questions about entry level ham operation and testing..

[WRZF693]

HI Folks.. 
Now that I have GRMS and see the strengths and weaknesses of the same I kind of want to explore ham. Especially the ability to talk on the HF frequencies which are the longer range frequencies I understand. That said, I don't want to spend thousands of dollars.. Is it possible to take the test and get the technician license and use two handhelds on HF bands which is I think called the 10 meter and or 6 meter band? Is iit possible to talk say a hundred miles with those frequencies via handhelds of say 10 watts and do they make handhelds for the HF frequencies?  Or, do you have to spend your life savings and pay off the national debt to buy a base station to use those frequencies may I ask and do you have to have a tower in your back yard 500 feet tall with a 100 foot antenna..  
Thanks in advance.. Hope my questions aren't annoying.. I'm just really curious. 

Best regards and thanks in advance. 
From the heartland. South Central Indiana. USA

Tim

[SteveShannon]

12 minutes ago, WRZF693 said:

HI Folks.. 
Now that I have GRMS and see the strengths and weaknesses of the same I kind of want to explore ham. Especially the ability to talk on the HF frequencies which are the longer range frequencies I understand. That said, I don't want to spend thousands of dollars.. Is it possible to take the test and get the technician license and use two handhelds on HF bands which is I think called the 10 meter and or 6 meter band? Is iit possible to talk say a hundred miles with those frequencies via handhelds of say 10 watts and do they make handhelds for the HF frequencies?  Or, do you have to spend your life savings and pay off the national debt to buy a base station to use those frequencies may I ask and do you have to have a tower in your back yard 500 feet tall with a 100 foot antenna..  
Thanks in advance.. Hope my questions aren't annoying.. I'm just really curious. 

Best regards and thanks in advance. 
From the heartland. South Central Indiana. USA

Tim

Hi Tim,

To get right to the point, no, you can’t talk hundreds of miles using a five watt 6 meter or 10 meter handheld radio, except in the most unusual circumstances.
Finding a handheld radio for 6 meters would be difficult. Handhelds for 10 meters might be available but they’re few and far between. 
But you also do not need to pay off the national debt to get into the HF bands. I have a Yaesu FT891, which is about $670 and a wire antenna I built from a kit for $70. I hold the center up with a fiberglass pole about 30 feet in the air. On a daily basis I can usually talk several hundred miles away but not always and not always in the same direction. California seems easy but I can’t reach my friend in Seattle. Mostly that’s on 40 or 20 meters. I hear almost nothing on 10 meters. 
There are other radios like the Xiegu G90 that is less expensive but has a lot of support. I don’t have one but they’re about $450. 
I also have a Yaesu FTDX10 that costs about $1300. It’s my favorite for lots of reasons, mostly the ease of use. It’s not nearly as portable as the FT891. 

[WRQC527]

27 minutes ago, WRZF693 said:

Is it possible to take the test and get the technician license and use two handhelds on HF bands which is I think called the 10 meter and or 6 meter band?

You can get into 10 meters for around $200-$300 using something like an Anytone AT-6666. It's a mobile 10-meter radio that can be used as a base station with a power supply. There are pantloads of videos on this radio and others like it. 10 meters is getting very active now. I've made a lot of 10 meter contacts in recent months. In fact, my longest contacts with Australia, Europe and Japan have been on 10 meters. A technician level license gives you access to a portion of 10 meters. I have a Yaesu FT-891, and I normally don't run it at more than about 40 watts, with a very basic antenna. There is also a large selection of multi-band low-power radios that are sometimes hit-and-miss in the quality department, such as the (tr)uSDX and its Chinese knock-offs that are sub-$200. There are some handhelds like my Yaesu VX-7R that support 6 meters but it's normally FM and isn't going to transmit far. There used to be handheld 10 meter radios like the Magnum 10/12, but you can only find them used at this point. Some people were able to reach a few hundred miles on them, but only if the conditions were right. Have fun, get the Technician license.

[PA141]

Do a bit of shopping in the used market and there are some 80's/90's HF radios that you can get for around the same price.  It is best to have someone experienced shopping with you.  There are a couple of monthly (?) ham swaps in Socal.  Radios such as Kenwood TS-120/130 or Icom 730/735/740/745 would be something in that range.  I picked up a Alinco HF mobile for a friend for $125 at a swap.  Just have to be patient.  Will these have the latest features like soundcards, etc..., no, but still solid radios if not abused.

Having a "real" ham radio will typically outperform newer 10M / import CB radios and you aren't limited to just 10M propagation.

If you can open up your budget a bit to $4-500, the Icom 706mkII or IIg will give you HF plus 6,2M and 440 with the G model.  They Yaesu FT-100/857 might be found in this price class.

Get on one of the west coast web SDRs and listen to the swap net on 7240 kHz on Sat/Sunday around 1PM PDT.  Also the online swaps on qrz.com or qth.com.  Use those for reference on radios/prices.  Best to stay with local sales unless you are experienced.

[FlatTop]

What's your budget?  (what's max you can spend)

Do you have HOA restrictions on Antennas? 
What's your living situation? (home, apartment, camper?) 

