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Not all of us have a large budget to spend on radio gear. I was
thinking about this and I can offer you some help. To do this on a small
budget will limit your abilities to talk to others and may require you
to learn morse code. "What's morse code?" Remember hearing sounds
like beep beep da da da for short sounds and longer sounds? That's
morse code and it was the very first method of communications ever
invented for telegraph and radio. On the plus side women typically learn
it about 5 times faster than men. The reason I'm asking about this is
the lowest priced radio gear is cw, or morse code only type of
transmissions. These radio's can be purchased for less than $160 and
some are even below $30. But they are ALL CW rigs. CW=Morse
Code. So a lot less money you can get a rig that will allow you to talk
to your family/friends hundreds of miles away. Of course both ends
need to be able to send and recieve CW. Btw, CW stands for
"continues wave". Just remember cw means morse code.... If you can find an amateur radio operator to ask questions, they can be a valuable help. For emergency and simply use stay away from DMR radio's as they require the internet to operate. I've tried to cover the basics of cw operation and I hope you will find this info helpful. There is a wealth of info online to help you. \Contact me if you have questions here. |
So what are these radio's that operate cw only? They range from low power, single band radio's for $16 up to multi-band models costing about $160 on Amazon. Keep in mind that besides the radio, you need an antenna. This can be a simple wire antenna like a dipole, or end fed half wave or long wire. Just like a stereo is no good without it's speakers, radio's are no good without an antenna. And the better the antenna the longer range. A dipole is a excellent all around antenna for several reasons. They are easy to make, and they don't usually need a 'tuner' to match the antenna to the radio. Some antenna's require a antenna tuner to match them to the radio or they don't work well. However, a dipole is designed for operation on a single band with exceptions you will learn about. So now we've decided this is all we can afford so morse code it is. You can practice learning online and on the air or get a friend to practice with you with a cw buzzer key . Morse code keys come in 2 types: straight and dual/bug type. Straight is a manual key like the old telegraph key. Dual/Bug type have 2 paddles, one for short "dit" and the other side for long "da" and require a radio made for them. The straight key works with any radio but is slower. Get a straight key to start with.... |
Keep in mind we're trying to be able to communicate with family and
friends hundreds of miles away. If they're only 10 to 30 miles
away you can use frs/gmrs radio's if you have flat land between you..
So here's what you need to do this on a budget: A CW radio, a Dipole antenna, coax for the antenna to radio, a battery or power supply to run the radio, and a morse code key. And a Amateur radio license. The morse code key will need wire to connect it to the radio but that's not expensive. Since the lowest cost models are usually single band models a good starting model will be for the 40 meter band. This will get good range in the day and night during good atmospherics. "skip". The under $60 radios are quite simple to operate and have very few controls. They are low power which means weak signals requiring good skip conditions to communicate. I wouldn't buy anything that was lower than 5 watt transmitter. Lower power 'can' work but it's tougher to get thru. These are links to different models: Multi-band qrp sdr type lower quality multiband sdr type Single band cw low power Amazon has many types but talk to some people and read reviews. It would be best to find a Ham operator to help you if possible. |
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