{"id":1344,"date":"2023-01-20T10:44:44","date_gmt":"2023-01-20T18:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/?p=1344"},"modified":"2023-01-20T10:44:44","modified_gmt":"2023-01-20T18:44:44","slug":"which-first-ham-radio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/2023\/01\/which-first-ham-radio\/","title":{"rendered":"Which First Ham Radio?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Getting into amateur radio these days is much like merging onto a freeway. If you hesitate in the on-ramp you might just pull over to the shoulder and watch all the traffic speed by while you sit there indecisively.<\/p>\n

But taking the metaphor further, you need to even select your vehicle first, and that is often the hardest part. I say vehicle because while one might think “car” the choices might also be motorcycle, trike, go-kart (illegal on freeways), or bicycle (also illegal, and has an entirely different, though parallel purpose).<\/p>\n

Selecting your first ham radio is hard especially because a new person doesn’t quite know what to do with one. Other online Elmer hams would ask “what do you want to do?” but often the answer is “I don’t know yet.”<\/p>\n

I would suggest that if you’re new to the hobby or thinking about starting, get the most versatile rig you can afford. If your budget doesn’t allow the latest souped-up awesomeness available on the market, look for most features for the money in the used market or the Chinese market. If you get serious about it, inevitably you will supplement your tools with more rigs; but for now try not to go ultimate cheap limited-function just to “try it out”. You will find the difficulty in doing what you want to try, especially if you don’t know what you want yet, might get you quickly discouraged and bored.<\/p>\n

In the corporate and\/or creative world, starting out means high enthusiasm, low competency. Eventually you want to get to high enthusiasm, high competency. (Some say after a long<\/strong> while you get to low enthusiasm, high competency, and just become a paycheck collector.) With that in mind, you don’t want your new tools to get in the way. If there is so much to learn, and barriers along the way due to your rig, you can simply lose motivation.<\/p>\n

Reserve the specialty kits, the QRP rigs, the budget single-function items to later exploration once you’ve found your path in this 60,000 sub-hobby hobby of ours. Start off opening up your options.<\/p>\n

With that said, what are good starter rigs? Here are a few that come to mind (along with their prices at time of writing):<\/p>\n