For the concern of getting in trouble with the FCC, let me share a quick story: I'm a General, my son is a Technician. He enjoys doing FT8 on 10m because it gets him some distance and contacts with foreign countries. The other day, I forgot to switch back to my call sign and accidentally transmitted on 20m until I realized my mistake. I immediately stopped transmitting. No FCC SWAT team showed up. To Josh's point, unless you're being a jerk, even an honest mistake won't get you fined or get you trouble with the law. You rectify your mistake, don't do it again, and there won't be consequences of any merit.

I think when he asked about operating the guy meant actually showing what buttons to press. And I agree with him. Operating knobs and buttons is so intuitive to hams that they don't understand that other people may be intimidated by it. Video how to tune, how to use apf, how to use RIT in a fast paced environment would very useful.

I'd also suggest the magazine The Spectrum Monitor (found online) for a little more info on monitoring all sorts of things.

That was a lot of questions and you answered them all very well Josh. I agree like the others, the SDR might be the route for him to try and listen to the airwaves. And who knows, maybe he’ll get inspired later on to becoming an amateur radio operator.

0:19 Oh I know someone who shows radios working. He does it every Friday! (PS - Excellent Q&A)

I get where this guy is coming from. There's so much available to learn that one can just be paralyzed with the choices. Plus the jargon can just smother people. On top of it, the latest radios have so many bells and whistles that people are just overwhelmed. Once you get your foot in the door and simplify it, you realize it's not hard and it can be so rewarding. Sounds like this guy needs a quality Elmer to help him a long.

Great answers Josh.👍 I don't think this person really did any sort of research though. :/ The FCC comment totally confused me! Lol 🤔🤷‍♂️

I was like this fella in the beginning. I went with a WOUXUN KV-UG9G PRO. Has all of the cool stuff already programmed and scans fairly quickly. I got my GMRS license for family comms. Works great for us. Studying for ham license now.

Josh, you have outdone yourself answering these questions aimed at new radio peeps. We need more material from everyone answering what seems to e simple questions to experienced radio ops but not so simple for new people. Everyone is welcome in the radio hobby. Thanks for making that very clear in this video. KEEP IT UP!!!!

After years I've never posted any comment on any video. But I felt this would just be an interesting one at least to me. I was standing right next to you at the hamfest in Xenia (too bad about CoViD) and I instantly realized that I don't know you. I used to run into celebrities all the time when I work downtown and the first thought is that you know them because they're in your house all the time. I absolutely hate running into celebrities because I'm always tempted to say hi like they would know me too and then I come to my senses. Anyways, I've enjoyed you being in my house and learned a lot for the past year as a newbie.

I think what he meant about KZfaqrs not showing how to use a radio, is that most KZfaqrs just show the use of the radio and not necessarily how to use it. Of course there are some but not many. I’m a newly licensed technician and to be honest it’s still can be confusing to me how to use the features of some radios. Just my opinion I could be wrong. Love your channel and have learned a lot from it.

Paid my fee today, just waiting on my call sign now! Must say at the risk of sounding like a fanboy, it was your guest appearance with Mike Glover that got me started. Thanks!

I got a baofeng for listening to local repeaters and emergency responders in my county and within a month of listening I was hooked and decided to get my license. I still scan through my programmed channels while driving it's fun to hear the police and fire departments respond to calls. Radio reference is where I found most of my local channels to listen to, I also got the local repeater channels from one of the ham radio clubs in the area who were happy to send me a spreadsheet that included all the local repeaters, color coded with who owns the repeater or what clubs use them as well as a list of some of the scheduled nets in the valley.

Outstanding advice Josh! Especially the WebSDR starting point. No cost and able to get a feel for what is out there!

