So many questions

[WSEN823]

Wow. I dove into the deep end and I’m not sure I know how to swim yet. I have lots of questions, too many to post on forums but I think I’m getting an idea of how things work. I was hoping to find a way to have a direct chat with someone who has patience and can help me understand and answer questions which will turn into many follow ups. I am in CT and was hoping to get some more basics understood. I am reading quite a bit but navigating all the technical jargon has been a bit overwhelming.

[dosw]

4 minutes ago, WSEN823 said:

Wow. I dove into the deep end and I’m not sure I know how to swim yet. I have lots of questions, too many to post on forums but I think I’m getting an idea of how things work. I was hoping to find a way to have a direct chat with someone who has patience and can help me understand and answer questions which will turn into many follow ups. I am in CT and was hoping to get some more basics understood. I am reading quite a bit but navigating all the technical jargon has been a bit overwhelming.

I wouldn't do direct chat. But why don't you post a few questions and we can see about knocking out answers for them?

 

At its most basic:

1. Get a license (which you have).
2. Get two radios.
3. Set the two radios to the same channel.
4. Set no squelch tones (aka, privacy tones, ctcss tones, privacy codes, subchannels, dcs tones). None.
5. You and your communications partner go a few hundred feet away from each other with the volume where it is comfortable.
6. One of you pushes the button on the side states his call sign, and asks if the other can hear him.
7. The other pushes the button on the side of his radio, states his call sign, and says yeah I hear you.

You're good to go.

Next step, if you start hearing lots of construction crews and kids playing walkie talkie, you both select a squelch tone and set the radios to that tone. Now you will only hear each other (everyone can still hear you though).

Then you come to the realization that you can only hear each other a half-mile to a handful of miles away, and not reliably. So you come to mygmrs.com and find repeaters in your area. You submit a request to the repeater's owner to use the repeater. He or she grants the request. Then you set one of the repeater channels in your radio correctly. You'll have questions on how to do that. Ask when you're ready.

[LeeBo]

1 hour ago, dosw said:

I wouldn't do direct chat. But why don't you post a few questions, and we can see about knocking out answers for them?

This is the best way.

You may post a question like "How do I....." and you'll get many different answers.  All of which are correct, just done in different ways as we all do things differently.

So, another vote for "ask away"!!!!!

[SteveShannon]

A third vote for asking in the forum rather than direct chat.  Questions in chat benefit one person only. Questions asked in the forum may benefit others.  I guarantee you’re not the only person with these questions, whatever they are. Don’t worry about asking what you might consider a dumb question.  As long as you ask it sincerely and honestly, someone will have the patience to help. Also, my experience, from asking questions a few years ago, is that people tend to forget any missteps anyway.

[dosw]

54 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

Questions in chat benefit one person only. Questions asked in the forum may benefit others.  I guarantee you’re not the only person with these questions, whatever they are.

This is exactly why I prefer not to use direct chat.

The other (less common) reason is sometimes there's no end to it.

[SteveShannon]

40 minutes ago, dosw said:

This is exactly why I prefer not to use direct chat.

The other (less common) reason is sometimes there's no end to it.

That’s right.  In the forums a person can tag out if they need, for whatever reason.  In a chat a person feels a greater sense of commitment which might not be welcomed.

[Hoppyjr]

In addition to reading, some Google searches will be helpful as you’ll find most answers to questions.

Doing a forum search is also a good move, as many new guy questions have been asked and answered.

Finally, I’ve found YouTube a decent resource too.

Good luck & Welcome.

[WSEL489]

I sent you a private message.

[WSEN823]

Thanks all. Learning as I go!