My bride and I are thinking about getting radios other than our CB's and we are looking at Ham radios,
What are the benefits of the different license types? I know there are more frequencies available with a higher grade license, but are there any advantages over the basic technical license with getting the general or amateur extra?
Just thinking if we do, and pretty much stay on one frequency, does the higher license offer more wattage use or repeaters or any other advantage over the basic?

 

Our group has been fine with the basic technician license for our vehicles and hand helds. Haven't considered the higher levels, but I think they apply more to a ham enthusiast who wants a more extreme home base setup.

 

You should be fine with the basic/technician's license. Since I suspect you aren't really interested in logging station contacts from around the world (it is fun btw) then the basic license should be fine as it allows you to work all amateur bands above 30mhz which means 2 meter and above and joining a club will typically get you access to repeaters. Looks like you have some local repeaters so you should be all set.

https://repeaterbook.com/repeaters/l...ity&loc=Lufkin

 

Ok, that brings up another question for me, do you have to belong to a club to have access to repeaters?
just thinking if I was on the road somewhere, and wasn't around a local repeater that I had access to through a club, can you still have access to one somewhere besides your base home area?

 

The vast majority of repeaters are "open", meaning you only need your ham license to use them. Some, but not many are "closed" or "private", basically meaning you need to join a club, group or otherwise get permission from the repeater owner to use it. Often these are large linked systems in which a lot of time and expense has been put forth to put them on the air.

No matter where you go, you will likely be within range of one or more open repeaters.