Congratulations for earning your ticket. My wife and I have been licensed for almost 10 years now. Finding an "Elmer" through a local Ham club would likely be very rewarding. I'm not a technical person at all. I had an injury that forced early retirement. I had always wanted to travel and took good health for granted... never even looked into applying for a passport. I decided I could still travel the World by radio and my wife agreed to be a study buddy to help me do that.
Our local radio club was very supportive and several "Elmers" helped us design a very nice Ham station. Jayne and I tested for tech and general at the same time. After making friends locally Jayne declared that this is fun and we can pass the Extra exam. She passed it on the first try and I didn't. After a year of being made sport of I managed to upgrade to Extra.
Some areas have very active repeaters with a bunch of other Hams a Tech license will allow you to get to know.... our area repeaters are not getting much traffic currently.
EchoLink is free and a method that would allow you to make contacts around the World if you are interested
https://secure.echolink.org/
There is a glut of good quality used equipment on the market. If you can find a local Elmer willing to help you could get the equipment needed to operate on HF bands Probably doable for less than 500.00. The General exam is harder than Technician but if your local repeaters are not as active as you'd like the General is a very reachable goal.
Enjoy the hobby
73
John & Jayne
KK4FZI & KK4FZH
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Originally Posted by KCSO
