What to get?

[Goldenspurholderx2]

OK, I'm a total newbie to this. I start my new job soon so say in 4 months I could get licensed and had $500.00 to spend. Any suggestions for a radio and related equipment meeting these criteria:

Hand held or at least under 10lbs(lighter is better).
Operates off batteries that can be recharged by a portable solar panel(AAs?).
Durable and water resistant/proof for outdoor use.
Has a range that will cover most if not all of the continental US with the addition of an antenna.
Compatible with most other users as far as frequency and such(remember I don't know jack!)

Is this feasible in that budget? Any recommendations appreciated! If there is something out there that may cost a little more with greater benefits let me know, I'm open to all ideas!

[GySgt D]

You could easily get a decent 2 meter/70 centimeter rig, along with the necessary accoutrements, for $500. Unless you purchased used gear, you would be hundreds short of a decent HF rig.

What level of communicaitons preparedness are you looking for? As a very general guideline, Line of Sight (LOS) capability could be had for perhaps $250. A decent Over the Horizon (OTH) capability would cost perhaps 4x that amount. This is assuming brand new equipment.

I'm not a ham radio "gear queer", so am not up on the very latest fads and prices. Let me know what degree of capability you had in mind, and I'll throw some "reasonably knowledgable" recommendations to you.

ETA> I guess I should have read your post more carefully...

Going off of your wants, I'd say that you need to double your budget (at the very least). Either that, or find some used gear for sale on E-Bay. Used gear probably has no warranty support, and can be a crap shoot.

It's not just the "rig" itself that costs money. It is all the cabling, grounding, matching, antennas, power supplies, batteries, chargers, and such forth that really adds to the total cost of ownership. The nice thing about it is that once you have bought the stuff, you generally don't have to continually sink money into it. No monthly fees, after all...

This might be of interest.
http://www.rigpix.com/yaesu/ft897.jpg

[Goldenspurholderx2]

I'll start checking out the Yaesu line. "I know nothing, NOTHING!" About a grand? I'd rather save my pennies and get OTH capability than get something I can't grow into.

[Bidah]

You really have to decide what you want to start with. Starting out with short range comms is not a bad idea, unless you live remote like I do and then HF is more like it.

If you decide to go the HF route, I can be of some help. Since I have a number of HF rigs I can give you some benefits and concerns.

-Bidah

[Goldenspurholderx2]

I am in suburbia now and the place I want to move to in the next couple of years is pretty remote. If you are familiar with the territory in CO, around the Cannon City area where the Royal Gorge is. More tward the mountains in that area. I'm looking for land to build on so I can get out of the city. Will the mountains play a role in what I should get?

[Bidah]

The remote aspect will play more of a role than the mountains will, IMO. Since you are suburbia now, getting some VHF/UHF short range comms now might be a good choice, at least to start. Then as you can, move up to HF. It will be much easier to do HF when not in town and you can put up a decent antenna.

-Bidah

[Goldenspurholderx2]

Is there any way to have a base station at the house with UHF/VHF capability, a mobile unit in my truck, then (here is the real question) a handheld that would use the trucks radio as a repeater? Say I had to go to town to get supplies and was out of range of the hand held from the base station but I was in the store and wanted to ask my wife what brand of tomato sauce she wanted. Could the handheld be repeated by my stronger truck unit to relay the transmission to the base unit?

We had relay units in the Army but they involved two radios with two different frequencies/antennas etc. So the base station would be on freq A while the truck would have two radios, one on freq A, the other on freq B and the handheld would be freq B. Is this the only way this could be accomplished?

[FN74]

Is there any way to have a base station at the house with UHF/VHF capability, a mobile unit in my truck, then (here is the real question) a handheld that would use the trucks radio as a repeater? Say I had to go to town to get supplies and was out of range of the hand held from the base station but I was in the store and wanted to ask my wife what brand of tomato sauce she wanted. Could the handheld be repeated by my stronger truck unit to relay the transmission to the base unit?

We had relay units in the Army but they involved two radios with two different frequencies/antennas etc. So the base station would be on freq A while the truck would have two radios, one on freq A, the other on freq B and the handheld would be freq B. Is this the only way this could be accomplished?
Yes, you can do this with the correct setup, but it must be a full duplex TX capable unit. Basically you set up the hand held to TX to the truck, and the truck RXs the HT, and TXs to the base etc. However many areas have repeaters that you can just use your HT with and that repeater will do the work for you. This is the simple way to go.

[Goldenspurholderx2]

Cool, I know squat about this stuff except what I learned in the military. I just want to make sure whatever I do eventually get will fit what I want it to do in the future. I just learned yesterday that there was no longer a MORSE requirement to get your license! That's how much I know:)

[Jen]

No morse requirement for the Technician license and the test pools are all public, so you can use them to study for the test.

I still need to get past the morse requirement - I can pass the General / Extra written exams, but the damned morse is holding me back.