Congratulations on obtaining your Tech license. I have had mine about 3
months. Before I made my purchase I went to http://www.eham.net/reviews
and read reviews on radios I was interested in purchasing. These
reviews are posted by HAMS who own the equipment you are interested in.
I found the information invaluable. After much research I ended up
buying a Yaesu (Vertex Standard) VX-150 2M HT from Ham Radio Outlet for
$119 and free shipping. Best of luck to you and enjoy your new hobby!

Kevin
KI4KFS
Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
In article , pak wrote:
I am a new Ham with Technician license and would like to buy/obtain a used
2m or dual band handheld. I would like to get something to get my feet wet
in amateur radio, but not spend a small fortune.
Need some advice on what brand, model would be good. Is dual band a good
idea?
Where should I look for used equipment, what advice can you give in regards
to getting something used that works and not getting ripped off.

Before you buy anything, take advantage of the ham radio tradition
called "emlmering". In modern English outside of ham radio it's called
"mentoring", a word that did not exist when I got interested in radio.

I used to tell people to walk around their neighborhood and look for
antennas. If you see one, knock on the door and ask if a ham radio
operator lives there. Another tip off is a car license plate that
says "amateur radio" on it.

Since you have a computer, you don't even have to do that. Go to
a callsign lookup website, such as www.qrz.com and do a search on
your zip code. If you see hams near you, you can go knock on their
door, or just look them up in a phone directory and call them.

Since you met some hams at the testing session where you passed
your test (congats on that), you could ask them.

73,

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (077)-424-1667 IL Fax: 972-2-648-1443 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
VoN Skype: mendelsonfamily. Looking for work as a CTO or consultant in
handheld gaming, large systems development, handheld device construction, etc.
Support amateur (ham) radio, boycott Google!!!