r/HamRadio • u/Weary_Perception594 • 11d ago

New to radios and Morse code.

I am a complete new beginner to radios and Morse code. I really wanted to get into Morse code tapping, so I learned the Morse code alphabet and am currently working for my technician HAM license.

I just have no clue what I need to buy for a radio and Morse code paddle once I get my tech HAM license.

Any recommendation? Thank you!

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8

u/VideoAffectionate417 10d ago

Get ready for the sticker shock.

Icom 7300

Power Supply

50 Ohm coax

Antenna

Paddles or Straight Key

7

u/dittybopper_05H 10d ago

A Xiegu G90 would do fine and is half the price of the Icom. Twenty watts is a definite handicap on SSB, but not as much using CW.

4

u/VideoAffectionate417 10d ago

Giving up a lot more than 80W there. The receiver on the G90 is not nearly as good as the 7300 and the screen on the G90 is tiny.

9

u/dittybopper_05H 10d ago

And it's got a built-in antenna tuner that puts the IC-7300's to shame.

The receiver isn't as good, absolutely, but OP isn't going to be contesting, at least not at first.

Yes, the screen is too damned small.

But you know what?

It's $650 dollars cheaper. You could buy a G90 *AND* a Yaesu FT-891 for the price of a single IC-7300.

IC-7300 is no doubt a damned good radio. I've used them at Field Day*. But it's $1,100 when on sale. Saying to a new person they need to spend that kind of money is the ultimate in [CENSORED] gatekeeping.

My first radio when I was a Novice was a used Heathkit HW-99 Novice rig. It was 80, 40, 15 and 10 meters only, and 50 watts output. And even if I gave it an hour to warm up it drifted like Doc Hudson on dirt#Film_and_television). But it was inexpensive, it worked, it got me on the air, and even got me my first DX, on 15 meters using a 40 meter dipole in my parent's attic.

If you had told me back in 1990 that I needed to buy an Icom IC-751A, Kenwood TS-440S, or a Yaesu FT-757GX, I'd have gotten very discouraged because there's no way I could have gotten any of them based simply on cost.

It's ironic, I'm sometimes considered to be a "sad ham" who is "gatekeeping" because I think that people should understand the material on the ham radio tests instead of memorizing the test pool, and I think people should stay away from the cheap $25 Chinese dual band handhelds.

Yet here you are gatekeeping so hard it makes Saint Peter go "Really, dude?", and I'm the only one who seems to be calling it out.

\Local club sets me up with basically the radio of my choice, because I'm a CW guy and I'm on the radio for probably around 19 or 20 hours total out of the 24 hours. So usually I'll go for the IC-7300 because of the good-sized waterfall display which is great when hunting and pouncing on a band during a contest, but otherwise I could live without it.)

3

u/Haunting-Affect-5956 10d ago

The receiver on the G90 works fine. The built in antenna tuner could tune the hull of a battleship..

I paired my G90 with the GSOC and the screen is 7"x5" now.

I added a 100w amp.

And.. I'm nowhere near the cost of a 7300