I’ve decided to come out with a paperback version of 21 Things to Do After You Get Your Amateur Radio License. I loved the covers that Jeff, K1NSS, created for my other books so much that, of course, I had him design a new cover for 21 Things. What do you think?
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21 Things to Do After You Get Your Amateur Radio License (Nook)
21 Things to Do After You Get Your Amateur Radio License offers practical advice for the new ham—or the ham that hasn’t really been all that active lately. Its 21 chapters include:
- Join a club
- Join the ARRL
- Find an Elmer
- Buy a radio
- Get on the air
- Set up a shack
- Buy some tools
- Buy a digital multimeter (DMM)
- Build an antenna
- Build a kit
- Go to a hamfest
- Learn the lingo
- Subscribe to mailing lists, blogs, and podcasts
- Upgrade to General
- Go to Field Day
- Learn Morse Code
- Get to know your (ham) neighbors
- Buy QSL cards
- Join SkyWarn, ARES, or RACES
- Participate in a contest
- HAVE FUN!
This is the Barnes&Noble Nook (.epub) version. It is also available for the Amazon Kindle (.mobi) and as a PDF file.
21 Things to Do After You Get Your Amateur Radio License (Kindle)
21 Things to Do After You Get Your Amateur Radio License offers practical advice for the new ham—or the ham that hasn’t really been all that active lately. Its 21 chapters include:
- Join a club
- Join the ARRL
- Find an Elmer
- Buy a radio
- Get on the air
- Set up a shack
- Buy some tools
- Buy a digital multimeter (DMM)
- Build an antenna
- Build a kit
- Go to a hamfest
- Learn the lingo
- Subscribe to mailing lists, blogs, and podcasts
- Upgrade to General
- Go to Field Day
- Learn Morse Code
- Get to know your (ham) neighbors
- Buy QSL cards
- Join SkyWarn, ARES, or RACES
- Participate in a contest
- HAVE FUN!
This is the Amazon Kindle (.mobi) version. It is also available as a PDF file and as an .epub for the Barnes&Noble Nook.
21 Things to Do After You Get Your Amateur Radio License (PDF)
21 Things to Do After You Get Your Amateur Radio License offers practical advice for the new ham—or the ham that hasn’t really been all that active lately. Its 21 chapters include:
- Join a club
- Join the ARRL
- Find an Elmer
- Buy a radio
- Get on the air
- Set up a shack
- Buy some tools
- Buy a digital multimeter (DMM)
- Build an antenna
- Build a kit
- Go to a hamfest
- Learn the lingo
- Subscribe to mailing lists, blogs, and podcasts
- Upgrade to General
- Go to Field Day
- Learn Morse Code
- Get to know your (ham) neighbors
- Buy QSL cards
- Join SkyWarn, ARES, or RACES
- Participate in a contest
- HAVE FUN!
This is the PDF version. It is also available for the Amazon Kindle (.mobi) and Barnes&Noble Nook (.epub).
21 Things makes Amateur Radio Newsline
My new book got a mention in the Amateur Radio Newsline portion of Ham Nation yesterday. Here’s what they said:
RADIO READING: NEW E-BOOK FOR NEWCOMERS OR RETURNING HAMS
21 Things to Do After You Get Your Amateur Radio License is a new book by Daniel M Romanchik, KB6NU, that is now available for electronic reading on the Kindle and Nook. Written for the new ham or those amateurs who have not really been all that active late, its 21 chapters cover just about every aspect of the hobby as it is today. Included are such topics as how to locate an Elmer, how to buy a radio, set up a shack and much more. Also covered are the social aspects of the hobby including participation in clubs, hamfests and the like. The Kindle edition priced under three dollars is available from amazon.com.
It’s also available from Barnes&Noble, as well as here on my website.
Hot off the (digital) press: 21 Things to Do After You Get Your Amateur Radio License
21 Things to Do After You Get Your Amateur Radio License is now available for the Kindle (Amazon) and Nook (Barnes&Noble). Written for the new ham—or the ham that hasn’t really been all that active lately—its 21 chapters include:
- Join a club
- Join the ARRL
- Find an Elmer
- Buy a radio
- Get on the air
- Set up a shack
- Buy some tools
- Buy a digital multimeter (DMM)
- Build an antenna
- Build a kit
- Go to a hamfest
- Learn the lingo
- Subscribe to mailing lists, blogs, and podcasts
- Upgrade to General
- Go to Field Day
- Learn Morse Code
- Get to know your (ham) neighbors
- Buy QSL cards
- Join SkyWarn, ARES, or RACES
- Participate in a contest
- HAVE FUN!
21 Things to Do: Join the ARRL
In addition to joining your local amateur radio club, you should also join the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). The ARRL is that national association for radio amateurs and offers many services for amateur radio operators:
- QST. QST is the ARRL’s monthly magazine. Every month, you’ll receive a magazine full of good information, projects, and news about amateur radio.
- QST archive. In the past couple of years, the ARRL has digitized every issue of QST that they’ve ever published. It’s available on the ARRL website, but only to current members.
- E-mail newsletters. In addition to QST, the ARRL publishes e-mail newsletters on a variety of topics, including:
- The ARRL Letter is a weekly newsletter with news about amateur radio.
- Contest Update is a bi-weekly newsletter for contest enthusiasts. I strongly suggest signing up for this newsletter, as it’s about much more than contesting.
- The ARES E-Letter is for those amateur radio operators involved in public service and emergency communications.
- Section and division newsletters from your section manager and division director.
There are lots of naysayers out there who will advise you to not to join the ARRL and tell you it’s a waste of money. I think that you should find out for yourself. Join the ARRL and participate in some of its activities. After you’ve done that, you can make a better decision about whether membership is right for you or not.
