12 ms·

I know that every hobby can become outrageously expensive if you really want to, but what would it cost someone to get started with amateur radio?

JshWright 7y ago
<$100 for a cheap handheld VHF/UHF transceiver (which would allow you to hit local repeaters, play with APRS, talk to satellites/the ISS/etc, etc). Yaesu is a pretty solid "cheap" brand. BaoFeng/BTech is a less solid, even cheaper brand (my advice would be to avoid them, despite the fact that that's where I started...)
- HenryKissinger 7y ago
  What could one get for a $500 budget?
  - Gracana 7y ago
    I'd recommend getting something that can do HF, because that's where things get interesting. For 500, maybe you can get a used FT-857D. You'll need a power supply, too. And an antenna. If you have a local club, talk to the folks there and tell them you're interested in getting started. Someone might have stuff to sell or give to you.
    - jimhefferon 7y ago
      > If you have a local club, talk to the folks there Second this. I'm VP of an active club and for someone with a real interest we can do a lot. Here is a way to find a club, in the US: http://www.arrl.org/find-a-club http://www.arrl.org/find-a-club
    - mindcrime 7y ago
      I'd recommend getting something that can do HF, because that's where things get interesting. That kinda depends on what you consider "interesting". IMO, there's plenty of "interesting" stuff to do on 2m / 70cm, plus anything you can do in receive only mode on other bands. But to me, "interesting" includes things like listening in on air-traffic control using an RTL-SDR, participating in the local ARES group, working the local repeaters in voice mode, and experimenting with decoding various digital modes. This is not to say that working HF doesn't open up additional doors, because clearly it does. My point is just that there's a lot of fun to be had with just what you can do with a Technician license, a $40 Baefung radio, and a $25 RTL-SDR dongle.
      - Gracana 7y ago
        > This is not to say that working HF doesn't open up additional doors, because clearly it does. That's basically it. Shit, I was a tech for twenty years, but never did much because I wasn't interested in club stuff or chatting on the local repeater. At some point I got an RTL-SDR, but dealing with noise and frustrating software issues killed my interest in it... Then around the time my license was up for renewal again, I studied for a week and got my extra ticket, and bought a rig that could do HF-70cm and suddenly I was able to try anything that interested me. If you've got a $500 budget, you can do the same... no reason to limit yourself.
  - TallGuyShort 7y ago
    It depends on what you want to do with it. I bought a Yaesu FT-60 (which I'd recommend to start with) and the first upgrade I got was a much nicer antenna and some equipment to charge it in event of a power grid failure, and I'm probably at around $500 all-in. If you want to get into satellites, you'll want to a specialized antenna for that, and then it helps to have a computer setup or a fine-tuning dial that can help deal with the Doppler shift and tracking, etc. Then you're easily getting up there in price, probably well past $500. The other thing I've seen people do is set up extreme long-range setups. They'll get the General license that allows them to use frequencies that bounce around the atmosphere better and build their own antennae, get higher-power transmitters, etc. and their rigs are easily into the thousands of dollars.
  - jquinby 7y ago
    With a handheld radio and a Technician License, you can get on the air via local repeaters, work the VHF/UHF satellites, tinker with APRS (using something like this: http://www.mobilinkd.com/ http://www.mobilinkd.com/). $500 will get you a good HF rig, but as another comment mentioned, you'll need to factor in the cost of a DC power supply, some decent coaxial cable and something to use for an antenna. Antennas can be dirt-cheap - just wire cut to length and lofted however you can. /r/hamradio is a solid online resource. There's a semi-official IRC channel too.
  - taborj 7y ago
    I mentioned it elsewhere, but a Baofeng or other inexpensive dual band (2 meter (144Mhz) & 70 cm (440MHz)) radio plus something like a uBitx (https://www.hfsignals.com/index.php/ubitx-v6/ https://www.hfsignals.com/index.php/ubitx-v6/) full-band (0.5Mhz - 30Mhz) HF radio, plus a copy of the ARRL's Antenna Book (http://www.arrl.org/arrl-antenna-book http://www.arrl.org/arrl-antenna-book) and some wire will see you far less than $500 and get you on most bands. If you prefer to buy not build your antennas, you can still do that for less than $500 all in, you just might have to look at used antennas.
- lozaning 7y ago
  I run a handbuilt BITX20 for HF fun almost exclusively these days, but I got started with a Baofeng and would absolutely recommend them to anyone looking to check the hobby out.
  - JshWright 7y ago
