We came very close to a clean sweep this year at field day. We missed Ct, AK, and a couple of Canadian provinces. I was very surprised we did not work AK. I operated the digital station for 115 contacts, don't want to touch PSK for a while. lol Our total count was around 640 contacts and I think around 500 bonus points. I need to submit the log and I will know for sure.

 

Well our field day was small, but I only missed one on my tech test but missed 14 on my general so will need to practice up to take that one again. Now I am wondering what radio, I want one to get started, I don't have any idea which freq to listen to. But I will join our local club and figure it all out. Thanks for any info on a cheap radio and antenna for a mobile, I dont want a handheld I dont think, not yet.

 

Oh darn.......I did indeed hear at least one NM station, have to wonder now if it was you? I remember the signal was pretty down in the noise. Guess I should have tried anyway....

 

Congrats on becoming a Tech.... As far as a radio goes, it all depends on what you want to do. If money is a consideration, and if you just want to get on the air asap, then when you join the radio club, be sure and ask around if somebody wants to sell a 2m mobile. More than likely somebody does. If not, or if you want to go new, you can get an Icom 2m mobile for less than $200. As far as antennas go, it's hard to beat a Larsen.

73 & Good Luck....!!!

 

We had a good field day:
1. My FT-450 failed. So no digital contacts.
2. The heat index was 105 degrees.
3. Had a 2 hour thunderstorm Sat afternoon.
4. Had 14 operators share duty on 3 transmitters on generators.
825 total contacts 245 Phone 580 CW. I made 169 of the phone contacts.
We did not contact ID, SD or ME and NWT in Canada. We did operate on 160-10M.
Total score was 3660 with bonus points.
5. 4 brand new hams made some HF contacts.
6. Had plenty of food and ice cold drinks, thanks to our "field day gourmets".
7. Had a blast.

 

Congrads on passing the exam.
As for radios, there are a couple of ham sites that have classified section you might check out.
One is EHam.net.
Doing a search for ham sites will show a bunch.

I agree with Dave on the Larson.
Iv got a Larson 2/70 on the front fender of the Jeep and it works great for me.