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Last month I passed the Technician class amateur license exam. With some studying, the test can be successfully passed on the first attempt. I scheduled my exam with the Greater Los Angeles Amateur Radio Group that was held at a Sizzler restaurant in Fullerton, CA. It cost $10 to take the test. They submit your license to the FCC electronically. I took the test on Saturday, paid my fee ($35) on Monday, and had my ticket and call sign by 1:00 AM Tuesday. It is very quick with their system. Those who pass the exam are given a 5W TYT TH-UV88 handheld radio, already programmed with the repeaters for the Papa System repeaters. They provide it to welcome you to the world of amateur radio. The whole environment was welcoming and fun. The Papa System has repeaters all over the southern California area and they have many modes, analog and digital. It's a great system to gain experience with your new license. They even hold a new hams net every Wednesday night at 7:00 PM. You can talk with others from the Mexican border, out to Yuma, all the way north to Ridgecrest and Santa Barbara on the coast. All of the repeaters are linked, so you can hear/talk over a very wide area. Just wanted to let people know that you can obtain your license in the LA area in an easy, convenient manner if you are in the area. The whole process was smooth and easy.

What's your favorite radio? Mine is a UV-5R and 5RH for HAM, and for GMRS, it is an APX 8000 and GM5RH.

I know people have a collection of radios, some digital enabled. I'm curious what digital voice modes do you have radios to operate? I want to specifically exclude hot spots, so it would be just base, mobile and HT's. Also what are the models and manufacture? It seems there are pockets of activity for different voice modes across the country including repeaters. Is the operation primary simplex, duplex through repeaters or both?

Hello folks, Some of you might be interested in our video series on deploying our club's GMRS repeater to our main repeater site. We are also currently in another video series where we are building a GMRS repeater to deploy at our secondary site. We do have several other Amateur radio frequency repeaters in service but GMRS is still an important service for us all to use and to provide to our community. LCARA Ham Radio https://youtu.be/eXd9tePdM1g Chris Perry KY4CKP WRAS843

Lately I've been perusing some of the 900 MHz commercial radios for sale, and thinking Hmmm... Repeaterbook lists lots of 33cm repeaters, including several in my area. Maybe now's the time to make a move into a new band. Anyone here using the band?