Angela Turner

so ive been listening to the Tuesday evening net on our local repeater for a few months now, just lurking and getting a feel for things before i actually checked in. finally did my first check-in last week and it went fine i guess, net control acknowledged me and moved on. but then partway through i heard someone just kind of... jump in between two other stations talking? and net control seemed fine with it but i wasnt sure if that was allowed or if that person just knew everyone and it was a casual thing. also related question, whats the right way to indicate youve got traffic or a comment vs just checking in with nothing to pass? i just said my callsign and nothing else and it worked but i noticed other people were saying stuff like "with comment" or "no traffic" after their call. is there like a standard for that or does it vary by net? i dont want to step on anyone or come off as rude since these guys have clearly been running this net for years and i dont want to be that guy who doesnt know the unwritten rules

so ive had my TS-590SG for going on 6 years now and honestly it's been a great radio, no real complaints. but ive been eyeing the IC-7300 for a while just because the waterfall display would be nice and a few guys at the club swear by it. not really sure if theres a meaningful difference in receive performance or if im just GASing at this point. my main thing is i do mostly 40 and 80m SSB, some digital on 20m (ft8 mostly), and occasionally mess around on 160 when the antenna cooperates. the 590 handles all of that fine but i dunno, sometimes i feel like im missing something not having the spectrum display. anyone made a similar switch or gone the other direction? also open to hearing about the 7610 or the new kenwoods but id rather not spend 3k if i dont have to

Welcome to the hobby! For your first kit, I'd go VHF/UHF first - that's where most local emergency traffic happens. A good dual-band mag mount antenna will get you on local repeaters quickly. You can always add HF wire antennas later when funds allow.

I went through this same thing last spring and honestly the biggest thing I learned was that the case and organization matters almost as much as the gear inside. like I had all the right stuff but it was just kind of piled in there and every time I needed something I had to dig through it all and it was a mess under pressure. now I use foam inserts cut to shape for the heavy stuff and velcro cable ties everywhere and it makes such a difference when you're trying to set up fast. oh and a laminated quick-setup checklist tucked inside the lid. sounds dumb but when you're tired or stressed you WILL forget steps, doesn't matter how many times you've done it at home. also maybe a spare mic if you have one lying around, I blew a connector on mine during a deployment and had nothing to fall back on. small thing but it would have been a bad day.

so i decided i want to get into ham radio and apparently i need to pass the technician exam first. ive been looking around online and theres like a million different study guides and apps and websites and i honestly have no idea which ones are worth using. a friend at work said just memorize the question pool but that seems like cheating yourself out of actually understanding stuff? i dont know. anyway i guess my question is, is there a go-to resource most people use or do you just kind of piece it together from different places. also how long did it take you to feel ready to actually sit for the test. i have maybe an hour or so a night to study and i dont want to waste time on bad materials