    Yeah, I'm always back and forth on Baofeng... At the end of the day, it's a very cheap, but (generally) functional HT. The downside though, is that they can be very frustrating in some environments (esp with a high noise floor, or with a strong transmitter nearby - the frontend is _very_ easy to overload), and they're generally pretty bad about spurious emissions (though the newer tri-band model seems pretty good in that regard).
paulirwin 7y ago
I started with a $25 RTL-SDR v3 kit that includes two antennas (for VHF and UHF, approximately). That allowed me to listen in on 2m and 70cm band repeaters, and familiarize myself with the language, etiquette, modes, etc. I recommend that to anyone that is interested in amateur radio, and you can still make good use of that stick once you get a transceiver, by using it as a spectrum scope / waterfall. From there, a $40 Baofeng will allow you to get used to the feel and operation of the radio, just don't transmit until you get your Technician license. You can sometimes get the Technician study book for free from ARRL by signing up for their welcome packet, or check it out from your library. The exam costs $15 or less, and you can cram study for it at hamstudy.org. (The few-dollar HamStudy mobile app is also worth the cost.) That gets you a SDR with spectrum scope and waterfall, a portable HT UHF/VHF transceiver, and your Technician license, for ~$80. From there, you can look into getting your General license to transmit on HF, and a cheap HF radio and antenna, for less than $500 total. A higher quality HT like an Icom or Yaesu would be money well spent for VHF/UHF, as the Baofeng is notoriously hard to program and allows you to transmit outside the legal band limits. (Note: the RTL-SDR works best for VHF and UHF. For an HF SDR, you'll want to check out something like the Airspy HF+ Discovery and perhaps a cheap $30 magnetic loop antenna from eBay, which is what I use.) Edit: My apologies for the acronyms. SDR is software defined radio, allowing you to receive radio signals on your computer. HT is "handy-talkie" or handheld transceiver. HF/VHF/UHF are defined in the parent post.
- taborj 7y ago
  A couple of notes to add: * https://hamstudy.org/ https://hamstudy.org/ is the go-to place to study for your license, and it's free. Use it, love it, thank the devs after you get your license. * Don't listen to the naysayers (which aren't as loud these days), a Baofeng radio is a perfectly acceptable first radio, and it's impossible to beat the price. * If your interests tend towards the tinkering with electronics side, you can pick up inexpensive/generic RTL-SDR dongles cheaply (less than $10) and modify them to receive HF. Or use them as-is. * For zero dollars, you can use someone else's web-connected SDR, such as https://websdr.org/ https://websdr.org/ * Look around at the various digital modes (there are many, with FT8 and WSPR being the most popular at the moment), especially if you're into computers. Many allow a structured way to get familiar with things without worrying about messing up on the etiquette front. * For an HF rig, the uBitx (https://ubitx.net/ https://ubitx.net/ & https://www.hfsignals.com/ https://www.hfsignals.com/) is hard to beat, and they just introduced a new version (v6). $199 with a case ($150 without) will get you a full-band, all mode, dual VFO 10 watt radio. That's unbelievable value for an HF rig. Add an amp later on for more power. * For HF especially focus on making/buying good antennas before you go spend a bunch of money on radios.
themagician 7y ago
Amateur radio can be as expensive or inexpensive as you want it to be. I've drifted in and out over the years, and recently found myself really enjoying a super basic 2M handheld (ICOM V-80) which can be had for $50 on eBay. It's so simple you can easily memorize every function, and it's surprising that even something so basic has so many functions to explore. I think that's why I like it so much. Now in the digital era, you can spend $250 on a handheld that can literally reach any spot on the globe. The primary digital platform for amateur radio, D-STAR, allows cross-band communication by connecting to the internet. A lot of the cost of amateur radio is people trying to get the best equipment possible to transmit and receive via FM modulation over the longest distances with the best possible audio quality. But that's just one aspect. That's what costs a bundle, but there's much more to it than just that. IMO, what's interesting about radio is that, if you know how to use it, you can get a message from anywhere to anywhere else on the planet… or even low earth orbit. It requires minimal infrastructure and it can work with AA batteries. The community is very friendly and people are happy to help/relay messages. Honestly, amateur radio, for me, is a lot of what the internet used to be when it was difficult to use. Since amateur radio is still relatively difficult to use it keeps the trolls away.

