k0ua
Epic Contributor
I have looked on the net and have a fair idea. I have a small handheld 2 meter kenwood that my father gave me years ago. I have listened to it many hours on my morning commute, but never spoken because I am not licensed. I have toyed with the idea of keeping the kenwood 870s to set up in my office once the house is built but the reality is that I have many years of hard work to do on the farm before I have enough leisure time to use the radio.....and I also don't know enough about it to know what else I would need. Or how large of an antenna I would have to have.
Cool. Well I have been licensed since 1971. You should consider it if it interest you at all. It is not difficult to get the license now. As you may or may not know, there is no Morse Code requirement now. And with the practice sites where you can practice taking the test over and over, well, it just isn't very difficult to get your ticket. I had a really nice conversation with a fellow in Md, a couple of nights ago, I was teaching him about some of the newer digital modes as he had come back to amateur radio recently from his early days in the 1980's and discovered the world had changed.
It felt great to be able to help him understand some newer techniques. Amateur radio can be a very fulfilling hobby that you can put as much or as little into as you want. And what you get out of it is totally up to you.