I live up against the foothills on a large plain, running 50w on 2m into a Diamond X30a mounted in my attic a friend of mine and I can simplex with about 75-80% readability from house to house, as the crow flies we are about 15-20 miles away from each other. Without repeaters the 15-300 miles range is hard range to get reliably, unless you are running tons of power. My home station in between 5-50 watts on 2m/440, 5-25 watts on 220, 10/50 watts Trbo (DMR) and my HF rig is 50/100 watts. Not saying it impossible, its just hard range to nail. NVIS??
I think to much turkey, ham, pumpkin pie and brownies resulted in me not cracking my Tech Class review book open during the past long weekend. I have to get back to studying so I can test in early 2015. Congrats to those who have recently passed thier Tech Class exams!!!!
General class HAM here since 2012... But havent used radio since like 16 months now... Good lord it seems like forever
KC3AKY here. Looking to get general ticket in April at the local Hamfest. I carry a UV5R with a speaker mic and Nagoya 771 antenna as my EDC.
KF5ZLA I need to get my general, since nobody talks on the dozens of reapeaters around. I was thinking about putting my Baofeng in my bag with the stock antenna because I figure I could hit local repeaters if something happened while I was out.
Radio has always been a staple item in my EDC. Our group " stealth Diggers " could not function without it.
KC0JAR here, tech since 1999. I have started to get back into it a little since I work in the RF field for a living now. Started getting into 10 meters a few years ago, its fun when the band is open. I can't see myself upgrading, 10m is enough HF to whet my whistle for now. I have 2m,70cm, 6M FM and 10m capability when mobile. I got the radio with 6m capability a few months ago and haven't heard a peep on it yet.
Keep trying, don't give up. once you get the ticket you will be glad you did. I get that feeling when studying for my general.
Have you tried using the free tests online? They are the same questions as in the real pool for the test so just study and practice until you pass every time and you should be good to go!
w2edv here; Gunsmoke and EZDog are correct. When I studied for my exams, I used (at that time) a paid exam site because it "remembered" my incorrect responses and subsequently continued to reinforce those concepts and answers; I couldn't find a free site which did that. I will tell you with all sincerity that by using this site (and I had a printed manual as well), I was able to pass all 3 exams (Tech/General/Extra) with only 3 incorrect answers in total. These sites DO WORK. They worked for me and they WILL work for you. In fact, on the day I took the General & Extra exams, I plopped myself down at a nearby Barnes and Noble, grabbed a Starbucks coffee, plugged into their WiFi and quizzed myself for a couple of hours until it was time to take the exams. The tech license is primarily rules, regulations and procedures. Keep at it, put a bit of work in and you will have the license(s) for life (Providing, of course, that you remember to renew them !) Good Luck!
I hold a general class, and won't list it here. I live in a small mountain community in the Santa Cruz mountains in California, so I'm a 6'er. Not too active on the bands at the moment. All my hand helds were stolen a few years back out of a storage locker. (Yeasu FT 530 x2, FT 50r, and an alinko 6m mobile,) I'll be getting onf of them Beufeng soon though!
