Getting (back) into Amateur Radio
So back in April 2022 I got my Foundation Amateur Radio Licence. The world was still doing a lot of things online - and I actually did my test as well as my "practical" component over Zoom. I passed both, and submitted my paper work and shortly after I was licenced and ready to get on the air.
At the time there were a couple of us all in Australia / VK but in different locations that got our licences. I bought a Baofeng UV-10R from AliExpress. I got the package with the extra aerials and programming cable. The battery has USB-C charging too.
It was a pretty inexpensive way to get into the hobby. I used CHIRP to program in a list of local UHF/VHF repeaters and started trying to listen in to some local nets and the WIA Sunday morning news broadcast down here in Australia. I had some success. I managed to receive from a few different repeaters - however transmitting was far more hit and miss. I played with a few other aspects (APRS beacon via radio, Winlink email). And then my interest died off. Reflecting on it now a couple of years later I think it was just life happening and a lack of time with full time work and two primary school age kids.
Fast forward to the beginning of 2024 and something drew me back to amateur radio. All of a sudden I was consuming as much Ham radio on YouTube as time would allow me, to learn everything I could. I was chatting to the small group I knew that were already licenced and looking for more people to chat to about radio all the time. I decided it was time to invest in a radio beyond the Baofeng HT I already had. I did a bunch of research. Like the "first" anything you buy when you get into a hobby it's hard to know what to get. You're not sure on your criteria, your usage, how much you want to spend and everything else. I was looking for something akin to a "shack in a box" - i.e. a good all-round radio that can do "lots". I also wanted something somewhat portable - as I REALLY like the idea of portable operation (more on that in future posts). After consuming everything I could, I made my choice both of what to get - and just as importantly who to get it from (given I was fortunate enough to be able to buy new). I settled on an ICOM IC-705 from DXing here in Australia. If you are in need of radio gear in Australia - the service from DXing has been amazing. I would absolutely recommend them next time you're looking to buy some radio gear. A week later a box arrived in the mail on a Friday afternoon and I couldn't wait to open it.
This radio is AMAZING. While I thought I had a good idea of what I was getting - the more I use it and the more I watch/read on it, the more I learn it can do! I've learnt to drive the ICOM software to program it, and how to drive it manually. I used it for a month or so with a with a similar antenna (Nagoya 771) to what I had on the handheld with a small aftermarket bracket that fits onto the side of the radio and also helps the radio sit at a better angle for use:
As long as I operated outside on the back deck the performance was "ok". I could receive more than I could with the Baofeng, and I was getting better signal reports when transmitting than I was on the Baofeng. I was joining evening nets most nights of the week, and sometimes the morning nets when life/work would allow.
I then turned to the subject of antennas. Both VHF/UHF and HF, fixed and portable - given this radio is going to do all of the above. Antennas just generally are something I will be learning about for a LONG time to come - however I was sure I wanted a better permanent fixed VHF/UHF antenna at home. So I ordered a Diamond X50-N from Andrews Communications, and some decent coaxial cable to use for this permanent install. I had a look at getting on the roof to do the install myself - but after having a look inside and outside elected to have someone come out and do it. I called a few TV Antenna places here on the Gold Coast and there was only one that called me back and was happy to do a "radio" aerial. The others said they only did TV antennas. Weird but ok. The install was done pretty quickly - more quickly than I expected (in terms of when they could show up to do it). So much so it was on the roof and cabled in - and I didn't have a female N-Type to male BNC to be able to connect it to the radio!
I've also joined a local radio club - The Brisbane Amateur Radio Club. When trying to figure out which club to join, I was a little spoilt in that there are 4-5 radio clubs all within about the same distance from my QTH. After joining the nets for all of the different clubs and getting to know the folk as well as understand what the club is up to I was very keen to join BARC. They are an amazing bunch of folk that have embraced things like Zoom and Slack, portable activations, fox hunts, digital modes and good old-fashioned VHF/UHF and HF nets. If you're in the Brisbane/Gold Coast area absolutely come check them out!
Now the reason for this blog post after such a gap since the last one? Like most hobbies, since diving back into radio this year I now have about half a dozen different little projects on the go that are all radio related and like previous posts (that were all pretty heavily retro computer related) I'd like somewhere to write them down and keep a small record of it all. So, expect more radio related posts this year as all the different aspects and projects take shape at different rates.
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