So,
earlier I was talking on what I should get as my first HAM Radio. First I started with some really cool and extremely expensive HF Rigs. Then I thought that it might be a good idea to first get a cheaper Radio with which I can just listen to the HF Bands, so I can test if I can manage to get an antenna out on my balcony before my neighbours complain and if I can hear anything at all. But I should also be able to use the radio for something. So I chose a walkie-talkie ( is this the right translation for “Handfunkgerät” ?) that can do 2m/70cm in TX and pretty much everything from 100kHz to 23cm in RX with all the modes. Well, it was a nice idea. Still pretty expensive, but waaay cheaper than the first devices i looked into.
So recently I saw that there will be a FUNcube Dongle Pro Plus. In addition to the regular treats a FCDP comes with it also can tune down to the lowest end of LF at 100kHz. What a radio! Since I already had a FCDP and played around with it for quite some time by now, I am pretty sure I will get the HF enabled FCDP+ version as well. I will do all my HF DX experiments with it. So there is no need for a Radio for me that can do allband RX anymore.
Diminishing the needs for wideband-RX, what is left is that I will get a simple duoband 2m/70cm Handheld radio as my first HAM Rig. It should allow me to talk via any relays around Berlin and make some first contacts. After all I plan on building my own radios. Remember, that’s the fun part for me.
So what remains left when all the special parts are left out ? Right, a cheapo chinese dualband radio. Let’s see what it does.