Hi Josh, I have some interesting notes about KZfaqrs not showing what ham radio actually is, I really hope you read this. I'm a CW, QRP, and field-only operator, not because that's my thing but mostly because I don't have other options besides QRP. And for QRP to be actually viable for DX it has to be CW (I don't have any interest in digital modes). When I do radio I go to a park close to home and deploy my QRPguys EFHW and get a lot of QSO into eastern Europe, middle east and sometimes Asia. This park I go to is in the middle of the city and full of people, I basically spend about 70% of my time explaining to people what ham radio is, and I like it. I explain what is each part of the rig doing, show them some people talking in SSB, and some digital signals and do some CW QSO where I translate the QSO, show them QRZ, etc...and then I used to suggest them to go to youtube and look for it. I don't do it anymore and I'll explain later why. 95% of these people I suggested to go to KZfaq find your channel, Ham Radio Offline, and the other ham radio channels that score well in the YT algorithm. And the majority of the feedback I get from them is something like this "Is this hobby a buying hobby? I only found people reviewing equipment and sometimes building antennas but I didn't see anyone doing the things you showed me you do". The people who don't give me this kind of feedback are people who found K4SWL, for example. Your videos are really great for people who are Ham Radio operators already. I personally don't like most of them but many of your tutorials, and rig reviews helped me already, I thank you for that and it's valuable content. But your videos are hurting the community in this other way, it's scaring people off. One of these days one person who came to me was a newly licensed ham and when he told me what he was doing I realized he was on an insane buying spree which I consider was caused by ham radio KZfaqrs. The man was buying so many things that he didn't need and was doing so little with it. At this case I had a Xiegu x5105 and a QRPGuys antenna with me and I spend about 2 hours with him showing that he could easily talk to Eastern Europe. When I showed that 9A/UW1GZ could hear me at the first call with a real 599 he was so amazed, then I went to SSB and the legendary S57DX answer at the first call, OM3, OK2, etc... after showing all these he realized himself that he was lost in a buying spree. Maybe you don't realize but you influence a lot of people. I do understand why youtube channels focus so much on reviews and tutorials, that's where the views come from. But focusing so much on that and not on what the radio is actually about is kind of hurting the hobby. Please don't take this text as harassment. It's a honest feedback from the field. 73s

I'd like to add a recommendation for the gentleman to visit / join a local radio club. Usually that's big source of information and help.

That was an awesome breakdown! And I totally agree with addressing the doubts of "can people really hear that far??" I was amazed when I got into ham radio about how many things you actually could do with radio, and it can certainly be daunting to people. And I'm going to echo a lot of people here and say an SDR is a great way to get into radio

Thanks Josh for taking time to answer this guy's questions. Without saying it, you implied that Amateur Radio isn't for everyone or that the two aren't always a good fit. I appreciate your helpful attitude toward this fellow by laying out other options which might be a better fit for him. You're definitely not a "ham bigot" (if there is such a term); you explained other avenues folks can take if their interests lie elsewhere. Keep up the good work!

I second the SDR. I personally have an RTL-SDR V3 kit. Came with telescopic V antennas, tripod, etc. For roughly $30-40 USD. I caught my first NOAA weather sat imagery with that

As someone new to HAM, I just want to say thank you for all that you are doing here. I personally really appreciate your helpful demeanor and content. Subscribed and joined.

Another great video. I have a RSP1A tied to my Kenwood TS 590 SG as a pan adapter. I didn’t realize the SDR could do the tuning. In my case I use rig control on the radio to tune to the clicked on frequency. Please ignore if my question doesn’t make sense. Over all you addressed all things in the email. Thanks for answering these questions.

Excellent video Josh, I’m sure many people that have interests in the hobby as well as many newly licensed hams found this very informative. Have a great day! 73 de AD2MM

Thank you Josh for addressing these concerns. I have heard a lot of these similar frustrations but we both know there is a lot of videos we have made that clearly show what we do in this hobby, not just an unboxing.. 73

Ha! This video brings me back four years ago when I turned 60 and wanted to get into Ham Radio. You were my first stop on KZfaq and the video was about SDR dongles. Multiple radios later and in the poor house because of it I have you to thank...It has been a blast!

SDR is how I got into ham radio. I started with an rtl-sdr v3, and eventually got a RSP1A which I still use all the time! There is so much cool stuff out there. Pogsac (pager) decoding, weatherfax, weather sats, sstv. It's what got me so interested. Especially doing weather sats with my little dongle and a laptop. Something I still enjoy doing!

This is a GREAT video. My Uniden scanner (for local emergency stuff) usually goes ON while i make my first cup of coffee. Air Force pilots engaged in Red Flag training exercises fascinate me. And then I switch my RSP1A SDR on and listen to oversea broadcast news. North Korea radio (in English) is extremely fascinating right now. Really fascinating....