For more information on joining the ARRL, go to https://www.arrl.org/join-arrl-renew-membership/.
21 Things to Do: Buy QSL cards
Once you start making contacts, other amateurs will want to swap QSL cards with you, even if you just talk to them on the local repeater. The purpose of a QSL card is to confirm that you had a contact with another amateur. For sure, you’ll want to have some cards printed up if you operate on the shortwave bands. Sometimes, amateur radio operators call swapping QSL cards “the final courtesy.”
Once you get started swapping QSL cards, you may get hooked on QSLing, and it certainly can be an enjoyable part of the hobby. Many designs are distinctive, and they are fun to show off to friends and family. When I speak to groups about amateur radio, I always bring a selection of QSL cards that I’ve received. They can be very impressive.
Another reason to collect QSL cards is that they’re often needed to qualify for awards and certificates. You can, for example, get the Worked All States Award from the ARRL by submitting a QSL card from a station that you contacted in each of the 50 states.
Collecting QSLs can be fun, even if you don’t plan to apply for an award. I have, for example, started a small collection of QSL cards from stations whose callsigns spell words. I now have more than 150 such QSL cards including cards from W8HOG, WB4DAD, N4HAY, and KD8EGG. I agree that it’s kind of odd, but it’s fun, too.
Where to get QSL cards
There are many companies that print QSL cards. Here are some in no particular order, and with no endorsement implied:
All of these companies offer stock designs, but can also print custom designs. I suggest starting out with one of the stock designs and then consider a custom design once you’ve run out of the first printing. You can design your own, like I did,, or perhaps get a professional designer, like Jeff, K1NSS, to design one for you. Here’s a QSL that he designed for KA2HTV:
21 Things to Do: Buy a DMM
A digital multimeter, or DMM for short, is the most basic piece of test equipment you can own, and every ham should have one. With a digital multimeter (DMM), you can make voltage, current, and resistance measurements. Some multimeters do even more, but that’s a topic for another book.
Why do you need a multimeter? Well, the multimeter is the first thing you’ll reach for when you have problems with your equipment. For example, let’s say you go down to your shack, switch on your radio, and nothing. It doesn’t turn on. The first thing you should check in this case is that the power supply is supplying the proper input voltage. To do this, you pull out your DMM, set it to measure voltage, place the probes on the + and – outputs, and verify that the power supply is working.
OK, now we’re sure that the power supply is working OK, but the radio still doesn’t power up. The next thing to check is the power cable from the supply to the radio. It’s possible that the cable has an open connection. To check that, you first disconnect the cable from the power supply and from the radio.
This multimeter costs about $50 and features a rugged case that helps prevent damage should you accidentally drop it.Then, set your DMM to measure resistance. Set it on the lowest resistance scale. Connect one test probe to one end of the cable and the other test probe to the other end. The resistance you measure should be very low—less than 2 or 3 ohms. An open connection will register an infinite resistance.
I think you get the picture. Without a DMM, you’re dead in the water. With a DMM, you can figure out what’s wrong and fix it.
There are a wide range of DMMs available. On the low end, you’ll find DMMs at Harbor Freight for $5 or less. On the high end, you could spend $300 or more for a Fluke multimeter. I would advise against both. The $5 multimeters are not very well-made and can be inaccurate. They tend to quit working just when you need them.
The $300 DMMs are great, but you needn’t spend that much. A DMM costing between $30 and $100 will do pretty much all you need to do at this point in your amateur radio adventure, and you can use the money you have left over for other things. You can buy them at any Lowe’s or Home Depot. Ask your friends or Elmer what kind of meter they own and whether or not they would recommend that you buy something similar.
21 Things to Do: Join SkyWarn, ARES, or RACES
One of the principles upon which the amateur radio service is founded is that, when needed, amateur radio operators will provide public service and emergency communications. Part 97.1 (a) reads:
Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications.
Think of it as part of the price you pay for the privilege of being granted an amateur radio license.
One way to get involved with public service and emergency communications is to join SkyWarn (http://www.skywarn.org). SkyWarn is a volunteer program run by the National Weather Service with more than 290,000 trained severe weather spotters. These volunteers help keep their local communities safe by providing timely and accurate reports of severe weather to the National Weather Service.
Not all of these weather spotters are amateur radio operators, but a good many are, and using amateur radio is a great way to report severe weather. When severe weather is imminent, SkyWarn spotters are deployed in the areas where the severe weather is expected. A “net” is established on one of the local repeaters, and all of the SkyWarn spotters who have amateur radio licenses check into that net. The net control advises the spotters when they might expect to see severe weather, and the spotters, in turn, report conditions such as horizontal winds, large hail, rotating clouds, and even tornadoes.
To become a SkyWarn spotter, you must take a class that teaches you the basics of severe weather, how to identify potential severe weather features, and how to report it. The classes are free and typically last about two hours.
ARES/RACES
Another way to become involved in public service and emergency communications is to join an ARES/RACES group. Although technically these are two separate services—the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) is run by the ARRL, while Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (http://www.usraces.org/) is a function of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) —the amateur radio operators who typically take part in one also take part in the other.
To participate in RACES, you’ll need to to take some self-study FEMA course in emergency preparedness and emergency-response protocols. Classes may or may not be required to participate in ARES. These requirements are set by each individual ARES group. To get involved with either ARES or RACES, ask your local club members when they meet. You can also contact the Section Manager or Emergency Coordinator for your ARRL section. To get in touch with those people, go to http://www.arrl.org/sections and find the section that you live in.
If these formal organizations aren’t for you, you can still participate in public service activities through your club. Our club, for example, provides communications for a bike tour with more than 1,000 riders and covering dozens of square miles. Our organization is a lot less formal than SkyWarn, ARES, or RACES, but the public service that we provide is just as valuable.