Hello all, Back in 2018, I took Dr. Pat Reiff's class on the physics of HAM radio at Rice University as teacher professional development. I passed the technician exam back then. (I teach physics and astronomy at a school in Houston ISD.) Now I am taking the class again for credit as a graduate student at the University of Houston and last night I passed the general exam. I have a DMR and a handy talkie, both by TYT. But I am still struggling to learn how to actually make contacts and how to use my radios.
Dr. Pat connected to a BVARC net back in August and I made a contact with the operator. (If I entered the details into my QRZ logbook correctly, I made contact with WX5KR.) That night I joined BVARC. I also recently joined the UH ARC as well. But I still don't know what I am doing really. I am looking for advice on how to learn to use my 2 radios. As a teacher and a graduate student, I don't have a lot of time to attend meetings but I want to get involved in the community at large. The DMR handset is a TYT model MD-UV390 with a code plug from 2018. The handy talkie is TYT model TH-UV88. I am a technically competent person with a lot of knowledge about the physics of radio waves and lots of "computery" skills but I can't even figure out how to change frequencies on the TYT handy talkie. I can muddle through on the DMR handset but again, using the interface on the unit makes me feel clumsy and frustrated. I am looking for some good resources on learning HAM stuff so I can become a competent user of my equipment and can make contacts. I'd like to get a home or car setup eventually but I need to master these little radios and make some contacts first. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks, Jimmy N5JFX
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