Awesome and informative video as usual…. As a Ham and a long time subscriber , I found your links in the video very helpful…

I'm an Extra class, former Club President, Tech and General license course instructor. The Baofeng radios aren't all that complicated to manually program but CHIRP certainly makes it easier, and faster if you have a bunch of frequencies. What frustrates people with the Baofeng manual programming are a couple of idiosyncrasies that you have to understand. 1) You have to be in VFO mode 2) You have to be in the top window if you're programing a memory channel 3) The memory channel (number) you are saving to MUST be empty 4) If the memory channel isn't empty the radio will give a message that SOUNDS like you did it but it's not. I don't remember the two words but it something like "receiving" or "transmitting". One is telling you you were sucessful the other doesn't save but sure sounds like it did. Those four things, in combination with the selectivity and sensitivity (hey it's a 25-50 dollar hand held), and the innate limitations of any hand held, can frustrate someone. I don't know how many times I've been running a net and a very weak signal comes in with poor readability. I ask if they're on an HT in the house and almost always the answer is YES. GO OUTSIDE....or get an outside antenna and run the Coax to your favorite recliner. For those with issues manually programming a Baofeng (specifically the UV-5R) I have tutorials on my KZfaq as well as for CHIRP.

Beautifully answered questions. Bravo.

Correction: There are no dumb questions LEFT. I already asked them all.

You pointed Jeff to a lot of great resources, but don't forget your own work. One of my favorite videos was your appearance on The Modern Rogue channel talking about The Secrets of Shortwave Radio. I think it would be a great place to dive in.

I second the webSDR. The webSDR is what got me into learning how HF works before I got my HF rig. I finally got a RTL-SDR dongle so I can do some range tests without involving others (who are not interested in my radio geeking out). However, with it, I see what is out there locally, and it is pulling in a lot. I didn't realize that CB is still active in my area, as I don't have a CB radio. Though my Yaesu FT3D can get on those frequencies, it barely picks them up unless I put on a rat tail. It really helps to have a visual representation on what is going on.

Very well said, coming from an amateur with over 60 years in the hobby, and before that Shortwave and Medium Wave DX'ing. We hope more people get into the hobby. Thanks, 73 de W2CH Ray, New Hampshire.

Educating us seems to be a pleasure for you and I appreciate that. Thank you.

I had already had my tech when I got my SDRplay. When I started to decode FT8 and saw countries from all over Europe that made me immediately start studying to get General. SDRs are a gateway drug that let you start playing with the tools out there.

I just upgraded from a Baofeng UV-5R to an Icom IC-2730A. It is amazing how much more I can receive, how much further I can reach, and how much easier it is to understand the traffic once I used a much better antenna and a radio with better filters! I had no idea I was missing so much just due to the baofeng really serving the price point. They’re great and I’ll buy more for backup comms, but they aren’t really subservient to hobbyist radios.

Thank you very much for this great informative video, as well as the links!

Good suggestions Josh. My take on the video statement is he was referring to super basic starter videos not actually operating the radio. As in, Here is how to connect the power, the coax goes here, etc. I would agree there are not many videos going that basic.

I’m a banker with no radio experience. I got my Tech/General license in Feb 2021 my Extra in Oct 2021. Getting your license is not hard.

I started with an SDR and got hooked, but I had a HAM guiding me. I wouldn't have known the antenna should be horizontal for HF, for example...I knew nothing at that time. Maybe he should reach out to his local arc for someone to answer questions, show how it all works, and guide him.

Very well done Josh and perfect for newcomers to both Ham and the radio hobby in general.

I have head the ISS twice now on my police scanner. Which had HAM radio selected to pick up. No doubt either of my Baofeng radios would pick them up if they were overhead.

For air band freqs, just look up the plates for your nearest airports. Ground, tower, approach, departure, and others are right on the plate

There's bigger things to worry about than the FCC for example the IRS & the MRS

I live near an FCC listening post and am not afraid. There’s a bit of a learning curve to this stuff but no need to fear. This video was nicely done.

Sean is the man with ISS and POTA. Great video and presentation

Antenna theory is also a pretty big thing. Understanding the antenna length is inversely proportional to the frequency you want to listen to. Also the antenna gain from omni directional to dipole, yagii, to highly directional and high gain parabolic reflector antennas.

