Different kind of radio questions

[guest01]

The question on what to buy has been asked over and over, I'm sure. My question involves what features you look for and what features to avoid when buying. Both in a transceiver and handheld. I have gotten some feedback from a few people, but I'd like to get as large a sampling of the good/bad as possible. Any other advice for someone who is completely new at this would be appreciated. I'm willing to spend some money on good quality equipment, but don't want to make the mistake of overlooking something obvious.

[5B4AJB]

Depends what you want to do with it really...

Handheld:- DTMF & CTCSS (subaudiable tones) are pretty standard now, but most (all?) repeaters use CTCSS and if you want to play with Echolink etc, you'll need DTMF.

Mobile:- I'd say big display, easy to use, fairly basic, quick to use.

Base set is another set of questions altogether, depending what you want to use it for.
Memories:- do you really need thousands or will your PC control the memories?
I.F. shift:- yes, I like these, even the digital ones (hi).
Might be worth condsidering the optional filters too, again, depending what you want the radio for.

[2E0JTP]

What kind of operating are you going to be doing?

[guest01]

What kind of operating are you going to be doing?

Good question. Brand new at this, so I don't have an intelligent answer to give. I'll be starting in on the ground floor, but should progress fairly rapidly. Will want equipment that I can grow into for at least a year or so without having to upgrade. I would like to avoid getting into this and realize a month later that I could have gotten something better for just a bit more money.

[2E0JTP]

You are asking the equivalent of:

"I would like to purchase a vehicle, but I'm unsure whether to purchase a boat, a submarine, a car, a motorcycle, a jet fighter, or a soyuz space rocket. Can you suggest which has the most useful features?"

Amateur radio is such a wide and varied hobby that there is no simple answer.

Perhaps you could try to indicate what area of operation you are interested in participating in to start your journey into amateur radio?

[K7KBN]

Also, knowing where you are could help us determine if a particular radio is suitable ...

[AB3NK]

The key to Amateur Radio is to buy the very best radios that you can afford to buy and avoid buying junk.

The Axe I grind the most is not wasting your money on a hand held.
If you really want to buy one, I will sell you one of mine CHEAP.
Handhelds are designed to be used LOS - Line of Sight.
If you were to work a civic function such as a parade or were helping to put up antenna's for field days or a club function, then a handheld is great.
As far as it being good as a primary radio, they suck.
If you live in a city, you can use one to hit your local repeaters a couple of times, but the hassle of having to keep the batteries charged, and no external antenna - by that I mean when working in a mobile, and a lack of power, doesn't make it a very good radio for much of anything.

A moblle radio, you want one that does all of the frequencies that you desire to transmit on while in a mobile.
When I bought my mobile radio, I asked the salesperson at Ham Radio Outlet which radio would suit my purposes the best and their answer was the Yaesu 8900R..
The reason I say this is because it will work on the 10 meters, 6 meters, 2 meters and 440 - right out of the box.
The downside is - it does not do single side band and it only puts out 40 or 50 watts depending on band.

Truthfully the 706, 849 or other multiband radio would have been a much better option.
But when money is hard to come by and a HF moble runs around $1000.00 - you buy what you can afford.

By the time I bought 120' of good coax, my 8900R radio, a programming kit - I had spent about $750.00 anyways.

Remember a power supply will probably cost you $100.00 on top of that and it is easy to get $1000 into even a cheap mobile by the time you buy a good antenna and put it up.

A moble multiband Larsen antenna might run you another $100.00

So nothing about amateur radio is cheap.

On the flip side, a Base Station radio will cost no less then $1000.00 new and a good one will be about $1500.00 to $1800.00 for a entry level rig.

Don't buy used.
Buy something new with a warranty, that is rated as high as possible for its class of radio.
A cheap radio that doesn't listen very well will not suit your purposes very well if you like to listen or talk.

A old Hybrid radio might listen fairly well and transmit good, but is a real pain when the band conditions are real noisy.
It better to have a radio that listens and talks well then one that talks better then it listens.

[5B4AJB]

equipment that I can grow into

Try a single band multimode, 2m is a good place to start, fairly small antennas, easily obtainable kit.
I don't think there are many multimode sets, be prepared to pay a bit more for one.

FM VHF/UHF only radios seem fine for local ragchewing, but SSB opens up so much more.

Have a look at the Yaesu FT290 & FT290mk2, they are well (ahem) established (read old), have loads of mods, you can use batteries and take them portable (and mobile with 12V) I have a mk2 with 25W linear. The only gripes I have with it is only 9 memories and the linear is relay operated so switching time is a bit on the slow side (for digital stuff).

There are HF/VHF multiband multimode transceivers, but you can add a grand onto the price for this kind of radio, maybe in a few years you can reconsider one of these...

[Orion]

jet fighter everyday

[2E0JTP]

A moblle radio, you want one that does all of the frequencies that you desire to transmit on while in a mobile.
When I bought my mobile radio, I asked the salesperson at Ham Radio Outlet which radio would suit my purposes the best and their answer was the Yaesu 8900R..
The reason I say this is because it will work on the 10 meters, 6 meters, 2 meters and 440 - right out of the box.
The downside is - it does not do single side band and it only puts out 40 or 50 watts depending on band.

Truthfully the 706, 849 or other multiband radio would have been a much better option.
But when money is hard to come by and a HF moble runs around $1000.00 - you buy what you can afford.

By the time I bought 120' of good coax, my 8900R radio, a programming kit - I had spent about $750.00 anyways.

Remember a power supply will probably cost you $100.00 on top of that and it is easy to get $1000 into even a cheap mobile by the time you buy a good antenna and put it up.

A moble multiband Larsen antenna might run you another $100.00

So nothing about amateur radio is cheap.

Couple of questions.

How big is your car?!?

Why do you need a power supply for your mobile setup?!?

[g0jvb]

If your not in one your local radio club join it, many hams will allow you to view their gear so you can decide what you really need, for your needs rather than well meant guess work from us, we all have different views as to what is a must atb, Mike.