Think You Wanna Be a Ham?

Come to any of our meetings or functions – you’re always welcome! We also meet for breakfast every Tuesday morning at the Village Inn. Visit our “Upcoming Events” page for more details.

 

 

 

So Now You Have a License . . . Let’s Get on the Air!

There is a huge range of both new and used ham gear available today; so much that it can be a bit hard to know what can best suit your needs or where to get the best bargains.  Happily there are also great ways to understand your options, and ways to get on air for much less than you might think.

Several of our members enjoy setting up stations for new hams almost as much as they love tinkering with their own. And in most cases they have extra gear which can be lent to new hams until they acquire their own. Often times a little help goes a long way, such as building and erecting a wire antenna for a few bucks which can outperform expensive commercial antennas – or knowing which $250 used radios will perform nearly as well as a $1,500 new rig. Maybe a simple twist of a knob can help your seemingly dead E-Bay radio work just fine.

We can show you how to hide antennas such that even the toughest homeowners association will never see them. And a visit to a well set up station can give a new Tech a chance to use their 10 meter privileges to make worldwide contacts.

The following club members have indicated a particular desire to “Elmer” (mentor) new hams:
Ashton Lee, KQØC in Carbondale, 970-704-0250
Bob Ludke, K9MWM in Glenwood Springs, 970-379-1731
Phil Krichbaum, NØKE in Silt at 970-876-1980

Not sure who to call? Come to a Club meeting or function and get to know us!

Choosing Ham Gear

There is a huge range of both new and used ham gear available today; so much that it can be a bit hard to know what can best suit your needs or where to get the best bargains.  Happily there are also great ways to understand your options, and ways to get on air for much less than you might think.

One “must see” website for gear reviews is eHam: http://www.eham.net/reviews/   You will find user reviews there for essentially every piece of ham gear ever made, and often 50 or 100 reviews for a particular radio or accessory.

There are at least three excellent online sources for used ham gear beyond E-Bay which is also very attractive. If you are looking for used gear be sure to check out:

http://www.eham.net/classifieds/

http://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2.cgi?ID=2462

https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?forums/ham-radio-gear-for-sale.7/

Also, visit our “Links” page for more helpful ham websites.