Fantastic, utterly amazing. Thanks!

SDR is absolutely the way to go to see if you would enjoy the hobby. I have multiple SDR dongles and can do just about anything I would want with them for next to nothing. As an example, I have a Pi with a dongle attached to it that feeds adsbexchange, radar spotting, captured my first B52 as it flew over my home just yesterday. I have a second dongle running as an iGate for APRS, I have a pair of dongles connected to another Pi running as a portable ADSB device for radar spotting on the go, I have a couple others that can be setup as a scanner. I have done POCSAG 900mhz pager decoding, Inmarsat decoding with a LNA and panel antenna, just good old am/fm listening when I want to just listen to local radio. These things are super versatile and I would highly recommend starting here.

I have had a Baofeng UV-82 for years. I programmed it once with my local channels and I run it like an old crystal-controlled radio. It has a quarter wave telescopic on it and it works well. I paid £28 for it back then. I have an ID-52 but I still use the baofeng for local monitoring.

Mabey I woke up a bit salty, I got I want what I want with out spending more than 20 bucks or reading more than a one picture pamphlet. Josh, you did a really good job answering the questions , its radio is confusing but Its a you get out what you put in. Zero to no investment in equipment or education will yield a less than fruitful experience. I have had my license less than 6 months only experience was VHF marine now I have a ic 705 and figuring out winlink express so it can be done.

A local Law Enforcment agency in my area just dealt with a situation where someone with a Baofeng was shouting obscenities on their repeater output. The LE Agency never actually heard the transmissions because said output is set to P25 and the Baofeng is of course only analog. The only reason why the LE Agency became aware is that scanner land was calling into dispatch hearing this on their scanners set to "Receive both analog and digital". A formal complaint was made with the FCC. They didn't even really care because it wasn't causing harmful interference at the present and told the LE Agency to just ignore them and most likely they will go away, which they did. Just goes to show you that you really have to repeatedley piss people off and grossly violate the rules to even get the FCC to turn on a radio and see what's going on.

If you're doing something wrong, you're more likely to hear about it from a local ham or from a volunteer monitor. The amateur service is supposed to be self-policing.

Unboxing videos rule because of the KZfaq algorithms which are advertiser oriented. Just think about the revenue stream. Unboxing videos play into consumerism. Operational videos are lower on the commercialization scale. If you don't scroll past the higher ranked videos, you won't see the videos you are looking for. Creators know this and many are chasing the algorithm at least by opening with the unboxing. Since attention spans are short, the viewer often switches off in search for something more emotionally satisfying.after a few minutes. Some people are actually put off by demonstrations of skill like installing a BNC connector on coax. Then there is the fear of looking foolish in public. Mea Culpas are uncomfortable.

excellent questions, and excellent choice to select this person's s questions. i some times feel the same way about the fcc and i dont know what to do with radio, i know its cool and its like have a peice of scfi tech that can fit into your pocket, but i feel i am searching for a problem to use radio as a solution at times. i have only been playing around with radio for about 2 years and decided to investigate what my radios could listen to, and started zeroing in on that. i like seeing if i can program in frs channels and go to various stores and business's and see if i can scan those channels to pick up on their chatter. i suspect using frs for commercial applications is wrong lol i also, want to see if i can listen in to state parks, again just for fun. in the mean time i programmed one of my baofengs to scan a couple of 2m and 70cm ham repeaters and a gmrs repeater that is about 30 miles away that doesnt shut up for more than 5 minutes it seems. radio is freaking awesome, but it seems like most of the conversations i hear on the radio is about radio its self, not about anything else really, but i know its hit or miss and i will one day know what i want to know, right now i dont even know what i dont know lol

So I just started looking into ham radio as well, and the biggest hurdle I have had is know what phrases to search on. The first searches I ran were just as disappointing as the writer of this email. What I did is look for license information and get the basic vocabulary in place and then changed my search.

Man you went full Elmer! And I mean that in the good way.

Nothing teaches more than the struggle to learn it, and to be completely honest, you will learn faster and better if you join a user's group.

If this guy wants to listen to start out, I suggest he get a Home Uniden home patrol number two with the GPS attachment and programming from radio reference pages. That will pick up most anything in his area very easily without a lot of trouble.

