Things to do after your license!

Let’s start with – “KEEP CALM” That’s the very first time you would need, rest everything else just follows.

1. Pick your favourite band – Every amateur radio band have its know unique properties or shall we call it nuisances 🙂 You won’t enjoy the hobby – if you don’t start out with the right band!
   Start with one single band – This could be anything from a simple Baofeng handy for VHF/UHF to an ICOM 7300, to begin with.
2. Make a logbook – You need to maintain a logbook record of all QSOs. Now’s that’s a must. You can easily make up an excel logbook or if you prefer pen and paper just make some rows and columns in a journal/diary.  You can use this template for starters. Download from Gdrive
3. Decide your budget –  You can end up spending from a few bucks to literally a ton of money depending on your interest. Readymade commercial rigs start from around $1000 and go up to around $5000 ( I am talking about just the transceiver alone! ) Whereas you can start with simplified home-brewed styled rigs started from just $50. We don’t want you to go bankrupt! Without a proper budget, things can be pretty bad.
4. Get Shack Tools – Shack tools such as soldering iron, multimeter, common resistors & capacitors are always handy. These tools should always be available on any ham shack – Commercial or Homebrew. You will always them useful.
5. Get an ID Card – Print your Ham Radio License on an A5 Paper and make an id card out of it. Amateur Radio Operators are supposed to display licenses whenever required by authorities. Hanging it around your neck makes it easily accessible for you during a field trip. Plus it doesn’t look cool!

Well, that’s it, you might have tons of questions and in fact, might have read other blogs with tons of dos and don’t.  We have deliberately kept this short and simple.

Any questions? Write it down in the comment box!