Anyone here into Amateur/ham radio? 
 
Amateur radio......  something I have been interested in  for decades to one degree or another.... and now that the code requirements are gone..... it is doable.  As much as I hate arithmetic I was quite able to do the advanced math involved since it was simply manipulating formulas and replacing the letters with numbers and letting a calculator do the arithmetic.
 
I managed to pick up a very inexpensive programmable radio a few days ago that is a 2 meter handi talkie. The Baofend UV-5RA for something like $35 bucks online. Since it also handles FRS freqs,  (illegally since it puts out too much power for that band) it's a cool little radio.  With  a choice of 1 watt or 5 watts and 128 memory channels I can program up all my favorite local repeaters and talk around the area on 2 meter.....once I get my license, of course.
 
Now as I am working through a ham test prep program, getting ready for the exams (Tech & Gen) I discovered that the math calculations are pretty much gone from the test ...at least so far, in this exam prep course there has been very little math to date.....some basic ohms law & power ohms law..... and a few length of antenna questions... I suspect that the extra license may have a bunch..... but I'm not even going to try to test for that one, just the first 2.  Hopefully I can walk out with my general ticket. 
 
I have several friends that are into AR locally and one guy who I used to work for, has a third bedroom set up as his ham shack with thousands of dollars of radio gear. Another is an engineer at a local cell phone company and his shack is unbelievable. It reeks of technology of the latest kind. I know this can be an obsession just like recording and studio gear.... I was into CB radio back in the day when it required a license and before it went into the septic tank with unlicensed idiots. It was a ton of fun. My reasons for wanting to get my general ticket are varied, but mainly to accomplish something I set out to do in my twenties but could never quite get the hang of hearing a series of dots and dashes as tones and understanding what letter it was let alone copy entire sentences accurately..... man I hated the Morse Code. I knew every letter and the numbers too..... but hearing it just didn't compute. Now that that is no longer a requirement...... hey, why not?
 
 
 
 

There are a few ham radio members here, Ive been licensed since 1976, Karyn is a ham(in several ways lol, luv ya karyn) and there was another forumite whose call was part of his user name.
 
AFA code, it kept me from obtaining a license until I purchased a learning  cassette tape and listened as I rode around on service calls, so dont feel bad, and certainly dont let the old timers make you feel bad about being one of those cber no code types.
 
Those chinese hand helds are a cheap way to get into vhf/uhf, but pita to program. I would obtain a copy of CHIRP and the special usb programming cable, and its a snap.
 
But dont get hung up with 2 meters, with your general there is a wide world of rag chewing, nets, dx, experimentation with digital modes,  wire antennas, and so on.
 
Yes, the test material has changed a lot, and even the extra is not as complicated as it was when I took mine in 1978.Heck, we had an old timer here who had to draw a schematic when he took his amateur test!
 
Check out QRZ.com and Eham.com for forums, news, and the like.Also ask your ham buddy about hamfests or swapfests to find some good deals on used hf gear.
 
Gud Luk n 73 OM
de Joe

I'm a ham at everything
 
88 de m0gsj
 
 
 
 
What a ham..  v

I like ham. 

I've been into shortwave and HAM radio since I was a kid. Working on old tube radios was a stepping stone for me. Something about sitting there at night by the glow of the radio dial, listening for order amongst the chaos.
 
CB radio was actually the first social media. I used a 1 kw Collins HAM transmitter for a (short) period of time.

ampfixer
 I used a 1 kw Collins HAM transmitter for a (short) period of time.

MEH, thats QRP compared to some of the 75 meter ops..