JshWright 7y ago

<$100 for a cheap handheld VHF/UHF transceiver (which would allow you to hit local repeaters, play with APRS, talk to satellites/the ISS/etc, etc). Yaesu is a pretty solid "cheap" brand. BaoFeng/BTech is a less solid, even cheaper brand (my advice would be to avoid them, despite the fact that that's where I started...)

HenryKissinger 7y ago
What could one get for a $500 budget?
- Gracana 7y ago
  I'd recommend getting something that can do HF, because that's where things get interesting. For 500, maybe you can get a used FT-857D. You'll need a power supply, too. And an antenna. If you have a local club, talk to the folks there and tell them you're interested in getting started. Someone might have stuff to sell or give to you.
  - jimhefferon 7y ago
    > If you have a local club, talk to the folks there Second this. I'm VP of an active club and for someone with a real interest we can do a lot. Here is a way to find a club, in the US: http://www.arrl.org/find-a-club http://www.arrl.org/find-a-club
  - mindcrime 7y ago
    I'd recommend getting something that can do HF, because that's where things get interesting. That kinda depends on what you consider "interesting". IMO, there's plenty of "interesting" stuff to do on 2m / 70cm, plus anything you can do in receive only mode on other bands. But to me, "interesting" includes things like listening in on air-traffic control using an RTL-SDR, participating in the local ARES group, working the local repeaters in voice mode, and experimenting with decoding various digital modes. This is not to say that working HF doesn't open up additional doors, because clearly it does. My point is just that there's a lot of fun to be had with just what you can do with a Technician license, a $40 Baefung radio, and a $25 RTL-SDR dongle.
    - Gracana 7y ago
      > This is not to say that working HF doesn't open up additional doors, because clearly it does. That's basically it. Shit, I was a tech for twenty years, but never did much because I wasn't interested in club stuff or chatting on the local repeater. At some point I got an RTL-SDR, but dealing with noise and frustrating software issues killed my interest in it... Then around the time my license was up for renewal again, I studied for a week and got my extra ticket, and bought a rig that could do HF-70cm and suddenly I was able to try anything that interested me. If you've got a $500 budget, you can do the same... no reason to limit yourself.
- TallGuyShort 7y ago
  It depends on what you want to do with it. I bought a Yaesu FT-60 (which I'd recommend to start with) and the first upgrade I got was a much nicer antenna and some equipment to charge it in event of a power grid failure, and I'm probably at around $500 all-in. If you want to get into satellites, you'll want to a specialized antenna for that, and then it helps to have a computer setup or a fine-tuning dial that can help deal with the Doppler shift and tracking, etc. Then you're easily getting up there in price, probably well past $500. The other thing I've seen people do is set up extreme long-range setups. They'll get the General license that allows them to use frequencies that bounce around the atmosphere better and build their own antennae, get higher-power transmitters, etc. and their rigs are easily into the thousands of dollars.
- jquinby 7y ago
  With a handheld radio and a Technician License, you can get on the air via local repeaters, work the VHF/UHF satellites, tinker with APRS (using something like this: http://www.mobilinkd.com/ http://www.mobilinkd.com/). $500 will get you a good HF rig, but as another comment mentioned, you'll need to factor in the cost of a DC power supply, some decent coaxial cable and something to use for an antenna. Antennas can be dirt-cheap - just wire cut to length and lofted however you can. /r/hamradio is a solid online resource. There's a semi-official IRC channel too.
- taborj 7y ago
  I mentioned it elsewhere, but a Baofeng or other inexpensive dual band (2 meter (144Mhz) & 70 cm (440MHz)) radio plus something like a uBitx (https://www.hfsignals.com/index.php/ubitx-v6/ https://www.hfsignals.com/index.php/ubitx-v6/) full-band (0.5Mhz - 30Mhz) HF radio, plus a copy of the ARRL's Antenna Book (http://www.arrl.org/arrl-antenna-book http://www.arrl.org/arrl-antenna-book) and some wire will see you far less than $500 and get you on most bands. If you prefer to buy not build your antennas, you can still do that for less than $500 all in, you just might have to look at used antennas.
lozaning 7y ago
I run a handbuilt BITX20 for HF fun almost exclusively these days, but I got started with a Baofeng and would absolutely recommend them to anyone looking to check the hobby out.
- JshWright 7y ago
  Yeah, I'm always back and forth on Baofeng... At the end of the day, it's a very cheap, but (generally) functional HT. The downside though, is that they can be very frustrating in some environments (esp with a high noise floor, or with a strong transmitter nearby - the frontend is _very_ easy to overload), and they're generally pretty bad about spurious emissions (though the newer tri-band model seems pretty good in that regard).

