Niche markets can do what they want. The HAM radio market is quite small. I am slightly aware of the hobby but do not believe that people are beating the door down to talk over short wave radio.

Not to mention do amateur TV!!

I have a 2m/440 ht and use it occasionally. Often times there is just no one on the bands or possibly just not responding when a call is thrown out. Got my license many years ago and only licensed on vhf/uhf. Was never really interested in dx but rather local stuff through repeaters.

This is also a hobby I feel that is suffering from the lack of new blood. Most operators I know are my age or older. The young ones have no interest for the most part. Unfortunate as if the amateurs don’t use the frequencies allotted , the fcc will take them and give to another where they will be used!

I've had my ham license for almost 50 years but haven't been active since college. I've been to one hamfest/swap meet since I moved back to Wisconsin and it was all old, grouchy men, even older than me, not one of whom even tried to strike up a conversation or so much as offered a smile.

So used ham gear is crazy inflated now? Can't say as how I mind a heck of a lot. Guess I'll wait until I'm old and decrepit, reflexes shot to hell and joints arthritic and no longer enjoying playing pinball, and confined to a chair before I start hamming again. Hopefully I can sell the pins then and still pick up a nice rig.

Hi hi (the original LOL!)

I got my license a bit over 30 years ago. Maybe the high end HF rig prices have gone up, but then they have features which we did not even dream 30 years ago. And today you can get a Chinese OK quality VHF/UHF handheld at tenth of the price 30 years ago, again with lots of new features.

Just sold my dad's HAM stuff, all in very nice shape for pennies on the dollars. Plus I was just at an estate sale where a guy had even more....tables and tables of the stuff. The cherry pickers were in there buying the best stuff for pennies on the dollars as well and the family did there research on the stuff ahead of time for prices but there were so few people interested in it that they would sell it for any amount they could get out of it just to make it go away. Sad really. Of all the people I know, there are only two that are even slightly interested in HAM stuff. If it's not a cell phone people today are not interested, you can't Tic Tok on the HAM radio gear.

John

Got my Tech license maybe 30 years ago, but don't really talk - mostly listen occasionally. That's always been the case. I actually got my license so I could legally carry a wideband receiver in the car to listen to the Blue Angles and also a shuttle launch we were attending. Nowadays I listen to the SkyWarn during bad storms. Since I was involved w/RF design, I already knew the tech part of the test, just need to know the rules. So sort of a no brainer to get the Tech license.

My first HT was purchased at the Dayton Hamfest. But the prices for the VHF/UHF Baofeng HT's are crazy cheap (I bought one just to play around with), which is what I think most people would use to get their feet wet in the hobby, then maybe move on to better equipment if needed.

I wouldn't be surprised if a fair chunk of people buying the Baofeng's don't even have their license and use them instead for other purposes.
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I've been a ham for about 50 years. Its a hobby that attracts the young and old.
I'm now in the latter group and have gotten back in after running out of room in
the house and garage for pinball machines.

As far as affordability goes, its the least expensive hobby I've ever had. By a mile!
Sure, you can easily spend $(lots) for new rigs but my approach has been going in
the opposite direction. While I do have some of the really nice newer gear,
most of the equipment here was made in the 1940's. Collins 32V1 transmitter and
75A1 receiver is used most often. A couple of Collins KWS-1's are being restored now.

Right now we are in the sweet spot to find older but what was at the time the
very best equipment (usually but not limited to tube) available for peanuts.
IF you are willing to take the time to restore it, which really isn't that hard.
Just like restoring old pinball machines or arcade video games.

Seek out local ham junkfests as they are the best place to find equipment
for good (i.e.-not ebay) prices.
W6SSP

I used to enjoy CW QSO's on HF about 30 years ago. Briefly experimented with packet radio with a Commodore 64. Probably went to the Dayton Hamvention a dozen times throughout the early years. Sold all my gear maybe 15 years ago.

Are you serious? Really? When you can buy an HT for twenty bucks. Many young people blow that in a day at Starbucks. Need to come up with a lot better reason than money! Sorry your argument just doesn’t hold water.

Sigh..... The problem with 'new' ham radios, most made in Japan and China now
is (1) they are not fixable with tools and parts most have, so need to be returned
to the factory for service and (2) once they are out of production, the custom IC's
these use become unavailable.

At that point you are stuck with an expensive door stop.

