# any cheap HAM Radios?



## HVU (Dec 23, 2012)

My fathers might be getting a license for it but he wants to do a little research on what options we have, my father gott seriusly hurt when he was in the navy and cant realy work anymore, but i help him run a small private buisniss so he has some income, but we have 350 dollars MAX to spend, it doesnt have to be the best or anything like that, any tips on what we should gett?


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## GTGallop (Nov 11, 2012)

There is a Yaesu 75w that I've mentioned here a few times. I like it for various reasons. It isn't cheap but best radio for the dollar I believe.


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

Sorry, you need to learn something about ham radio first. 
Learn about the spectrum and what part you want to operate on.
Knowing this and the other test requirements, will pretty much then be self explanatory as to what your needs will be.
Ham Radio Outlet (a company) sells used gear all the time.
You do need that ticket to operate on the ham bands.


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## survival (Sep 26, 2011)

Yaesu, ICOM, Kenwood, and Alinco are the brand you want to stick with. 

If he is wanting to do only a 2 meter, then there is a Kenwood TM281A that is 65W at $139.95 right now. About a month ago they were down to $119 range, which I have a feeling they will go back down over time. This is a mobile type station, but of course could be used for a base station. Great for local repeaters and if he gets a good enough antenna ($30-40 bucks) mag mount, then he should be able to hit a lot of local repeaters and some others in a 40 mile range (not accurate, just from my experience). I would recommend a station like this first, then move up to the HF (High Frequency) type of tranceivers once he feels he likes ham radio. Your cheapest "new" HF are around $500 to start with.


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## whoppo (Nov 9, 2012)

HVU said:


> My fathers might be getting a license for it but he wants to do a little research on what options we have, my father gott seriusly hurt when he was in the navy and cant realy work anymore, but i help him run a small private buisniss so he has some income, but we have 350 dollars MAX to spend, it doesnt have to be the best or anything like that, any tips on what we should gett?


There are many flavors of Ham Radio... which flavors can be tasted depend upon what level of license is achieved.

For a Technician class license, it's pretty much VHF/UHF privileges (more accurately, the upper half of the 10 meter band and up)
10 and 6 meters offer opportunity for nation-wide communication when conditions are favorable. The higher in frequency you go (2 meters, 70 cemtimeters, etc), the more it becomes short-distance / line-of-sight communications. Wide area repeater systems can extend VHF/UHF coverage for many miles... 100's of miles in some cases. Repeaters with EchoLink (Voice over IP) connections can link to other repeaters regionally or internationally to expand communications to remote locations. If this is the type of ham radio licensing/operating that's in mind, the next question would be handheld? mobile? base?
If handheld, there are many choices under $350. If mobile, also a good number of choices, but factor in the need for a good mobile antenna... that's $50-$75 of the budget. If base, factor in a decent base antenna and a power supply.

For a General or Extra class license, the world of HF radio is opened up. This is relatively low frequency stuff, but offers failry continuous opportunity for world-wide communications. Reasonable gear for HF will probably cost a little more than your target budget, but not too much more.

If you can give us an idea of what type of operation is desired, we can probably make some reasonable suggestions for equipment.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

whoppo said:


> There are many flavors of Ham Radio... which flavors can be tasted depend upon what level of license is achieved.
> 
> For a Technician class license, it's pretty much VHF/UHF privileges (more accurately, the upper half of the 10 meter band and up)
> 10 and 6 meters offer opportunity for nation-wide communication when conditions are favorable. The higher in frequency you go (2 meters, 70 cemtimeters, etc), the more it becomes short-distance / line-of-sight communications. Wide area repeater systems can extend VHF/UHF coverage for many miles... 100's of miles in some cases. Repeaters with EchoLink (Voice over IP) connections can link to other repeaters regionally or internationally to expand communications to remote locations. If this is the type of ham radio licensing/operating that's in mind, the next question would be handheld? mobile? base?
> ...


Once you figure out what type of radio you want, I would check out either Ham City or Universal Radio. They have the best prices on the internet that I have seen.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this is not a cheap hobby. I got a bundle tied up in my radios lol.

Just like other things, I did not pick these up all at once. They have been acquired over a period of time.


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## Leon (Jan 30, 2012)

just be forewarned that many HAM operators you see will be self-important for little reason. A ticket is so easy to get it's laughable, a child can do it. I get interrupted constantly by other operators trying to self-police the airwaves. These people think they are special because they got a 15 dollar ticket. If you're looking to start a base station think again because it will be expensive and of little to no use to you. if SHTF, repeaters will not last too long on their batteries (if battery backed) and as it stands now, HAM operators can be some boring shitheads. Last guy I talked with seemed to be confused as to why I would want to initiate a conversation. This is what I'm talking about. There is no law or regulation that prohibits use of the HF to communicate but it seems to be an unwritten rule with HAM operators- "stay off my air"


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## HVU (Dec 23, 2012)

Thank you for all the good advices  I dont live with my father and i dont have any cash on my mobile phone atm so i wont be able to ask him about what kind of license he's thinking of getting untill in a couple of weeks when i see him. I might gett a license myself with time but thats gotta be in a year or two when i can gett a jobb so i can afford it, but i think i would go with a general license. Im asking theese questions for my father and not for me, hes pretty much completely off grid, he doesnt even have a computer anymore or else i would have sent him an email or something like that. Again I thank all of you for taking the time to answer my question as well as you can and i hope you all have a good day!


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## Gallo Pazzesco (Dec 22, 2012)

Excellent thread. Subscribed. Thanks


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## whoppo (Nov 9, 2012)

Leon said:


> just be forewarned that many HAM operators you see will be self-important for little reason. A ticket is so easy to get it's laughable, a child can do it. I get interrupted constantly by other operators trying to self-police the airwaves. These people think they are special because they got a 15 dollar ticket. If you're looking to start a base station think again because it will be expensive and of little to no use to you. if SHTF, repeaters will not last too long on their batteries (if battery backed) and as it stands now, HAM operators can be some boring shitheads. Last guy I talked with seemed to be confused as to why I would want to initiate a conversation. This is what I'm talking about. There is no law or regulation that prohibits use of the HF to communicate but it seems to be an unwritten rule with HAM operators- "stay off my air"


This is not the case everywhere...


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## GTGallop (Nov 11, 2012)

GTGallop said:


> There is a Yaesu 75w that I've mentioned here a few times. I like it for various reasons. It isn't cheap but best radio for the dollar I believe.


http://www.prepperforums.net/forum/general-prepper-survival-talk/2135-short-wave-ham-radio.html

Here it is. Sorry... Was on smart phone earlier.


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## WVprepper (Jun 28, 2012)

Good thread..it is something to think about doing....


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## HVU (Dec 23, 2012)

GTGallop said:


> http://www.prepperforums.net/forum/general-prepper-survival-talk/2135-short-wave-ham-radio.html
> 
> Here it is. Sorry... Was on smart phone earlier.


Thank you SO much for this link, im gonna recomend the " FT-2900E-B2 75W VHF FM Mobile Transceiver" to my father, and since im not old enough to gett a HAM license here in Norwa yet (Grrr :c) Im gonna gett myself one of these: Amazon.com: ETON Mini GM400 Super Compact AM/FM Shortwave Radio with Digital Display: Electronics So i atleast can listen to the broadcasts


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