paulirwin 7y ago

I started with a $25 RTL-SDR v3 kit that includes two antennas (for VHF and UHF, approximately). That allowed me to listen in on 2m and 70cm band repeaters, and familiarize myself with the language, etiquette, modes, etc. I recommend that to anyone that is interested in amateur radio, and you can still make good use of that stick once you get a transceiver, by using it as a spectrum scope / waterfall. From there, a $40 Baofeng will allow you to get used to the feel and operation of the radio, just don't transmit until you get your Technician license. You can sometimes get the Technician study book for free from ARRL by signing up for their welcome packet, or check it out from your library. The exam costs $15 or less, and you can cram study for it at hamstudy.org. (The few-dollar HamStudy mobile app is also worth the cost.) That gets you a SDR with spectrum scope and waterfall, a portable HT UHF/VHF transceiver, and your Technician license, for ~$80. From there, you can look into getting your General license to transmit on HF, and a cheap HF radio and antenna, for less than $500 total. A higher quality HT like an Icom or Yaesu would be money well spent for VHF/UHF, as the Baofeng is notoriously hard to program and allows you to transmit outside the legal band limits. (Note: the RTL-SDR works best for VHF and UHF. For an HF SDR, you'll want to check out something like the Airspy HF+ Discovery and perhaps a cheap $30 magnetic loop antenna from eBay, which is what I use.) Edit: My apologies for the acronyms. SDR is software defined radio, allowing you to receive radio signals on your computer. HT is "handy-talkie" or handheld transceiver. HF/VHF/UHF are defined in the parent post.

taborj 7y ago
A couple of notes to add: * https://hamstudy.org/ https://hamstudy.org/ is the go-to place to study for your license, and it's free. Use it, love it, thank the devs after you get your license. * Don't listen to the naysayers (which aren't as loud these days), a Baofeng radio is a perfectly acceptable first radio, and it's impossible to beat the price. * If your interests tend towards the tinkering with electronics side, you can pick up inexpensive/generic RTL-SDR dongles cheaply (less than $10) and modify them to receive HF. Or use them as-is. * For zero dollars, you can use someone else's web-connected SDR, such as https://websdr.org/ https://websdr.org/ * Look around at the various digital modes (there are many, with FT8 and WSPR being the most popular at the moment), especially if you're into computers. Many allow a structured way to get familiar with things without worrying about messing up on the etiquette front. * For an HF rig, the uBitx (https://ubitx.net/ https://ubitx.net/ & https://www.hfsignals.com/ https://www.hfsignals.com/) is hard to beat, and they just introduced a new version (v6). $199 with a case ($150 without) will get you a full-band, all mode, dual VFO 10 watt radio. That's unbelievable value for an HF rig. Add an amp later on for more power. * For HF especially focus on making/buying good antennas before you go spend a bunch of money on radios.

themagician 7y ago

Amateur radio can be as expensive or inexpensive as you want it to be. I've drifted in and out over the years, and recently found myself really enjoying a super basic 2M handheld (ICOM V-80) which can be had for $50 on eBay. It's so simple you can easily memorize every function, and it's surprising that even something so basic has so many functions to explore. I think that's why I like it so much. Now in the digital era, you can spend $250 on a handheld that can literally reach any spot on the globe. The primary digital platform for amateur radio, D-STAR, allows cross-band communication by connecting to the internet. A lot of the cost of amateur radio is people trying to get the best equipment possible to transmit and receive via FM modulation over the longest distances with the best possible audio quality. But that's just one aspect. That's what costs a bundle, but there's much more to it than just that. IMO, what's interesting about radio is that, if you know how to use it, you can get a message from anywhere to anywhere else on the planet… or even low earth orbit. It requires minimal infrastructure and it can work with AA batteries. The community is very friendly and people are happy to help/relay messages. Honestly, amateur radio, for me, is a lot of what the internet used to be when it was difficult to use. Since amateur radio is still relatively difficult to use it keeps the trolls away.