Why Amateur Radio?
A few years ago I had a passing interest into getting into Amateur Radio. The thought of it was pretty cool and it had been a thing I had wanted to do for quite a while. I got some study materials and went and passed the foundation test. I got my first callsign, Vk5FJDE, which is now defunct (the F is dropped), and then never touched it again.
Fast forward a few years and the interest is renewed, but now I am going at it with full force. What sparked my interest? An oddly seperate, yet similar technology, the Helium Network
Helium is meant to be a “Network for the people” where individuals setup a Hotspot, then others can use it. The hotspot owner makes HNT tokens when people use their hotspot to access the network, and the user pays HNT tokens. I read that the Helium network makes around 30% of this transaction in fees. I like this model as it promotes contributing more then you use; if you are providing 30% more network capacity then you use throughout, then you shouldn’t need to pay.
The next steps
So now comes the fun part of picking what equipment to use next. So far, I am thinking I will get a VHF/UHF radio as an introduction. Though I eventually want to get into HF, VHF/UHF will always be useful for local communication and should provide a lot of easily accessible concepts that can be trialed.
Picking my first radio
Yaesu FT-2980R
I am looking at getting this radio from Strictly Ham for my initial setup.
This is an 80 Watt VHF fanless radio with selectable power output levels - 75/25/10/5, which lets me use it under the foundation license. It operates on the 2m (144mhz) band and costs around $295.
This Youtube video by The Tech Prepper shows the radio in use as a packet station, when equiped with a SignalLink, which also looks really promising for the use cases I want to get into.
Antenna
Fixed
The antenna on the FT-2980R uses a PL-259 type connector. So for my fixed antenna I am looking at getting a Diamond X-30M.
I plan to mount this on the roof and expect it to give me very good local coverage.
Mobile
The idea of taking the radio out and practicing with it is also quite appealing. My son, 2 years old, is quite into the adventure walking and we could have some fun going up hills hunting for signals. The atenna I am looking at getting for this is the Diamond CR-77. I may need to get an angle fitting so it points vertical when in use, but I haven’t considered that too much yet.
Study Resources
For study resources I have bought the ebook Australia Ham Radio Handbook by Peter Parker (VK3YE). I also purchased the book Radio Theory Handbook by Ron Betrand (VK2DQ) when I first did my foundation license which is very extensive and a lot of useful information so far!
o/out
With that equipment and some coaxial cable, we should be able to get on Air. Then I will be looking at my local amateur clubs to meet others in the space.