Always be learning

When I earned my Novice ticket, before the internet, I was lucky to learn from my grandfather, W1YTQ and take some adult education classes.

The internet hasn’t made amateur radio obsolete. The internet makes learning and getting on the air easier than ever.

The internet complements rather than competes with amateur radio

Getting started in HF

Here is a quick list of resources that I used to study and earn my General license in the Fall of 2022.

Josh Nass’s Ham Radio Crash Course (HRCC)

Josh is a great ambassador for the amateur radio hobby. He does a great job teaching radio topics and cultivating an active and welcoming community online. Like me, Josh believes that amateur radio benefits from when when diverse people join our community. We want people of all backgrounds, genders, ages and beliefs to join in and enrich our hobby.

The Ham Radio Crash Course community can be found

Josh’s weekly podcast includes his wife Leah and I really enjoy their banter. Leah’s laughter is contagious and brings a welcome lighthearted tone to sometimes dry radio topics.

YouTube

I really like YouTube for learning about amateur radio. I don’t have a lot of time to sit down and watch whole TV programs. But I do like to make my morning coffee and spend 15 minutes learning about radio subjects like antennas, radio reviews or whatever before starting my day. There are a ton of amateur radio YouTube channels. Here are some that I subscribe to and return to on the regular.

Coastal Waves & Wires

If I had to pick an amateur radio role model or guru it would be Walt, K4OGO, of Coastal Waves & Wires.

Walt produces bite sized videos featuring field operations and antenna theory and design. His energy is infectious and he walks viewers through basic antenna theory put to practical practice.

DX is “radio speak” for distance. It’s often used to refer to contacts between operators in the continental US (CONUS) and elsewhere (including Alaska and Hawaii)

Walt gets amazing DX contacts with his 20 watt, Xiegu G90, the same radio that I own. I watch his videos closely and many of my plans and projects are inspired by his work.

David Casler

David Casler is everyone’s online Elmer. His YouTube videos are often in a Q&A format where he answers questions sent to him from the community. He has a warm and friendly way of teaching complex topics with a practical level of detail. His videos on station grounding, a complex topic, really helped me wrap my head around this important topic.

In amateur radio slang, an “elmer” is an experienced operator who teaches you and helps you get into our fine hobby

David’s website, http://dcasler.com/ham-radio/ is a rich trove of material. I used his Reference Station for General… as the starting point for my own starting setup.

British antenna dudes

I’ve stumbled upon a group of British antenna enthusiasts that I enjoy watching.

Tim, G5TM
Laid back British dude who provides clear explanations of complex antenna theory
DXCommander
High energy British dude who designs and sells the DXCommander antenna; he does cool experiments
Waters & Stanton
If your grandfather was British and owned an amateur radio outlet store

Unexpectedly, I’ve found antenna theory and construction to be one of my favorite aspects of the hobby

The flag/antenna image above was created using NightCafe Studio

Old school cool

Finally, I discovered and really enjoyed these classic educational films produced for US Army Signal Corp training.

I imagine my grandfather had to watch these when he was in the Army.