Here's an example of going in another direction. A few years ago there was a Heathkit
HW-101 HF rig at a swap meet. No one wanted it and the seller was going to junk
it. Having used one in the college ham station for years, I knew these were actually
pretty nice so bought it for a whopping $10. Sure, it took a few days to go through
it but in the end it worked just fine and made several contacts on 40 & 20m. Even got
good audio reports. One guy who gave me a good report asked what I was using
and he didn't believe me so sent him a pic via email. His rig, a $6K Elecraft.

The moral of this is, on the air you cannot tell the difference between
a $10 and $6K radio.

If you are dead nuts set on buying a 'new' SDR radio have at it. Me, I have more
money to buy (project) pins.

I just registered to take my tech license exam Feb 23rd. Ended up seeing a random YouTube vid on the baofeng and picked one up for $22. Enjoying listening to the old men on there talk about their day. Excited to actually be licensed to participate and try making more contacts. I'll probably upgrade to something more powerful than 5W eventually. Seems like a pretty cool hobby.

As others have aptly pointed out, one does not have to buy a “Ferrari “ to have wheels. If you wanted to be a part of the hobby you would do it. There is always an excuse not to do something when you don’t want to.

Look into attending the Dayton Hamvention: https://hamvention.org/

Been a number of years since I attended, maybe I should make a point of going this year.

Good for you! Indeed 5 w is not a ton of power but you will have plenty to get into a while hose if repeaters in the Akron area. I recall living in Lakewood and routinely being able to get into a repeater in the Sterling Heights area of michigan. All that I had was an HT and a small yagi that I used off the seventh floor balcony if the building I was living in. Was quite neat! Wasn’t an old retired person back then. Come to think of it am still not but oh well.

I was lured into the hobby by my mailman when I was young who had quite a neat setup. He did a lot on the lower frequencies and had a massive antenna farm at his small humble home. He and his wife were really into it. Anyway, he had a TenTec 2m HT and he showed me how he could make a phone call with his radio. I was hooked. Took me a while to get licensed and then to get an HT but that one experience was all that it took for me.

Not sure how many auto patch’s still exist in the days of cell phones. Always nice to know though that when the crap hits the fan and the cells don’t work, I have a means of communication.

I kind of miss those old big clunky HT’s like the TenTec. The newer ones today are so damn small. I mean how small do they have to get. Cell phones went through that. Then they reversed course and started getting larger again.

I remember when there use to be a “swap and shop” net once a week in my area. This was before the all mighty and powerful web. Somehow we made it through!!

Another fun thing to play around with is a cheapie SDR (software defined radio). No transmit, just receive, but neat nonetheless. There's free software that's rather impressive: https://www.rtl-sdr.com/big-list-rtl-sdr-supported-software/

I used one to track aircraft via ADS-B, made an antenna out of a tin can and a short piece of wire. USB interface (works w/Windows), but I used a Raspberry Pi to control it.

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amazon.com link »

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Thanks I'm going to order this. I have a piece of coax running into the room where my PC is. I might throw an antenna on it and see what I can hear.

Congrats those in this thread that are new to the ham radio hobby.
Inexpensive 2 meter HT's are a great way to get started but take
some time to explore all of the great things this hobby has to offer
like; HF (CW, SSB and AM modes), satellites, slow scan and fast
scan TV, Teletype, and a host of digital modes. And far more!

And just like in any hobby, there will be grizzled olde farts and
others that are thrilled to welcome new folks into the hobby and
will bend over backwards to help.

The Dayton hamfest is awesome and a bit overwhelming. For those
lucky enough to attend, be sure to set a day aside to visit the
US Air Force museum.

I should add the front-end (the part the receives the signal) is probably wide open - no RF filtering (or maybe a little at the band edges). So a nearby TV station, cell tower, even noisy electronics gizmo in the house can affect sensitivity. Just something to be aware of. Not a design defect, just the way it is. If you stick a wire on it next to the computer...you'll likely pick up a bunch of trash.

I've heard it's just an ultra-wideband amplifier used in the cable TV industry, repurposed. But a great, low cost option to play around with.

Here's some planes I tracking with a Rasp Pi and a SDR, via ADS-B.

