Ham Radio

[ForsakenConservative]

With all due respect asking what the best radio setup is is a bit like asking what the best gun is for beginners.

I'll tell you to buy a Glock 17 and then you'll tell me it doesn't work well for you shooting hogs at 400 yards.

What are you trying to do? Do you want to be able to talk locally, regionally, anywhere in the world? When you study for and take the various level tests you'll learn what is possible and be able to provide better input to those in the know that would be happy to help once you can specify your needs.

One thing most us men are bad with is realizing the radio may be the sexy part like a gun but the antenna does just about all the work. A million-dollar radio with a terrible antenna is like a gun with no ammo so get smart on antennas. It's not even a matter of needing to spend a ton of money on them it's more about knowing what design will work best for what you want to do.

Yup…… A good antenna is key.

My rig is an Icom IC705, here on vacation in Florida. It’s pricey, but offers a metric-crap-ton of features. With the small loop in this pic, I made contact into Vancouver Canada from my Harrah living room on 5 watts!
Using a home brew dipole in my back yard and a 100 watt amp, made contact into Italy.