Amateur Radio License

I've been licensed for 23 years (I passed the test at age 15.) My wife has been licensed for about 2 years. I often work in out of the way locations with no cell phone service. She got her license so we could communicate when I'm working in those places. It's also great for keeping in touch when camping without cell phone coverage.
I have dual band 2 meter/ 70 cm radios in all my vehicles. I have several hand held radios that I use sometimes. Most of my equipment is Yaesu which has always given excellent service. I also have a lot of Icom gear which has also given excellent service. I have a few Alinco that have been okay. I have had nothing but bad experiences with Kenwood radios.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that HAM radio is only talking on repeaters around the local area on a cheap Chinese radio. You can talk all over the world, work satellites, the space station, bounce signals off the moon, connect up computers over radio networks, use GPS receivers to track the location of mobile stations, etc.

Hamming and RVing go hand in hand.
It will open up a whole new world of activities for you.

Jay N1RWY

I have been a "HAM" almost forever.

on and off for years... 2m. I have a qsl card from the space shuttle. :). back when NASA permitted an Astronaut to use it. 80m contact to both poles.

Advanced class... got the extra theory. never was able to do 20 wpm... at 15 it just turns to mud.

N8BSJ. Chuck

WyoTraveler wrote:
As inlet said ham test on line can help. You can google for information on the testing locations. Locating a ham club in your area can help out more. What town do you live in Michigan

In Lansing area. I was interested in getting the license a long time ago, back when you had to know Morse, which I did not feel like learning (snot nosed kid that I was). I may try now that I have more patience, but glad it is not mandatory. The ham test site is nice. I also bought a study guide and am working my through it.

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement. I will shoot out my call sign when I pass the test.

Been into Ham Radio since the Mid 50s... Have used portable operation in tents from the mids 60s and now have a pretty good setup in my off-road POPUP trailer.

Have 2M/440 units and IC-706MKII remoted to a central location where I can sit and get to the remote control heads and speakers etc...

My 2m/440 antenna are located on the rear roof area mounted to the side of the roof. I have a fold up small tripod arrangement that supports a pole up about 30-foot where I use a 75M to 10M OFF-CENTER Antenna. My favorite bands are 75M and 40M... I also have a setup for a TARHEEL "LIL TARHEEL II" screwdriver antenna. Works out great from the POPUP trailer too but the long wire is the best to use for 75M/40M operations with its center up around 25-30 feet and ends run out to a tree connection on either side of it...

Love to setup somewhere back off the road somewhere on a creek bed and enjoy working the ham bands before we turn-in for the night. I have a similar setup in my truck and I move the IC-706 main radio between the truck and POPUP trailer. I horsetraded for a second IC-706 remote head unit so all I need to do is just move the main radio unit. I can also just run a long control cable from popup trailer to the truck mounted IC706 main unit and just use that from the truck. This is somewhat dangerous sometimes however as I have run my truck start battery down a couple of times haha...

I am working on a second 200AH PLUS battery setup in the truck bed to help solve this problem.

This is my POPUP TRAILER layout showing where things are installed...




Roy Ken
K9PHT

As inlet said ham test on line can help. You can google for information on the testing locations. Locating a ham club in your area can help out more. What town do you live in Michigan

Been a licensed amateur for many years....just got back into the hobby to upgrade and used www.hamtestonline.com. Thumbs up...great online study program. Try the free tutorial and you will be hooked ! When I started radio in the 1990's I would use 2 meter voice for local communication. I am currently into CW or morse code. There are so many things to do with the hobby . Enjoy