You can study for your Technician and General Class license at hamstudy.org - my grandkids studied for two weeks and passed Tech on the first try.  They were 12. 

73 de KB9BVN

WRWI253

[Jonolvey]

Hi

You will enjoy the 10 M BAND it is now opening and IMAX 2000 or Antron 99 stick antenna 20' 30' up will work just fine and a lot of your 10 m c B's although frowned upon  is a minimal investment to see if you like it or not

[Jonolvey]

With a little research you could find some local ham clubs most are happy to meet new people and would be more than happy with technical advice and test question preparation

[Jonolvey]

The 6m band has an FM part . You can can get ht's for FM 6m .but you whill need to up grade the ant. Ebay has ladder line ant's cut for 6 M FM an 18 ft CB coax jumper and a couple of adapters throw your ladder line up in a tree and start waiting for FM openings on 6 M it's fun . 

[Jonolvey]

Oh ! on you hf question you could always go with a CB mobile one of the 10 meter brand CB'S a magent mount good CB antenna can easily be shortened to more than cover the 10 M BAND

[Lscott]

On 11/6/2023 at 4:15 PM, PA141 said:

If you can open up your budget a bit to $4-500, the Icom 706mkII or IIg will give you HF plus 6,2M and 440 with the G model. 

I would recommend ONLY the 706MKIIG model. There were some issues with the previous ones. I ran the IIG mobile for a number of years in a van when I had only my Tech Class license. It was a riot! I made some long range DX contacts on 6M SSB and a few on 2M SSB.  At that time you needed the Tech Plus license to use anything below the 6M band.

If you buy one used see if you can get the remote kit for it. The front face plate can be detached allowing the body to be located out of the way.

IC-706MKIIg.pdf

[WSCU465]

Just to put my two cents here.  Communication of hundreds of miles depends on many propagation factors for 10 and 6 Meters. You have to wait until the band conditions open up.  A handheld will not do much justice, you need a HF Rig or good mobile radio, but most importantly a good antenna.

Quite honestly, I don't they manufacture handhelds for those bands. At least not in the U.S.  I could be wrong, lol

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, WSCU465 said:

Just to put my two cents here.  Communication of hundreds of miles depends on many propagation factors for 10 and 6 Meters. You have to wait until the band conditions open up.  A handheld will not do much justice, you need a HF Rig or good mobile radio, but most importantly a good antenna.

Quite honestly, I don't they manufacture handhelds for those bands. At least not in the U.S.  I could be wrong, lol

Well, they don’t manufacture handhelds in the U.S., so there’s that.

Yaesu made the VX-7, which does 6 meters, 2 meters, 220 MHz, and 70 cm.  They’re still around and very durable.

Some of the CB radios can be unlocked for 10 meters.  One mobile I read about yesterday simply has a jumper to choose 10 or 11 meters.  It’s very possible that company makes a similar handheld. It might have been Alinco.

[WRXB215]

It's my understanding that there is a firmware update for the Quangsheng K5 that allows HF and even CW. It's an interesting radio. People can write their own firmware for it.

[WRYZ926]

I have the Wouxun KG-Q10H quad band hand held that does 2m, 1.25m, 70cm and 6m. I have talked to guys on 6m FM with it when they were only a few miles away from me. But I have not been able to talk to anyone farther away with it. Most hand held radios are going to be FM only on 6m.

6m is called the magic band since you have to wait for conditions to be just right to talk over longer distances. You would be better off with a mobile or base radio for working 6m. 10m is effected by the solar cycle too. Again a mobile or base radio would work better.

[WSCU465]

I didn't know there was a market for 10 and 6 meter HT's.  Very interesting!

 

[WSDB576]

I'd like to suggest another possible approach. Check into 2 meter and 70 cm. repeaters near you and see if they are linked to the East Coast Reflector or similar system. If so this will do what you want. Google East Coast Reflector for more info. Hope this helps you.

73,

KC8HQA

[WSDB576]

I'd like to suggest another possible approach. Check into 2 meter and 70 cm. repeaters near you and see if they are linked to the East Coast Reflector or similar system. If so this will do what you want. Google East Coast Reflector for more info. Hope this helps you.

73,

KC8HQA

[WSCU465]

Another option is to get your Ham Radio Tech license, this will open up more privileges as a radio hobbyist. Then you can use repeaters in digital modes like D-Star, C4FM, DMR, etc to talk all over the nation or the world for that matter.  Honestly, you're not bound to traditional analog repeaters anymore.

 

[AdmiralCochrane]

On 6/1/2024 at 5:40 AM, WSCU465 said:

Another option is to get your Ham Radio Tech license, this will open up more privileges as a radio hobbyist. Then you can use repeaters in digital modes like D-Star, C4FM, DMR, etc to talk all over the nation or the world for that matter.  Honestly, you're not bound to traditional analog repeaters anymore.

 

And Echolink

[Lscott]

10 hours ago, AdmiralCochrane said:

And Echolink

And IRLP, Internet Radio Linking Project.

https://irlp.net/