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Once I pass my tech exam I want to get a more capable rig. I assume hamfest is probably the best place to talk to people to accelerate getting the right stuff together? I was looking at the icon 9700 cause I figure why not get something that does it all but I'm not sure if that's a good move or not. It sounds from reading online that it's not as serviceable as older equipment. I also really enjoy tinkering so maybe some vintage equipment is more suited.

You might find an Elmer (mentor) through a local radio club.

Multi-mode VHF and UHF radios like the Icom 9700 are something of a specialty item. I would suggest waiting to buy this type of radio until you are certain you need its capabilities.

For a complete beginner with Tech privileges, I would suggest an inexpensive FM only VHF/UHF radio with a magnetic mount or other simple antenna.

Are you set on just taking the Technician test, or are you going to try for General after you pass the Technician exam? As a former VE (Volunteer Examiner), I encourage people to at least attempt the General exam.

Edited to add I was responding to Deez.

I plan on taking the general. I just only had 2 weeks to study so I didn't want to overload myself with studying. I think the next test is in March. I haven't even read the general material yet so I'm not even sure what's on it. The test is actually free for some reason thru the local radio club. He said it was a laurel exam but I don't know what that means. So there's really no investment in at least trying to pass it.

Got my license a few years back… never saw a worse gatekept hobby. Tried a few clubs, wanted to find an Elmer, and besides the political advocation pervasiveness, the general distaste to help anyone younger (and I’m pushing 50!) was beyond the pale. I have a radio I bought that sits on a shelf unused. Pretty much decided I couldn’t be bothered to figure out why I’d even want to talk to these people tbh.

Since this was a life goal of mine, I even went so far to reach out to ARRL at a local event and express some frustration with the difficulty to get into the hobby. They acknowledged the difficulty; I don’t envy their uphill battle.

Did have a dude at a local ham meeting sit down next to me and promptly ask if I could drive him to his doctors appt the following week though.

I’ll stick with pinball thank you. Even the vintage audio guys are more pleasant.

Well this is disappointing. I hope it's not like this for me.

Very unfortunately I have heard of this before. I briefly attended meetings when I was new into the hobby and save for a brief intro, that was about it. I figured oh well, I’m not going to let these guys dissuade me. I have my FM HT really for emergency reasons and an occasional time when I’ll throw out my call and see if anyone responds. It is clicky, no doubt.

I think, in my case, when I got my license it was called a no-code tech. It is my opinion that since I did not learn code, I really was not a ham and did not deserve their recognition as they were solely on the low bands for dx. That’s fine but not where my interests

Glad you’re in the avocation and I wish you a great deal of enjoyment.

Really interesting thread and potential hobby- taking notes.
Thank you

This guy makes great videos.

I miss Hara Arena. The computer show was awesome too.

Second that. I learn something every time.

Wow, that's a sad story.

Listen....screw those clubs. Just plug in your radio and make contacts on the air. You'll find people just like you reaching out to make a contact. CQ CQ CQ.

When I first got my license and radio, I didn't know any hams. I used to come home from work and make one or two contacts each night. It was fun to talk to people all over the world (talk as in code. I never liked the mic, always used morse code). I did that for several years. Eventually I lost interest. Anyway, try making some contacts on the air instead of hanging out with a bunch of grumpy old men..

I miss Hara Arena too. I liked the flea market best.

I noticed this too just walking through and being at the ham fest in kalamazoo trying to sell my dad's stuff there, everyone seemed grouchy to say the least. They would get pissed at me because I didn't want to sell the collection of stuff piece by piece, instead I wanted to sell it all as one lot and be done with it, no cherry picking. One guy pulled $400 out of his wallet and thought he was being more then generous and kept trying to hand it too me so he could take it all. I had done my homework on the stuff so I knew the values. Just one radio was worth even more then that, let alone the entire collection. After I kept telling him NO he shouts out "WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH IT?". I said, "I'll take it all back home and put it back in the closet for that kind of money". Two weeks later I sold it all for $1200.
Yeah there a ornery bunch for sure.
John

Bmad21, I just added an addendum to my previous post to make it clear I was responding to Deez. I didn't realize I had accidentally wiped out the quoted portion before posting.

73,
C.D.

JethroP, that's a great example of successfully finding like minded people in the hobby!

On a related note, conferences, such as the AMSAT Space Symposium, are another great way to meet other radio amateurs.

Last time I went was maybe the last year at Hara. So what's the current place like? Might finally get off my retired tush this year and attend just to get out of the house.