Great video. Thanks.

I started with GMRS then got my Extra. One complaint I used to hear from GMRS users is that HAM is dead and old hams went to GMRS. I felt the same at first until I got my ham ticket. My QTH has many repeaters near by, one with daily and another with weekly nets. I'm sure I can transmit on .5w and still sound full quieting on those repeaters. On DMR, Fusion and more so DSTAR, most are just waiting to hear someone key up. On HF, there is plenty of traffic. I had some similar questions until I started watching youtube videos, discovering chip and RT systems automatically pulling up local repeaters and other frequencies I could monitor. At my QTH, unless there is a storm (outside of a weather net) there is always traffic.

Josh, I think this is one of the best videos you’ve ever made. To the point, not a lot of crap, not a lot of playing with your friends and beer. ha ha. Have a great day! N9NVU

Thanks for the information

Awesome video Josh!!

Great Info...!!

Josh, you are very kind.

Very helpful

I copied a station from Texas that on the ISS. I'm in Kentucky. I didn't manage a QSO with him but I wanted to let him know I heard him. I looked him up on QRZ, and he didn't have an email but I did find him on Facebook and I sent him a message saying that I heard him on the space station and tried to respond but he couldn't hear me back. He then sent me a picture of his uv5r with the stock antenna. That was the radio he was using. I thought that was pretty cool!

SDR's are amazing. I've got several myself. I personally use a clone HackRF 99% of the time. It's not the most sensitive receiver out there, but it's plenty sensitive enough, and you can transmit with it! It works from 1Mhz to 6Ghz. I've use it for basic frequency scanning and listening, receiving realtime weather satellite images, tracking aircraft, tracking weather balloons, replay attacks to unlock vehicles and garage doors, hijack control of those shopping cart pushers that stores use, listen to police Trunked radio systems, receive and decode pager messages (mostly used by hospitals and maintenance departments now days), etc, etc, etc. Hell, I've even used it to setup a small local cellular phone network (fake cell tower basically)! And before buying my first SDR, I had zero knowledge of amateur radio or RF theory at all.

Josh, thank you for the information but you left out a very important point. If the electric grid goes down the only way you can communicate is with a Ham radio. I have four radios which can also be configured to be walkie-talkies for my family of four.

For real it took me a long time to find someone that shows how to use them. They just read the brochure.

I will second the "don't worry about getting into trouble" part. As long as you don't blatantly break rules you won't get into any trouble. In the case you do something wrong more than likely someone will just point it out. You apologize and correct the mistake.

He comes across as a troll. As Clem would say "you are talking to my guy all wrong". Any Josh, great job answering and giving out really good thorough information.

I think something like a tecsun pl330 would be the way to go for this gentleman. It's great when people want to pick up the hobby, but if someone won't Google basics, this might be a frustrating hobby for them. A traditional radio with an ETL scan might be easier for them.

Josh=google for those unwilling to search for answers. Kudos to Josh

Jeff, if you never see videos of YT's doing things with radios then you need to find some new channels to add into your watchlist. Often a first impressions and unboxing video is made prior to a use video simply due to the logistics and resource requirements of content creation. Baofengs and other cheap Chinese radios can do many of the cool things that are part of ham radio, they just can't do them as well as more expensive design radios. If your radio picks up the air band and has AM mode, you can listen to aircraft and ATC directly. If your radio picks up land mobile radio, there's a chance you could listen to the ground crews directly. Websites that focus on "scanner" users are where you find this information. Given your lack of interest in transmitting and focus on listening, your needs will be better served by the purchase of a scanner than an amateur radio. A SDR instead of a Baofeng is also a good choice as long as you don't mind using a computer with your radio would be a better budget option. Spend some time reading the forums and Wiki over at Radio Reference.

Josh you did a great job trying to answer this guy’s questions. But I think he really needs to find a local Elmer who is very knowledgeable and can answer all of his questions and show him his shack and also a person who is patient enough to deal with his critical attitude.

I found that list of questions fairly ignorant. Part of the science and fun of radio is constantly fiddling with programming and tuning in the hope of hearing something new. I think this person would be happier with a scanner. After all, do you catch a fish every time you go fishing? You like fish but hate fishing. Until your prepared to read and educate yourself and learn from others, you will not enjoy radio in any form.

