Amateur radio: a friendly competition, but I have to win

[DaveInDenver]

thanks!

I'm pretty certain that I'm getting a FT-7800 for the truck. This radio comes with the separation it until December 31 through all retailers, BTW. That's a $60 value.

Any thoughts about a dual band antenna?

Congrats! I have the FT-7800R and really like it. I think it's a good compromise, enough features and and doesn't break the budget. I use the Comet C767NMO with it and it's been a decent antenna so far. It's very flexible compared to most antennas, so it seems to take hitting trees and stuff in stride. The down side to that is on the highway it tends not to stand up very straight, which isn't ideal. But I'll take a bit of range hit on the highway for something that's not going to die a premature death. It has the fold-over feature, which I like since I have my aerials on the roof and park in a garage.

 

[HenryJ]

...Any thoughts about a dual band antenna?

I chose to use two antennas with a splitter-

I mounted Larsen NMO 1/4 wave antennas in the front roof rack feet.

BTW, The extension cable for the control head is just 6 conductor phone cable add a coupler and use the small included cable as the crossover.

 

[Pskhaat]

Passed my exam this morning!

Congrats! Look forward to some QSOs with you.

 

[k6uk]

Congrats!

Congratulations on getting your ticket!!
The 7800 is a great radio, I have two of them and they are just great.
Pick up the programming software it really helps a lot!

73!

-Mike
K6UK

 

[HenryJ]

...Pick up the programming software it really helps a lot!

Agreed. This has been better than the Yaesu Software - G4HFQ Software and
here is a source for a programming cable- ttl2usb.com

 

[articulate]

Sweet. Thanks fellas. My buddy also has the 7800 with the programming software. I'm all set there.

I can't wait to get my call sign and start "geeking out".

:camping:

 

[Desertdude]

Nice work Mark! :clapsmile your gonna really appreciate it in DV :smiley_drive:

 

[crawler#976]

Sweet!

You should be FCC approved by Friday! It'll be cool to have a newbie with a call sign higher than mine...I've had several comments on mine from old timers!

Take the time to learn how to program your radio manually - it makes changing things a lot easier on the fly.

Later

 

[DaveInDenver]

Take the time to learn how to program your radio manually - it makes changing things a lot easier on the fly.

True! The 7800 isn't too bad to program manually. which is actually the way I programmed mine since I don't have the software or cable. Still, I printed the owner's manual from a PDF doing 4 pages per sheet, double sided and stashed it in the Tuffy.

 

[k6uk]

Yeah, it's pretty easy to program.
But with 1000 memory channels, you can really take advantage of the banks, etc when you can copy and paste away!

 

[EoGuy]

Techician Class Ham radio license

With the entry-level license - the codeless tech license - you can operate all modes allowed in ham radio above 30 MHz.

These include but are not limited to slow-scan TV, fast scan TV (called HAM TV or amateur television), satellite communications, moonbounce, and voice on 6 meters, 2 meters, 1-1/4 meters, 70 cm, 33 cm, 23 cm and on up to light (literally).

EoGuy - the Esperanto Guy.
Mesa AZ