Choosing your first radio

There is no single correct first radio. A good choice starts from what you want to do. If your goal is talking on local repeaters on the 2 m and 70 cm bands, a Technician has the same privileges there as every higher class (47 CFR 97.301(a)). This guide explains the trade-offs so you can compare radios yourself. It does not recommend brands or models.

Start with what you want to do

• Talk with local hams and check into nets: an FM radio for 2 m, 70 cm or both, plus a decent antenna.
• Try satellites: a radio that covers both 2 m and 70 cm. The FM satellites on AMSAT’s list receive on one of those bands and transmit on the other.
• Get ready for HF: you can wait. A VHF/UHF radio stays useful after you upgrade, and HF needs a radio and antenna that cover the HF bands (see the last section).

Before you buy, find out what your local repeaters use. RepeaterBook is a repeater directory with North American and worldwide listings.

Handheld, mobile or base

Handheld radios are self-contained: battery, small antenna and radio in one unit. They are portable and simple, but the short flexible antenna has low efficiency compared with a full-size quarter-wave antenna, and inside a vehicle without an outside antenna the metal body reduces signal strength (Technician pool questions T9A04 and T9A07).

Mobile radios mount in a vehicle and run from its 12-volt system. The Technician pool uses 50 watts as the output of a typical mobile FM radio, and a mobile radio connects to an antenna mounted outside the vehicle, which avoids that shielding loss (Technician pool questions T4A01 and T4A11).

Base stations are radios set up at home. For VHF and UHF, a base station can be a mobile radio on a desk, fed by a DC power supply and connected to an antenna outdoors or in the attic.

You can start with a handheld because it is small and portable, then add a mobile or base radio with a better antenna once you know which repeaters you use.

Antennas and range

VHF and UHF signals are usually not returned by the ionosphere (Technician pool question T3C01), so they travel by line of sight. As the National Weather Service puts it for its own VHF transmitters, the higher the antenna, the farther it can “see” (NWS). Antenna efficiency and gain matter too (Technician pool questions T9A04, T9A08, T9A09 and T9A11):

• The short, flexible antenna on a handheld is a compromise. It is convenient but has low efficiency compared with a full-size quarter-wave antenna.
• A 19-inch vertical is a resonant quarter-wave antenna for 2 m. The antenna calculator works out lengths for any frequency.
• Antenna gain is the increase in signal strength in a specified direction compared with a reference antenna. A 5/8-wave mobile whip, for example, has more gain than a quarter-wave whip.

These ideas appear on the Technician exam. Before replacing a radio to get more range, consider a better antenna mounted higher.

Single band, dual band and digital voice

The ARRL’s band plan sets aside repeater segments on both 2 m and 70 cm, so a dual-band radio lets you use more of them. Dual band is also needed for the FM satellites, which use one band for the uplink and the other for the downlink. Technicians also have privileges on 6 m (50 to 54 MHz) and 1.25 m (222 to 225 MHz) (47 CFR 97.301(a)), so check which bands a radio covers.

Digital voice systems such as DMR and D-STAR need their own setup: a DMR radio is loaded with configuration data, called a code plug, to access repeaters and talkgroups, and a D-STAR radio must have your call sign programmed before you transmit (Technician pool questions T4B07 and T4B11). If your local repeaters use a digital system, check that a radio supports that system before you buy.

Programming the radio

To use a repeater you set its output frequency, the offset to its input frequency, and the access tone or code it expects, if it uses one. A wrong offset, CTCSS tone or DCS code could be why you can hear a repeater but cannot access it (Technician pool question T2B04).

Common repeater offsets are 600 kHz on 2 m and 5 MHz on 70 cm. A CTCSS tone is a sub-audible tone sent along with your voice that opens the squelch of the receiver (Technician pool questions T2A01, T2A03 and T2B02). Store each repeater in a memory channel so you can return to it with one button. For simplex (radio to radio, no repeater), 146.52 MHz is the national simplex calling frequency on 2 m in the ARRL’s voluntary band plan.

