam for each license class before moving on to the next, but the takeaway is that if you plan well, you could pay one exam fee (usually $15 at the time of this writing) and you could go from Technician to Extra class in one session.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary to get your license but I hope there are some helpful pointers to help you get on the air faster.  For more information, I recommend you check out http://www.arrl.org/getting-licensed

Congratulations! So you got your license, now what? Well, I said before that this hobby has so many options.  From my own experience, below are some aspects of the hobby that I have spent some time on and hope that it might spark some interest for the reader as well.

VE(Volunteer Examiner)

It’s worth noting that behind the scenes, the logistics to get someone licensed relies on an army of volunteers that give back to the hobby by helping support exam sessions all across the USA.  VEs (Volunteer Examiners) complete an open book test that covers the regulations and standards of the licensing exam so everyone has a homogeneous exam experience.  It doesn’t cost anything to take the exam, so I highly recommend pursuing, if that is something that sounds exciting to you..

VHF/UHF

A big part of the amateur radio hobby is to nurture community.  And a  cheap and easy way to get started and to participate is to get on the VHF band. These frequencies are usually well suited for local communications, either point to point or through a local repeater.  The equipment to get on these frequencies is also a lot more affordable and all you need is a technician license to legally operate on those frequencies.

According to those that have been in the hobby a long time, there has been a steady decline of activity on the local frequencies.   Don’t be discouraged though, luckily many clubs are still active and you can jump on a regularly scheduled net or strike up a conversation from time to time.

A really cool part of the hobby that also operates on this frequency range is satellite operations.  I personally haven’t done satellite operations yet but it is on my bucket list.  Satellite operations takes a little more planning because you have to schedule your exchanges based on the flight path of the satellites at your particular location– but that’s what makes it so fun and exciting.  I hope to be able to share some personal experiences on this topic soon.

HF

One of my favorite parts of being a ham is getting on the HF bands.  Listening to transmissions from “across the pond” at night is really cool given that the distance  between you and the other person could be in the thousands of miles.  HF band does require you to put up a more complex set up but the effort is totally worth it.    You will be able to find a lot of literature on different antenna types that might fit your particular available space.  Something I heard early on when I started in the hobby is that any antenna is better than no antenna. Absolutely! Don’t listen to the forum threads, or editorials about hobbyists who have acres of space belittling the “compromised” antennas.  Do what works for you and get on the air!

DMR

A relatively new development has been the use of digitally encoded voice protocols to communicate between hams.  There are many different codec protocols out there (i.e. System Fusion, D-Star, AP25)  but the one I have experience with is DMR– particularly the Brandmeister network.   In simple terms, DMR allows you to use a radio in the classical sense but the audio is digitally encoded as a data stream before transmission, and this capability is augmented with an internet backbone that gives you the ability to reach someone thousands of miles away as if they were on your local repeater.  DMR requires you to get a unique ID to get on the particular network but once you do that you can get a rich experience of active talkgroups, in case your local repeater isn’t that active.  Another popular aspect of this slice of the hobby is the use of mobile hot spots where no DMR repeater is available.  These hotspots give you the ability to tap in to the DMR network’s ethernet backbone and creates an extension of the DMR network right to where you need it (i.e your home, car, campsite, etc).  The other thing I’ll mention about DMR is that because all the audio traffic ends up on the internet, it’s pretty easy to listen in on a talkgroup even if you don’t have a DMR ID.  For example, Brandmeister offers a website that allows you to listen the live audio stream of any talkgroup on your PC.  Check out https://hose.brandmeister.network/

Winlink

Winlink is basically email over RF.   A desktop application is needed to use this service.   If you can imagine using a dial-up modem to access the email servers– then you understand what winlink is all about.  When you register for an account, you end up with a <your_call_sign>@winlink.org domain email address.  The main application for this service is emergency communications / disaster response. Checkout https://winlink.org/

APRS

APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) is a network of repeaters that collects position beacon transmissions and uploads them to an online database.  The way I use it is when going on hikes, or during the commute, I can basically send a message with my GPS location and it shows the position history on a map. Check out  https://aprs.fi/

Digital Modes (PSK31, JT65, FT8, WSPR)

A really popular trend right now on amateur radio is digital mode operations.   There are many reasons for this popularity, but probably the biggest one is that it blends many aspects of the hobby in ways that other operating modes might not.   Digital protocols have existed for a long time now, but the accessibility of computing technology has really sparked a level of excitement around this area of the hobby.  The origin stories alone of some of the digital modes deserve their own blog posts, so I’ll save those for later. You should know that operating many of these modes takes very little power and can be done on a single board computer with modest computing power such as a raspberry pi or beagle bone black  There are popular software packages like FLDigi that are able to encode and decode many of these digital protocols.   You will  also be able to find as many software packages as the number of different protocols that exist today.  To get an idea of all the different digital modes, check out https://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/Category:Digital

Summary

This overview turned out a longer than I thought it would be, but I believe that speaks to the breadth of the amateur radio hobby.  My advice to you is to sample different areas of the hobby and find what gets you excited about this great hobby.

73,
K1EW