Setting up a ham station

[Phaze91460]

Ok, just want to start a thread for someone starting out a new ham station.

What radios give you the most bang for the buck.

What kind of licensing is needed to run the most bands

What kind of coax is needed

What kind of antennas are needed for basic and advanced operations.

How about a recommendation for a complete setup, why you would choose that setup, etc.

[busman]

one of the newer icom or yaesu radios. a good ameritron, or simular amp and a good antenna. i love the ham stations i just dont want to talk on them. 11 meter and outlaw channels for me thank you. dont want to mess with antenna tuners, di-poles- beams - rotors and the likes. maybe im just being lazy. :D give me a good ground plane, a icom 756 pro 3 modded for 11 meter and a good tube amp and id be happy as a pig in sh#$$. i do respect the hams and talk no crap about it. its just not what im into.

[231]

Just my opinion(s), but as a reasonably good start see below.

What radios give you the most bang for the buck.

Depends on what intended license but a small all mode (Yeasu FT-857D/FT897D), (Icom IC-706/IC-7000) is a good way to go. On the flip side of the coin, many prefer two radios. An HF rig (covering 160m-10m <sometimes 6m>) and a VHF/UHF rig (2m/70cm). Most of the big 3 (aka Icom, Kenwood, Yeasu) are good choices any way you go IMO.

What kind of licensing is needed to run the most bands

In a nut shell:
1st level = Technician License: Gives you VHF/UHF and 28.300-28.500 10m voice privilages (plus extra CW)
2nd level = General License: Gives you the same plus most of the lower HF bands...but there are still limits on the voice (phone) portions of 80/75m, 40m, and 20m bands.
3rd level = Extra License: Gives you full privilages for all of the above, and the added voice portions that a General can't use.

What kind of coax is needed

Depends on the antenna. A simple inverted "V" dipole uses 50ohm just like CB does. Many dipole configurations use 350ohm, 450ohm, or 650ohm ladder line though, and require an antenna tuner. All the commercially made beams I know of are also 50ohm.

What kind of antennas are needed for basic and advanced operations.

Again, it depends on the band, pocket book, property size, etc. But it's really not all that different from CB (IMO). A simple inverted "V" will do a very good job on the lower bands. For the VHF/UHF bands, the antennas are so small it's easy for most anyone to build a simple ground plane or vertical to hit the repeaters with. And a beam is almost as easy. But the line loss on these bands can be significant. So you really want to try and keep them short and use low loss coax.

How about a recommendation for a complete setup, why you would choose that setup, etc.

If I was to choose just one radio and only had about $1500 to spend, it'd be the IC-7000. With a good mic it's a talkin' radio and will do all the stuff a full sized rig will do. Some of the filtering and DSP circuitry design is from the IC-7800...one of the top of the line rigs. The IC-706 has many of these same features, but doesn't have as fancy of display. The Yeasu FT-857/897 both have DSP (digital signal processing) but their filtering lacks alot by comparison. However, Yeasu has additional filtering that can be purchased and installed. The Yeasu line is a good performer, but until you get into their higher end rigs (i.e. FT1000MP-MkV etc.) their audio (to me) is just average...even with a good after market mic.

A 20-25amp power supply, feed line, support system, and you are on the air. If your antennas are resonant for that band, a person can get away without an antenna tuner...but sooner or later will probably want one.

As far as an amp goes, you'd be surprised how much fun a person can have with just the 100w radio. Alot of guys enjoy QRP (low power) stations, too. You can pick up an older tube amp for anywhere from $200 on up. I just run an old modified ClippertonL with 4-572b's and can do legal limit (1500w). But usually if I can't get the job done with 1kw, it just isn't going to happen.

Again, these are just my opinions...and just one way a person could do the deal. I'm sure there are many other good ways, too.

[80 meter man]

Great questions I think it will take me about 10 posts to answer all of them. IMHO if I had 1500$ to spend I would go with the Icom IC-7000 for a mobile but I don't have a mobile so I would go with the Kenwood TS-2000 as a base unit. It does almost every ham band and has general receive from 500Khz to 54Mhz then 130Mhz to 550Mhz. I guessed at these so they are most likely to be way off. I have this rig and I love it. I use it for ham bands and I also use it to scan local Police and Fire. I can talk on the ham bands and monitor the public safety frequencies at the same time. During weather emergencies I can be on the weather net and here all local safety calls at the same time. One of the best parts about being a ham is you can be a weather spotter to the local weather bureau. I have given many local observations to the National Weather Service. One time we had an ice storm here and I reported it to NW. He asked me if I had any photos of storm damage I said yes so he gave me an email to send them to and my house was one of the photos in the storm report that NW put out. I find that part of ham very rewarding. I can't do much to help my community so this is a way I can do some thing to help out. I'll chime in on the other questions later.

[busman]

thats a neat set up you got there 80 meter man. right on.

[KI4MSJ]

This is my portable camping set up.
Yaesu 897D with internal batteries, Rigrunner, LDG 897AT, LDG meter, DSP Speaker, 18Ah battery with the Whatsup meter
Stock DTMF remote mic and Heil headset/mic, Buddistick antenna



Base station consisting of IC-756 PROII, SP-23 speaker, PS-25 power supply, Palstar antenna tuner, HP Laptop computer, Rigblaster Pro Digital interface, G5RV antenna

IC-2200H 2 meter radio, 4 element 2 meter antenna, Astron 25 amp switching power supply

[dud muck]

One thing you gotta ask yourself is what bands you want to operate on.
You may not want to pour money into a radio that runs on a band(s) you're not interested in.
There are radios that just do HF only, so they put all their effort into HF and excel in that area.
The radios mentioned in this thread do HF, and VHF & UHF.
If you're unsure about VHF/UHF, check it out on a scanner.

