Now What?

 Author's note: This article was written primarily with a US audience in mind. I'm not familiar enough with how amateur radio privileges are distributed among the various license classes in other countries to write about opportunities for newly licensed amateurs outside the US. If you're a radio amateur from outside the United States, I at least hope you find this to be interesting reading.

You passed your Technician exam and received your call sign from the FCC. Congratulations! What you've done is well worth celebrating. You dusted off what you learned about Ohm's Law back in high school physics, learned how radio waves get from one antenna to another, familiarized yourself with how the amateur portions of the radio spectrum are organized, and joined the quarter of a percent of the US population who have demonstrated their qualifications to use those portions of the radio spectrum. Now what?

Like any red-blooded new Technician, you probably went to Ham Radio Outlet and bought a 2m/70cm handheld transceiver (HT). Or maybe you ordered a BaoFeng from Amazon; there's no judgement here. You brought your HT home, downloaded a copy of the RepeaterBook app to your phone, and tuned your radio to the geographically nearest repeater, where you heard someone describing in cheerfully explicit detail their most recent doctor's appointment. Not your cup of tea. No problem; you live in a city big enough to have more than one repeater. You QSY to another nearby repeater, where someone is going off on a political diatribe that would make any AM broadcast talk show host blush. You QSY to another repeater, where some curmudgeon is busy berating all those no-code Techs with their HTs who are ruining amateur radio and need to go out and buy a real radio. 

By now you're wondering what you've gotten yourself into. There's no need to panic. If you really want to sell your HT and get that autographed copy of Loverboy's Get Lucky on vinyl that you've had your eye on, there's nothing I can do to stop you, but there are still plenty of opportunities to have fun with amateur radio, and most can be done on a very modest budget. The following list isn't at all comprehensive, but is meant to help you get started thinking about where to find what suits you best in this hobby.

Space Out

You can work amateur radio satellites with a Technician license, and you can work the FM satellites with modest gear and only a little practice. You'll want a directional antenna (Elk and Arrow are popular choices), and you'll want to read up on satellite etiquette, and before you know it you'll be making continent-spanning QSOs with just an HT. You'll be sending your signal into space with only 1dB more power than a CB radio and you'll be receiving signals from space that were generated with not much more power than a kid's toy walkie talkie. Tell that to Mr. HTs-Aren't-Real-Radios.

Get Out of the House

If you like hiking, take your HT along and operate pedestrian mobile. If you like to sail, take it on the boat and operate marine mobile. If take up satellite operations, you'll learn early on that satellite operators love to chase grid squares; you probably live within a couple hours' drive of a grid square that a good number of operators need. There are also programs like Summits on the Air and Parks on the Air that create the context for making lots of QSOs while you're enjoying the outdoors.

Send Messages in Code

The Technician CW privileges on HF are a vastly underutilized resource. Learning Morse code isn't easy, but it's a fun challenge. There are organizations like the CW Ops CW Academy and the Long Island CW Club who offer lessons, or you can do what I did and take the sink-or-swim approach. Morse code gets through when phone can't, and you'll find yourself making DX contacts with a fairly modest setup.

On the subject of setup, I mentioned that most of these ideas would work on a limited budget. Your first HF rig is a place where you won't want to cheap out too much. Some of the best advice I ever got was to make sure my first HF rig had 100 watts of transmit power. Working QRP can be fun, but it can be frustrating when you're first starting out, especially if you live with a homeowners' association or other antenna restrictions.

Make Something

You don't have to build your entire rig from a couple of coconut shells like the Professor in Gilligan's Island. There are plenty of chances to scratch build or kit build accessories for your station. You could try a do-it-yourself antenna. I wasn't born with a soldering iron in my hand, so I developed my own logbook program, one that's optimized for the way I like to operate and log my contacts. The tradition of experimenting and making your own stuff is as old as amateur radio itself, and one that is highly satisfying.

Sit Back and Listen

Monitoring isn't technically part of amateur radio—you don't need a license for a receiver—but it turns out that HT that you bought for operating on 2 meters and 70 centimeters is capable of receiving over a broad range of frequencies. In that way, it's much like the police scanners that were popular in the '70s and '80s. Depending on where you live, you'll likely find out that public safety communications (police, fire, etc.) are encrypted these days, but there are plenty of signals to be heard. Air traffic control, railroad dispatch, and marine VHF are just a few.

Generalize

Your Tech license is something to be proud of, and something to enjoy for a while, but sooner or later you're going to want to expand. Working RTTY on a contest weekend is a gas. Phone on HF is fun. And although it gets unfairly knocked around, FT8 can be a great way to enjoy some quick DX. These opportunities and more come with the General class license. You'll learn a lot in the course of studying for the General license, and once you pass you'll find an entirely new world of bands and modes to explore. Until then, 73 and hope to CUL on the Tech frequencies.