I was a noob once myself. Excited to get my ham license and have a radio to play with. I actually got my first radio before I got my license. I used the new radio as a bit of encouragement to pass my Technician test.
This was back in the early 1990's shortly after they dropped the CW requirement to pass the test. I don't do well with things like CW, they take me more time to learn than most people. But there are a lot of other things I catch on pretty quick.
We didn't have cheap radios like Wouxon or Boafang back in the day. Handy Talkies were a bit more pricey back then too. My first radio was a Yaesu FT-530. It was pretty tricked out and had a lot of functions. It gave me the opportunity to do hands on learning on the very things I just passed my Technicians test on. I was limited to 2M and 70cm with the radio, but that was plenty.
I got started with 2M. I didn't know much about how to setup repeater setting in the radio. I managed to reach a local ham on an output of a repeater. He suggested a few things I look for on my radio. Allowing for me to use the repeater system properly. I finally got to learn hands on that a repeater receives on one frequency (input) and transmits on another (output). Determining where repeaters are within the 2M frequency range. It can be a plus (+) or minus (-) offset. 2M has a 6KHz offset. So you would transmit either up or down 6KHz from the output of the repeater.
There are a lot of repeaters around my area. Sometimes they are on the same frequencies. Which can cause conflict between the repeaters and the people using them. Conflicts are control by using a sub-carrier in the radio signal to bring up the repeater. This is called PL-Tone. A repeater will not respond to you or another source of transmission without the proper PL Tone settings in your radio.
With that knowledge. Most radios you start by selecting the output of the repeater, then setting an offset, then setting a PL-Tone. Only thing left it to try and see if your radio gets a response from a repeater. You can move forward with other stuff from there. Get yourself radio active on the repeater systems. Talk with local hams. You'd be surprise just how much help you get and how much you can learn by talking with other Hams. Some of them have even just got their license.
As you saw, I had mentioned Wouxon and Boafeng above. I feel that this has started a trend of un-informed hams when it comes to repeater use. Here is why. These radios are CHEAP and a lot new hams are buying them. They are also difficult to program by hand, and are much easier to program with a computer. The hands on approach is being bypassed via lacking programmable ability of both. I see many new buying the Wouxons and Boafengs, having their techie friends program the radios for their local area. From year 2010 - 2015 most of the million new hams have done this. Not really learning much about Ham frequencies or repeaters. They are simply just un-informed and need more hands on.
| Year | Ending Month |
Extra | Advanced | General | Tech | Novice | Total |
| 2015 | Jun | 138,199 | 49,399 | 171,605 | 359,032 | 11,448 | 729,683 |
| 2014 | Dec | 136,405 | 51,069 | 169,524 | 357,236 | 12,041 | 726,275 |
| 2013 | Dec | 133,391 | 54,293 | 167,257 | 349,163 | 13,097 | 717,201 |
| 2012 | Dec | 130,736 | 56,314 | 163,370 | 345,369 | 13,786 | 709,575 |
| 2011 | Dec | 126,431 | 57,875 | 160,554 | 342,583 | 14,613 | 702,056 |
| 2010 | Dec | 122,951 | 59,387 | 155,781 | 342,191 | 15,731 | 696,041 |
I might be batting flies here. I would like to suggest that my experienced ham friends help the noobs by not programming Wouxon type radios. Instead suggest to get a radio, though a bit more pricey, that allows for easy hands on programming of local repeater systems. Programming a radio without a computer interface.
If they are not wanting to pay full price for a nicer radio. Suggest looking at Ham Radio Classifieds on the net. Hams in general take good care of their equipment. Also may people who think they are going to be active with have radio often buy the more pricey ones. Then they decide ham radio is not for them and sell their radios in the classifieds. I have found many great radios on craigslist.com and qrz.com classifieds for much cheaper than bought new. Almost all of them in like-new condition.
