Just "ham" -- ok thanks. I'm new to the amateur radio world beyond CB, so I don't know all the vernacular.
No offense taken. I'm grateful for any education, as this is a brand new area for me and I have a LOT to learn. Achieving a Technician's license will be just the start of my learning, not the end!Apologies if my comment sounded snobby or preachy - not intended
You can already do ham tests online but I'm not a fan of the fact you have to use a Zoom call for credential validation. There's several on Reddit on the the amateur radio sub that have reported success with their technician licenses.
I read this a couple of months ago, so its is coming may be a little ways off yet but they are working on it.
There are some exams online almost daily it looks like. Some of them are in a first come first server waiting room style format though.Just "ham" -- ok thanks. I'm new to the amateur radio world beyond CB, so I don't know all the vernacular.
I've had a CB but most people and orgs seem to be moving towards GMRS, I suppose because of its much more relaxed licensing vs ham.
Thanks again for the help.
The California emergency services have taken the position that their in-house comms are more than sufficient for any emergency situation. Therefore, they no longer require the support of ham operators. For that reason, they are withdrawing their support for ham repeaters that are located on certain state properties. That means someone can pay to lease the location, or that the repeaters will be removed. This has zero impact on any repeaters not located on those state properties. Not sure of current status, but those are basically the issues at hand.
I just got my tech license in February also so I don’t know much and haven’t gotten my ham radio dialed in or programmed yet but I had the same dilemma myself. I don’t get to take the doors and top off as much the way the weather changes around the Midwest but I still wanted to require a setup that allowed for doors, top, and windshield down. In the end, I followed another members idea of making a unistrut bar mounted to the dash and mounting the two radios, GoPro and my phone holder on that. For the antenna, bought a pair of the AEG pod light mounts that come off the side of the cowl so the windshield can still lay down and drilled a hole in the driver side one behind my pod light to mount the Tram dual band antenna. (CB antenna is mounted on the bed rail for now)
Center console might be the best option. Not only is it protected from the elements, but it's also lockable (well it used to be on the JK, come to think of it I never checked on the JT), and the display is still somewhat in view without taking your eyes off the road.
"ILLEGAL" ????? Not sure if it is in the best interests of this forum to suggest or promote illegal behavior or violations of Federal law. Perhaps there is little enforcement today but you can bet if it gets out of hand that the Feds are not going to allow these bands to be whored like CB was in the 70's. As for the trail norm, it's still CB in many parts of the country but to say it's moving to VHF is a pretty bold statement that isn't perhaps 100% factual. Perhaps few consequences today but in the future..................................................I got my first ham license in 1980, I'm that old, and used it illegally before that. The trail "norm" used to be CB because everyone had it, now it's moving to VHF using business and MURS frequencies, and UHF using FRS/GMRS frequencies. I have them all programmed in my radio so I can join most any group using any of them.
This is illegal, BTW, but nobody is out there looking for people violating type-approvals that are inconsequential. I just switch to low power on those frequencies.
On high power, I'm able to reach repeaters 60+ miles away, so in an emergency, I have a wide number of ways to communicate.
But the point is that it is a violation of Federal Laws. The FCC bans those radios as fast as the Chinese can make them and change them. It is illegal to use them no matter if "no one can tell or not". The same would apply to the same people who say I don't care if the trail is closed, I'm going to drive on it anyway, who is going to know. The laws are in place for reasons and it is wrong to encourage others to violate those same laws "just because". And, if you don't have licenses for those frequencies, as MOST do not, it is a violation of frequencies. No different than those off roaders out there with the cheap Baofengs and no ham license mucking up the frequencies and people on this forum or organized clubs should not be condoning these clear violations of the law.