There's literally ham radio videos on every aspect of how to; set up, run, operate, maintain, mod ham radios! (Of course, I can't say a video exists for all mods, based on the fact that mods are custom to the operator). Speaking of that, shirt idea for HRCC for those that like to tinker, how about a "Custom Operator" tee? Could be of a bread board, soldering iron, hot glue gun ext... Or, if you aren't going to use that, I may attempt to start a not very good KZfaq channel delving in to doing things I don't really know anything about, but just making stuff I think could be cool or fun.

Anyone know what the device is mounted under the desk on the right side of the video? Roughly mid bicep. White lights on top. Then red, yellow then more white lights.

Great video Josh. 🙂

Speaking of beginners, and the point about YTers not showing radios in use (which I agree is false) but one topic I see very little is a direct demonstration of building a beginner's reference ham shack at various price points. I would love a series that's kind of like "This old house" that goes through all the basics from beginning to end of what recommended equipment to buy and how to install it step by step from designing and installing the ground points to mounting an antenna and calculating RF and adjusting to protect neighbors and family, and also running lines through to the shack itself and properly ground everything.. Essentially everything that will get a beginner on the air from A-Z, like a recipe that will get a majority of people started. I see many videos out there about theoretical scenarios, drawings and diagrams about how something could be done and even lots of videos showing already built ham shacks in operation, but the missing piece is often directly showing how to build it as a beginner as a complete guide. Perhaps the best way is to find a beginner who's willing to volunteer you walk them through it while you film the process? Hopefully a helpful video idea anyway.

Awfully nice of you there Josh. 😉

Mag loop antennas like the MLA 30+ makes a great SDR antenna if your limited on space or live in like an apartment or HOA where you’re not allowed to have an outside antenna for SDR listening on hf

when I was a new ham operator, I was wanting to watch videos of people talking on the radio and it wasn't easy to find in the beginning.

Funny the misconceptions people have about Amateur Radio and radio in general. What one person thinks is interesting, another finds utterly boring.

I'm dipping my toes into ham radio, I have a question about antenna connections: my house has unused COAX jacks from when we had satellite TV, can one of those be used to connect to an antenna? It's a direct line from the wall to the roof line where the satellite was installed, with no junctions or splitters

Thanks sir

Josh I just laugh when I here that stupid excuse why some people flat refuse to get a ham radio license “I don’t what the government to know where I live” or there another one that’s even funnier I’ve heard recently “the government can listen in to your house if you have a hame radio in it” “OMG LOL”!!!

I don't get the issue about the FCC either. Even cases were operators were caught interfering, the FCC gave them several warning and visits before fining them

I have a question, if this is the right venue? I'm very new so forgive my ignorance - I notice you (and others) have tons of radio gear in the background of your videos. My question is - If a good SDR (like HackRF with HamItUp) can recieve and transmit from 300hz all the way to 6ghz, what's the reason for all that other gear? Why not just use a single wide range SDR for everything? Is it just for the fun experience of all the hardware? Or does it give you a tangible benefit over a high end SDR? Thanks so much man, I love the channel!

Great job Josh.

Hi Jeff, great videos. I’m getting my feet wet again after not being an active ham for thirty years, I have a technician license. It’s has changed a great deal and I had to go back and study the technician license practices to even get up to speed again. I’m studying for my general and have my father in laws older Kenwood TS120S to listen with. I built and put up an ARRL EFHW in the yard and it works pretty good. I’m kind of with this guy on one question and that’s how to find an active frequency that people are on without scrolling across the entire band so I can listen to or call CQ on once I’m licensed for that. Another thing some KZfaqrs do is use abbreviations for things but don’t explain what the abbreviation means. I’m constantly going back and forth from KZfaq to google to find what certain abbreviations mean.

Well done!

Great job bro

Pls tell which antena i havevto set fot hf ham band listening , in detail

Is there a new link for the discord. It says that one is invalid.

...great answers, Josh...you are obviously not a "sad ham"!!

You said it well!!! There are no worries with the FCC unless your being a complete jerk on the air...The only trouble i have had was with local code enforcement officers and that wasn't a big deal..They just set across the street watching me install an EFHW and once they figured out what i was doing i never had any other issues..

I listen to the ISS all the time on a Baeofeng, and Yaesu