[bars] New Ham/new Radio recommendations

[Richard T]

Well Rick, congrats and welcome to the Fraternal order of Ham Radio. You
pretty much have most of the research needed. But answer a few questions.
1. What bands interest you? If just 2 Meter ragchewing, a Vhf/Uhf rig may
be all you need. Yaesu has  many rigs  that will serve you well. They have
basic to full boat rigs available. If you like HF band work, Yarsu again
has a wide choice of rigs, starting with their FT 710 AESS SDR rig or the
FTdx10. The Icom 7300 is the Volkswagen of radios, good but now a bit
dated. The Yaesu rigs offer more bang for ham buck IMHO. As for antennas,
Diamond or Comet are good choices for Vhf/Uhf. For HF look at  Palomar
Engineers for their wire units, especially their Off Center Fed or their
Non Resonant End Fed models. If still unsure, trek up to HRO in Salem NH
and play with the display models there and ask a salesman your questions.
You may just be happy with a 2 Meter handheld. I own two (!) Baofeng UV 5RM
HTs bought on Amazon. The complete pair cost $70. This is two radios,
batteries, chargers and three different antennas plus earphone/mic and
programming cable. Hope this gives you some ideas and welcome to BARS.
RichieT
W1RJT

On Fri, Dec 27, 2024, 12:36 AM Richard Heckbert <richard.heckbert at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Happy Holidays everyone,
>
>
>
> I recently got into ham radio after retiring.  I purchased a QRZ-1
> Explorer handheld soon after getting my license and have been using it to
> check in to the Wednesday night net.  I replaced the stubby antenna with a
> hamstuff one and seem to be getting out much better but occasionally I
> still hear “I think I heard you say . . . “   My thought has always been to
> get a decent base unit eventually although to be honest I’m not sure if ham
> radio is for me (but I want to try!)  My wife asked for my Christmas list
> this year and I mentioned several radios that had been recommended on the
> hamradio and amateur radio subreddits on Reddit.  Unfortunately, if you
> follow those subreddits, you’ll know that for each recommendation asked
> you’ll get a hundred different suggestions that soon devolve into a Yaesu
> vs ICOM vs Kenwood battle.  My wife was even more overwhelmed than I so
> rather than purchase one she put aside a budget of $1,000-$1,200 and asked
> me to purchase it myself.
>
>
>
> So, I’m not sure what I really want to do specifically, at this point I’d
> just love to be heard a little better Wednesday nights!   I think I’d like
> a rig that gives me the most options – a shack in a box as they say.  I
> would also need an antenna and associated wiring although I’m not nearly as
> spry as I once was and I’m not putting anything in a tree any more.  Maybe
> an attic antenna?  I see ARRL has a new Indoor Antenna book out, has anyone
> looked at it yet?
>
>
>
> I’d ask on Reddit but I don’t want 100+ different opinions from 100+
> fellow Redditors so I figured you all (the local Elmers!) would be a much
> better place to ask.  I did get my Amateur Extra ticket recently so no band
> restrictions.  The rigs I’ve heard mentioned are (in no particular order)
>
>
>
> Yaesu FTdx-10 (might be too much of a stretch)
>
> Yaesu FT-991A (did see a nice used one on one of the forums for $875
> shipped)
>
> ICOM-7300
>
>
>
> But I am definitely open to others.  I’ve looked at used rigs but besides
> less features, there seem to be no bargains in that area!  I’ve thought
> about asking to borrow the club loaner rig but I don’t want to set
> something up only to have to take it down in a bit – it wouldn’t be fair to
> other new users/members to keep it too long (in my opinion).
>
>
>
> In addition to choosing a rig, I need to choose where to order if from.  I
> primarily research and purchase online.  A few places I’ve heard about are
> Gigaparts, DXEngineering, HRO in Salem, NH, any other good places to buy? I
> did look on eBay but right now, it seems lower power Japanese versions are
> the vast majority of offers.  I also worry about warranty purchasing on
> eBay.
>
>
>
> Just to throw this out, I have a background in electronics courtesy of the
> USN and I taught electronics at a trade school for a number of years as
> well as retired from a career in IT so I have this crazy idea that pops up
> occasionally to build my own gear?  Is this even done any more? I feel I
> might be biting off way more than I can chew with that approach.
>
>
>
> This might be a dumb question but are the included microphones decent
> enough?  In my way younger CB radio days the mic was the first thing you
> upgraded
>
>
>
> So, thanks for taking the time to read through this and many, many thanks
> to those who take the time to answer (and many thanks to everyone in BARS
> who also made me feel welcome)
>
>
>
> 73s,
>
>
>
> Rick Heckbert
>
> W1OLU
>
>
>
>
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