No idea. I saw the hara arena demo pics on FB. I keep thinking about going, but something comes up or I forget about it. I am going to try and go this year. Maybe find some NOS parts to use in pinballs.

I grew up within a bike ride to Hara. More than just the arena, that had a lot of room for conventions. It was pretty run down even by the 90s. Lots of great dayton bombers hockey, concerts and WWF matches there. Saw Sgt Slaughter and Hogan have a "desert storm" battle

Taught my wife to drive starting in the Hara Arena parking lot. We would drive around, and around, and around the building endlessly.

The last time I was at the Hara Arena site, perhaps 10 years ago, a sewer
line running under the parking lot where the swap meet was, collapsed.
Nasty and most of the bathrooms stopped working. Hara lost its charm
that day.

The golden ago of the swap area at Dayton was the mid 1970's IMO.
Great memories and pile of gear I wish I had now!

Nice to see so many pinheads into ham radio!

I love my setup. Small price and powerful system. I don’t like those handhelds because their range sucks*. I can be inside with this system while my friend has to be at the end of his driveway with his handheld to talk to me and is a 10 minute drive from me in the city.

*If things go bad in the world I want to be talking to people via simplex bands and not be at the mercy of some repeater that has likely gone down. This is the only reason I have this system is redundant communication.

You can buy all 3 of these parts on Amazon right now. You could skip the $100 power supply and go right to a car battery if you wanted. I think I paid $250 for the radio and the antenna was $79

I’m a noob and spent a lot of time researching. I basically set the thing up to make sure it works and is sitting on the shelf indefinitely now.

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Once the antenna clears your rooftop it’s a lot more added. I live in the suburbs adjacent to a large city. I took a scrap piece of wood and mounted it outside the 2nd floor roof (can’t see from this angle). Takes minutes to set up and only have it out there during use.

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Depends on your perspective.

Think of them like laptops. You can get the $250 Black Friday setup or the Alienware $4000 gaming rig laptop.

You reminded me of my first experience with a skilled/ professional operator. He had several computers linked up to a radio, antenna hooked up to 2 car batteries and was maybe 2 stories high. Guy lived in the country where 5 houses would be seen at a dead end. He had built a few radios himself from scratch. I figured this would be the perfect guy to learn from. I think he was pretty well known in the region but whatever.

One of my good/close friends knew this guy from when in college who was into radios and kept very distant contact (via e mail) over the following decades. Even this friend of mine had observed in "field day" with this operator a couple times years back. He told me the gathering usually drew about 15-20 people who brought their radios. So this friend of mine got me and pinballplusMN an invite to field day 2022 at this operators house knowing that neither of us knew anything and we were thinking about getting into radios and we had questions.

(For those who don't know. Field day is a 1 day event either national or worldwide where everyone gets their radios out and sees how many people they can talk to in that day. Think of it like Pinball Expo for radios and everyone participates from wherever they want)

This operator had traditionally done it around a 3-4 hour event of his own and made it somewhat of a BBQ...Say 2pm-6pm I don't remember. So I drove us to his house right at 2 because I wanted to be early and introduce myself before things got nuts and ask questions while not being in the way. I had already done some of my own homework so I could get a basic understanding of the terminology so I wouldn't look like a complete dumbass. I bought an exam book and read through it.

As we pull up he's sitting there in a lawn chair at the edge of his garage with his equipment pointing outward with his antenna outside etc. Couple more people there also sitting in lawn chairs. I pull up right by the stall and roll down the window and smile and pop my head out and ask where we should park. He says "right along there is fine" which he points along his gravel driveway towards the side of his property. So I figured I'd pull off quite a ways to keep the area clear for more people to arrive since it sounded like 15-20 people were coming. He immediately yells "well NOT on my lawn would be nice". Keep in mind it's the country and I can barely tell where the driveway transitions to his lawn. So we look at each other and sigh. A part of us already has our minds changed about being there.

So we introduce ourselves and introduce a 6 pack of beer and some light snacks. He says nobody drinks and he already has plenty of snacks inside.

Turns out the rest of the people there are his neighbors. Super nice guys actually!

So we sit around "nice weather today" Blah Blah Blah. Then it's...yeah so we are thinking of getting into radios. He's like....what do you want to know?

I ask what would be a good radio for a beginner. He immediately goes from 0-100 rattling off technical jargon intermixing it with model numbers. I can actually keep up with him a little due to my research I did on my own. But barely.

