"charlesW" wrote in message
oups.com...
Thanks for the advice, I will attend a meeting. After further
searching the ARRL website, I found that my school is actually
conducting a test on Sept. 24th to get a technician's license! I will
have time to attend one or two meetings before then and I also found
the ARRL book Now You're Talking and the hadnbook at my schools
library. Hopefully this should prepare me enough for the test.

On another note, I am working part-time while at college so money is a
little tight. So I can get an idea of what I need to save, how much
should I expect to spend on a beginner's rig? Any advice on a model or
make that would be a good starter set? What if I want to do some
sattelite communications?

Thanks again for the advice,
Charles

Glad you found the book - read it and you should be able to make inroads
into a licence. I'll say, just to reinforce it - go to the club! There's
bound to be one or more who'll point you in the right direction when you
need some help.

Take a look at Ebay for prices of rigs - search on 'amateur radio' (duh!
wasn't my first pick but it's pretty durn obvious :-) or the makes, like
Yaesu, Icom, etc. Take you pick, depending on band(s) you want to work. Or
just drool for a while before you splurge - if you wait a while you'll find
you'll have a better idea of what you want to do. You guys are spoilt for
choice in North America. :-)

For satellite, and I'm talking from a position of not having done it for a
few years (I have to do it at work so I tend not to at home now) so someone
correct me if I'm wrong; look at a 70cm and a 2m rig or a 70cm/2m
dual-bander. But if the cost is beyond you at the moment, get one rig and
play with it and figure out procedures, antennas and the like. Plenty to
play at before moving on!

Have fun!

Cheers.

Ken