They mentioned great mobile HF radios.
If you're interested in a base-station installation, your first choice should be a base HF radio.

As far as antenna, if you have a desire to operate all the HF bands with minimal cost, a great antenna is the horizontal loop fed with ladder line to an antenna tuner. The loop only need to be sized large enough for the longest wavelength band you want to operate on. How high off the ground does it need to be? the higher it is, the lower the take-off angle. High take-off angle means cloud burner.

Running the lower HF bands requires alot of real estate not matter what kind of antenna. For 80 meters, need a huge back yard, can't do it in the city. 160 meters is really tough, need to live in a rural area to have enough space for that band.

In any case, setting up a ham station will burn a hole in your wallet.

[Phaze91460]

See, what I wan to see here is very in depth. I dont care if it takes 20 posts or if each of y'all make a 20 post thread just to explain things as you see um.

I dont want the simple answers. I want the avarage CB'r to be able to look at this and determine what they would need to do or a starting point to be able to operate.

I want pix of antennas or equipment.

I want expanded answers to items like what is an antenna tuner and what does it do and how does it work and what brands and what cost.

What is the most popular bands and what radios and licensing would be needed.

I hope you see where I am going with this.

Maybe is someone had 500. another 1000 and another 1500-2000. What kind of rigs would you be looking at.

[CatDaddy]

I think i can add to this. I've been in to radio since mid 70's and last year took on interest after about 9 years of silence.I got my old Cobra stuff back up and on air then met an Extra class that got me to try for my ham.I was running Cobra with D104 and slider on Imax 2000 and soon my first ham was Icom 706 because it covered all bands including 11 meter which I enjoy alot and it talked on my Imax. Let's see if I can get pic up. Nope too big I'll do it later. I got my ticket so it's called but still enjoy talking on 11 meters. Must do some photo work.
Will try to add to this
73s

[Jester]

Okay, you got your ticket and you want to get on 2 meters. This is easy, you could go buy a cheap ADI 2 meter HT (HT stands for handie talkie) and you could work the local repeaters. However, if you want to access some distant repeaters and talk further, you are going to want a mobile rig with a power supply converted to a base station. Here are a few good performers for the entry-level budget:

1: Yaesu FT-2800. The 2800 is a continuation of the now discontinued FT-2600M, which was my first ham radio mobile. It has TX from 144-148, and expanded RX. I believe it does up to 65 watts. Currently priced less than 200$.

2: Icom IC2200, V8000, etc: Icom makes a good radio too. Another good option(s) for less than 200$.

3: Kenwoods are nice too, but I cant think of the single band mobile off the top of my head (what I am telling you is all of the top of my head)

For less than 200$, you can get a real nice single band 2 meter mobile. If you want to go on 70 centimeters (the UHF ham band that is fairly active), you might want to think about a Dual-Band Mobile. These can be had for less than 300$ in most cases and usually have wide RX, often as high as 900 mHz (less cellular band)..

Still think these choices are lame? Want to spend some REAL cash? I'd recommend an HF rig then that has 2 meters and 440 included. The Yaesu FT-857 and the FT-897 specifically are GREAT choices. That way, you get all the HF ham bands from 160 to 10, with access to 2 and sometimes 440 if the radio has the capabilities. These radios are around 800$. Another good mobile choice is an Icom 706MKIIG, also in the same price range.

Don't want HF, and want to drop SERIOUS dough on a 2 meter/440 BASE STATION? Then try the Icom IC-910H. I bought one of these new in 2003 for 1100$, and it was a dream come true. Also, it is the only 2 meter base station manufactured by ANY ham manufacturer as of right now. It can run 100 WATTS on 2 meters, and up to 75 on 440mHZ! It also has a CW key jack in the back, and can even run SSB! The only 2 meter SSB radios right now would be a high level HF base station with 2 meters or 440 built in, the 857, 897, the 706MKIIG, and the 910.


So by now, I hope you picked out a radio. What about an antenna? Any magnet mount antenna will get you out pretty well on 2 meter FM, but if you want a good roof antenna, I'd recommend what I use everyday: The Comet GP-6. It has the highest gain its class, and costs around 169$. With my IC-910H and the GP-6, I have worked repeaters in Iowa and Nebraska from the west burbs of Chicago when conditions are decent. When they are average, I can pull up Milwaukee and Michigan repeaters EVERYDAY.

What about a power supply? I'd recommend something that can handle the wattage you plan to run. Since I almost never go over 25 watts, I have a Mighty Lite 25 amp switching power supply that I got for less than 125$, and it works great. You don't need much in this arena.

Coax? This is IMPORTANT. You want something strong, resilient, and something known for low loss. I use Belden 9913 low-loss semi-flexible RG-8 coax that goes for around 95$ for a 100-ft roll. It is not entirely flexible, but can be buried and holds up very well to the elements. Other good choices would be Times Microwave LMR-400 (expensive but well worth it), or if you are willing to plop down serious cash, Andrew Corp. Coax.

In the end, you will spend the following for a dyno-mite setup: (conservative estimates)

Radio: 150$
Power Supply: 100$
Coax: 100$
Antenna: 175$

Total: about 525$ for a GOOD station. You can do OK for less, but to do really well in the world of 2 meters and VHF/UHF ham radio, these are some of my recommendations. Good luck and have fun!