Dear Mr President Trump...

[WRQI583]

33 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

It’s shut down now anyway.

I heard something about that. I had a few Ham friends try to get me to buy one of them and I said no way. Good choice lol.

[SteveShannon]

12 minutes ago, WRQI583 said:

I heard something about that. I had a few Ham friends try to get me to buy one of them and I said no way. Good choice lol.

There are at least a couple alternatives. I never knew anyone who bought anything. The people I know just used discarded business voip phones and signed up. That’s what I did anyway. 

[WRYZ926]

1 hour ago, WRQI583 said:

Depends on if the OP has a general license or not, AND if they get into contesting. Personally I cant stand contesting. These days, it seems like Ham Radio is either contesting or Emergency Management. Not much going on in other areas, of course, depending on the area you live in

A technician can work 10m SSB along with CW on 10m, 15m, 40m, and 80m. CW is excellent for QRP (low power). This would allow a technician to do POTA and SOTA activations on HF. 

I always have a GMRS and a dual band 2m/70cm radio with me when I do POTA activations. You can work POTA on 2m/70cm.

POTA and SOTA are not contesting so one can work the WARC bands as a general or extra.

There are plenty of ways to deploy a simple wire antenna and keep it hidden from Karen and the HOA's

I've heard a lot of negative comments from the old curmudgeons like; digital modes isn't real radio, GMRS is just the UHF version of the Chicken Band, you aren't a real amateur if you didn't have to know CW (morse code) to pass your exam, etc, etc.

Radio is what you make of it regardless of which service(s) you use.

Back to keeping my blood levels down to an acceptable level in my caffeine system 

[HamsterDancer]

Kinda mean spirited writing a letter to a guy who can't read? 

[WRQI583]

19 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

You can work POTA on 2m/70cm.

Lol, Try doing that where I live. You "might" catch a local depending on where you are, but more often than not, you will hear crickets. I know there is a lot you can do with Ham, thats why I like it, but some things take a lot of time to learn and many areas of this country do not have anyone on the receiving end. Band conditions aren't always good. This is much of the reason I rarely use the radio. Believe me, it pains me but I can't force people to like what I like, or to actually get on the radio and do something useful and I especially cannot control the sun. If you happen to be in an area where you get activity, then kudo's to you. I am glad it works. All I am saying is that radio is not uniform in all areas of this country. There are many dead zones in Ham Radio and GMRS where radio works, the operators don't.