HAM radios UK

[Deathwish]

Thinking of getting one of these new fangled thingies, anyone want to give me an idea of a decent cheap one just for listening too within the UK.

[deephaven]

What frequencies are you interested in?

HF 3.5 - 30 MHz - hear the world - needs a long wire aerial
VHF 144 MHZ - UK and near europe - needs a yagi or maybe a vertical
UHF 432 MHz, 1296 Mhz
and beyond...

If you think you might get a transmitting license, you could start with a cheap Baofeng 144/432 MHz handheld transceiver

[Deathwish]

144Mhz I guess, well actually the cheapest I can get I suppose as I may not have a real interest after a while so I dont want to waste money if that occurs. I also do not want to listen to that Tautech over the airwaves all day too you know..... 

[deephaven]

Search for UV-5R in Amazon or Ebay and you can pick up a cheap 2m/70cm rig

[gm0otb]

Try the RTL SDR dongle "Cosycave" sell them cheap, coverage is from 24Mhz to just under 2Ghz (no gaps) and 0 -60Mhz using a upconverter or direct sampling method.
Suggested free software SDR# or HDSDR covers all modes etc

[Deathwish]

Search for UV-5R in Amazon or Ebay and you can pick up a cheap 2m/70cm rig

will this do me ?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UK-Sale-BaoFeng-UV-5R-Plus-Qualette-Dual-Band-V-U-136-174-400-520MHz-Ham-Radio-/400918114545?hash=item5d5894f0f1:g:vfEAAOSwBLlVUdC4

[tggzzz]

What do you want to listen to? That will define the frequency (but be aware hams tend to think in terms of wavelength)  of interest. As I'm sure you are aware, higher frequencies tend to mean shorter range - but I've receiver radio4 FM in the south of France (for 10mins! ) , and the range record for 10GHz is far far longer than I would have guessed.

The antenna will be critical.

Consider getting an ARRL or RSGB handbook, old ones should be sufficient to orient yourself, and can be cheap.

[Deathwish]

If i am honest I dont care what I listen to, I just want to listen , I do however have a couple of friends on the south coast who I would like to catch as I can then ring them or ask them later wtf they were going on about just to wind them up some. It's one of those I am bored so lets try something new and see if I like it or not. Clive is usually on the 20 or 40m bands and mick is usually with him.

[tggzzz]

If I was going to listen on those bands, I'd use my 30yo Sony icf-7600d "spy radio", with a long external antenna. That will also get all  commercial and ham SW bands below 30MHz, IIRC.

Don't forget that you will also need to be able to demodulate ham transmissions,e.g. SSB etc.

[Flump]

UV-5R is fine if you have a 2m or 70cm repeater nearby, if you don't then don't expect to hear much
as on the "rubber duck" antenna the receive range will be limited to a few miles.

There are web based SDR radios you can listen to that you might be able to hear your friends on which depends on where they are
and what Band/frequency they are using.
http://hackgreensdr.org:8901/
http://hackgreensdr.org:8902/

Have you considered doing the Foundation Exam ? it is very very easy
I am doing the Advanced Exam on 9th of Dec.

[Deathwish]

Exam ?. You mean they test you on this stuff !, Never going to happen because I suffer with Agoraphobia and never go out, on top of that they only give you a measly 10W of power , how mean is that, if I did this I would want Radio Caroline type power or even BBC masts. Pfft, 10W , honestly , that is so tight wad of them.

Seriously, I'm thinking on just listening, not as exciting as most of you would think and clipped wings and all that but still something.

[Augustus]

If you just want to listen you don't actually need to buy a receiver, check out some of the online web sdr services:  http://websdr.org/

This one's great    http://weert.websdr.nl/

[deephaven]

Exam ?. You mean they test you on this stuff !, Never going to happen because I suffer with Agoraphobia and never go out, on top of that they only give you a measly 10W of power , how mean is that, if I did this I would want Radio Caroline type power or even BBC masts. Pfft, 10W , honestly , that is so tight wad of them.

Seriously, I'm thinking on just listening, not as exciting as most of you would think and clipped wings and all that but still something.

You can talk to Australia with 10W

You might not hear an awful lot just listening on 2m. If you're within range of a repeater, you might hear a bit more. Mobiles often use repeaters to have a chat on their way to/from work.

You can have a much more interesting time if you have a short wave receiver (1.8 - 30 MHz). Bands like 14 MHz (20 Meter band) will have a lot of foreign stations to listen to - don't worry it is almost exclusively in English.

[Deathwish]

ok. thank you

[VK5RC]

The exam/s isn't that hard, gee I passed! If the agoraphobia is bad, you don't have to take classes, I didn't, have a look for your local ham club, they are usually good guys and will try hard. If your theory is OK you can go for the standard licence which gives you 100W (I think, it does in Aus.)
There are lots of areas to muck about with even if you really don't want to talk that much. My current big project (taken about 2 years so far) is to bounce a signal off the moon, I am in no rush 'cause once I have done that , what do I do next, well………maybe…...
I have had a confirmed radio contact Australia to New York using 100mW on 14MHz, a crack hot antenna, some sun spots and a lot of computing grunt.
More reason to buy gear, some quite cheaply

[Deathwish]

As it is xmas, I got myself one of these. See, I do listen you know

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191626388241?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[deephaven]

Excellent, they're amazing value.

Now all you have to do is decode this: 73 de G8AYC

[Deathwish]

You too. and if your G8AYC then your not far from where I used to live. Woolton-hill ,Newbury

[deephaven]

You too. and if your G8AYC then your not far from where I used to live. Woolton-hill ,Newbury

What a small world. Yes I am G8AYC in Wash Common!

[Deathwish]

I used to live right next to a big empty field , opposite the Dr's Surgery, used to potter about my garden doing my veg and such and my electronics / photography in the loft etc. I miss the place badly, sadly she got it all and I ended up with not a thing, then she literally destroyed the place. Turned it into a dump with every nutter about coming and going. Damned Horse flies used to get to me every year from the stud farm up the road though.

I don't know who it is that lives in Washwater just up from the local pub but I do know there used to be a few plod on the main road at times with Machine Guns as if doing guard duty.

Oh well. Nice to meet you anyway. Onwards and upwards

[deephaven]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience while living here. I haven't seen any machine guns but have noticed some rather professional CCTV cameras outside a certain residence.

Getting back to radio, you might like to look at http://www.ukrepeater.net/wales.htm and see if any of those are within range of you. You should be able to tune your new transceiver to their output channel.

If you want some radio mags, I could send you some RadComs which is the RSGB official mag. PM me your address if you're interested.

[G7PSK]

As it is xmas, I got myself one of these. See, I do listen you know

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191626388241?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

They can be variable on quality, I had one and sent it back as it was a bit deaf. Got another and it was worse but put out 50% more RF than it was rated at.

[Deathwish]

It came today, put it into scan mode ...nothing, oh sausages !. So it looks like the welsh are not into Ham radio.

Maybe they are more into Lamb radio than Ham radio

[SeanB]

No, just the supplied antenna sux. Put on a simple counterpoise and try again, you will get something, even if you get a WACS award.

[PA0PBZ]

Find out what repeaters are active in your region and try to tune to that and be patient 
http://www.ukrepeater.net/wales.htm