Edit: so it turns out that every hobby can be expensive if you do it long enough.

Also I love how you talk about your hobby as some addicts.

  • MrShankles@reddthat.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    I’m in the beginnings…and yes, with two Baofeng handhelds lol. Then I got a little SDR kit for receiving. Of course I also needed some cable adapters and ferrite cores, while I was at it. Oh, and the ARRL license manual to study for my technician license (I knew nothing about amateur radio prior to this rabbit hole, so it was actually really interesting to read)

    Was supposed to have my technician license already, but life got a little chaotic. Was passing all the practice exams easy and just needed to sign up for the real exam. Hoping to get it done soon, but I have to brush back up a little. Then I’m hoping to move quickly to my general class, while the basics are still fresh.

    Even started learning morse code and was getting better at it. Had the alphabet and numbers, could read it just fine, but the listening is what’s hard… but still kinda fun. All the Q-codes and slang are what I think will take the longest if I really start getting into CW, but I know that’ll be time/experience more than anything

    But for now, I just listen-in on my SDR around my area when I can, and have maybe looked into how to grab some NOAA satellite images lol

    So yeah, I can see this becoming a bit of a thing for me, because I keep learning more and more, and it all just seems so cool to me. Using the ionosphere to propagate, tropospheric ducting, or even using freaking meteor scatter! So much cooler than I ever thought when I knew nothing