Getting into ham radio

Well, at the start of the last solar cycle, when I was becoming a lot more active in radio, someone in the US, quite rightly, said to me: 'it's a great time to come into the hobby!'

And if you are arriving at this blog, curious as to whether amateur radio is for you, we're at that improving phase of the solar cycle yet again.

Today's sun.  More sunspots means more fun on the ham radio bands!  Image: NASA/SDO.

 

Ham radio can appear to be limited to shouting down a microphone and having a really boring conversation with someone you've never met, and isn't interested in what you are.  And, sometimes, it is like that!

But there are an almost limitless set of possibilities and interest avenues to follow, once you decide to get involved.  I really encourage you to do so!  Computing and digital communications are now all the rage, and of particular interest to younger age groups.  They offer the daily-realised potential of global communications at low power, and with less-than-perfect antennas.

And remember: those adverts in magazines, which give you the impression you need a mortgage to come into the hobby, are to be ignored!  I started the hobby by spending about £350 on a good, second-hand transceiver, £100 on a matching unit, and some wire. You can almost certainly do even better than that.

Back in early 2011. I started with a copper-tube 28MHz dipole, and a very low multiband wire dipole beneath it.  Very far from ideal, though the environment was very good, and I had a lot of fun with it!

Here's what you can do with just a triangular piece of wire (a 'delta loop' antenna), strung up on your house at the moment, up at the upper reaches of HF, at 28MH.  You can of course do the same, or better, with a copper tube dipole, just like I had all those years ago!