If your radio can be programmed from its keypad, learn how, because you may need to change a setting in the field. For many channels at once, CHIRP is a free, open-source programming tool that supports a large number of manufacturers and models. Check its supported-model list and the cable your radio needs before you rely on it. DMR radios use a code plug instead, as described above.

Power supplies and batteries

A mobile or base radio needs a DC power supply that can deliver the current the radio draws at full transmit power, as given in its specifications. As a reference point, the Technician pool (question T4A01) pairs a typical 50-watt mobile FM radio with a supply rated 13.8 volts at 12 amperes. Short, heavy-gauge power leads minimize voltage drop when you transmit (T4A03). Keep the fuses in the leads, since a fuse removes power in case of an overload (T0A04). In a vehicle, connect the negative lead at the 12-volt battery chassis ground (T4A11).

For batteries, divide the battery’s ampere-hour rating by the radio’s average current draw to estimate run time (Technician pool question T4A09). By that method, a 7 ampere-hour battery feeding a radio that averages 1 ampere lasts about 7 hours. Your own average depends on how much of the time you transmit, so check the radio’s transmit and receive current specifications.

Feed line basics

Coaxial cable (coax) carries the signal between radio and antenna. It is the most common feed line in amateur radio, and its most common impedance is 50 ohms (Technician pool questions T9B02 and T9B03).

• Loss grows with frequency and length. Coax loss increases as frequency increases (Technician pool question T9B05), and feed line loss is usually stated in decibels per 100 feet (General pool question G9A06), so a longer run loses more. Keep runs short. For long runs, lower-loss cable helps: RG-213 has less loss than RG-58 at a given frequency, and air-insulated hardline is lower still (Technician pool questions T9B10 and T9B11).
• Connectors matter. PL-259 connectors are common at HF and VHF, and Type N connectors are better suited above 400 MHz. Tape or seal outdoor connectors for weather protection, since water in a connector adds loss (Technician pool questions T9B01, T9B06, T9B07 and T9B08).
• SWR (standing wave ratio) shows how well the antenna matches the feed line; a reading of 1:1 means they are matched. Erratic SWR readings can mean a loose connection in the antenna or feed line (Technician pool questions T7C04 and T9B09). See the SWR calculator to work with the numbers.

Buying used

If you consider a used radio, before you buy:

• Confirm the radio covers the bands and modes you want, and that programming software or CHIRP support exists for it.
• Ask to see it transmit and receive. A local club member can help you check it.
• Check the condition of the battery, and whether replacements are available.
• Remember that an amateur station may transmit only on the bands listed for the control operator’s license class (47 CFR 97.301). A radio that can tune outside the amateur bands does not give you permission to transmit there.

Local clubs, which you can find with the ARRL’s club search, are a good place to ask. Club listings in the search show activities such as mentoring, license classes, test sessions and hamfests.

Listen first

A station may transmit only when it is under the physical control of a person named in a license grant (47 CFR 97.5(a)). That requirement is about transmitting, so you can listen to local repeaters on a scanner or receiver before your call sign arrives.

To hear HF without buying anything, try a WebSDR: a software-defined radio receiver connected to the internet that many listeners can tune at the same time. The WebSDR project began at the radio club of the University of Twente in the Netherlands, and its site lists active receivers. Listening to the HF bands for a few evenings shows you what to expect after you upgrade.

Adding HF after you upgrade

A General license adds privileges on every HF band from 80 through 10 meters (47 CFR 97.301(d)). Even a Technician can use an HF radio for CW on parts of 80, 40 and 15 m and for CW, data and SSB voice on part of 10 m, at up to 200 W PEP (47 CFR 97.301(e), 97.305(c), 97.307(f)(9) and (10) and 97.313(c)(2)). An HF station needs:

• an HF transceiver and a power supply sized for its full-power current draw;
• an antenna for the bands you want, such as a wire dipole or a vertical;
• possibly an antenna tuner, which matches the antenna system impedance to the transceiver’s output impedance (Technician pool question T9B04);
• for digital modes, an interface that carries receive audio, transmit audio and transmitter keying between radio and computer (Technician pool question T4A06), plus free software such as WSJT-X for FT8.

When you are ready to set up the radio, the rules on the air guide covers what you need to know before your first transmission.