Then his neighbors start giving him a hard time and say things like "so which one should he buy" and "what does that mean" and "in English please".

That goes on for about 30 more minutes. Now it's time for BBQ. There goes another 45 minutes. This part was nice. Got to talk with his neighbors who were retired military and shared stories etc. One of the neighbors goes home, then another, and the other. Now it's just us two and the operator. So to break the awkwardness I'm asking to get a tour of the radios he built years ago and thought that would be fun to see.

Nope. The two he built were the size of my palm. Had two dials and about 10 components. Basically electronics and soldering 101. Then I asked to see his ham shack which was a small office in his basement. Oh fine...he says. So he holds the door open and it's just a couple more radios. Just something basic. Then he whisks his hands at us like GTFO of my space.

Now I'm thinking let's go back out to the garage and see what's going on with the radios, maybe we can get a demonstration or learn something. Not really. As he sit's down he clasps his hands together and says "well, anything else??"

Me....no no this was great thanks for the opportunity and the delicious food it was nice meeting you and we'll say hi to our mutual friend for you.

Him: okay sounds good. Then he wheels up to his computer and would seem like he's unpausing an intense experience or something like that.

At this point we are walking back to my truck and now realizing....wait, weren't there supposed to be 15 to 20 more cars coming? It didn't take us long to put that part of the puzzle together.

Normally I wouldn't have put up with any of that shit but since we were invited upon request and actually got some good BBQ and desperate to learn about something new I was a little more lenient. Turns out we learned jack shit and amongst a dead end road of nice people we found there's an asshole that lives amongst them.

______________________________

TLDR: Got an invite to field day at a guys open house whose a Ham expert with POS attitude knowing we were coming to learn. Expected a big turnout but we were the only ones who showed up for the radios. His neighbors showed up just for the food.

______________________________

HOWEVER...fast forward a few months into last September. Nice Sunday evening stop by a small cigar bar. Bought a few and sat outside to smoke one. Noticed only one other car in the lot than mine. Had a vanity plate which appeared to be a ham call sign. I ran back in and asked the shop keeper if that was his vehicle. He said yes and that he wasn't into radios much anymore as the hobby is dying off and the rest of the people are assholes.

I'm like...YOU DON'T SAY.

So I told him I'm just looking for a basic setup and don't want to get into it too seriously.

He opens his laptop and asks for my e mail. He say's he's sending me some links to a couple of great YouTubers that are into radios and included specific video links for noobs. He also sent me some links for beginner, intermediate and expert level radios. He also sent me links on where I could study for the exam and other great links for resources and graphs and charts. At the end he gave me his number and to call him if I had any questions.

Now that information didn't come from a ham radio guy....that came from a cigar guy.

(I didn't proofread any of this)

There are some nice old men (OM's) in the hobby. For instance:
My beginnings into ham radio was when I was a teenage paperboy. I went collecting (that's when paperboys had to go house to house and collect the monthly subscription fee)....went collecting and the man opens the door and says "come with me." He opens up his garage and there were tables filled with radios, and a ham station set up in the corner. He takes me over to an old Hallicrafters Receiver SX-16 and says "here...this is for you. Thank you for doing a good job."

I don't remember now how I got that monster home, but I do remember listening to shortwave in my youth on that radio. I'll never forget listening to WWV, Fort Collins Colorado, "at the tone the time will be...."

That was a nice old guy for sure.

Did you happen to notice that you seem to be the only one on here complaining about pricing? Others have shared their experiences in the hobby using very modestly priced gear. If you look at the post by Mr Dayhuff he sold his entire fathers ham shack for $1200 if I recall. And I am sure it was a very nice setup. Maybe it did not have a Ferrari logo on it but I would only hazard a guess that the setup was more than capable!

Why would you think that just because of the use of digital technology, prices of gear should go down. This rarely happens in my job. There is something called research and design which has inherent costs that have to be recouped. Rarely do prices go down (save fir Chinese rip-off’s). Features are added etc.

If you really wish to get on the air and communicate, there are plenty of ways to do it and not spend a lot of money. And if you can only tolerate the latest and greatest, save your dollars and wait till you have enough to get what you wish. Delayed gratification is rarely a bad thing!

Seems to me a radio like this 20 years ago cost around $400.

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