Congratulations! You passed your Technician exam and earned your amateur radio license.
Now comes the question almost every new ham eventually asks:
What do I do now?
Getting your license gives you permission to get on the air, but passing the exam doesn't necessarily teach you how to actually use amateur radio. You may have learned about frequencies, regulations, antennas, repeaters, and electrical theory, but making that first contact can still feel intimidating.
That's completely normal.
The good news is that amateur radio is a hobby best learned by doing it, especially when you have other hams around to help.
1. Find Other Hams
One of the best things you can do after getting licensed is find an amateur radio community.
Look for local clubs, repeater groups, amateur radio events, nets, hamfests, and online communities in your area.
A good club can help you:
- Make your first contact
- Program your radio
- Learn how local repeaters work
- Choose antennas and equipment
- Get started on HF
- Learn digital modes
- Participate in Parks on the Air (POTA)
- Experiment with new technology
- Prepare for your General license
- Find people who actually understand why you suddenly want an antenna on your roof
Don't worry about finding the "perfect" club, either.
You can belong to more than one.
Different clubs often specialize in different parts of amateur radio. One might be heavily involved with emergency communications, another with contesting, another with repeaters, and another with experimentation and social activities.
Find communities where you enjoy the people and can learn.
2. Come Hang Out With LZARC
The LZ Amateur Radio Club (LZARC) was built around a pretty simple idea:
Amateur radio should be fun.
We're a growing community of hams interested in everything from traditional HF and repeaters to digital voice, POTA, satellites, antennas, SDR, Meshtastic, electronics, computers, and whatever somebody decides to experiment with next.
We're based around Southwest Missouri and the surrounding Four-State area, but our community extends well beyond it.
New hams are absolutely welcome.
You don't need an expensive station. You don't need decades of experience. You don't need to know what every button on your radio does.
That's what the community is for.
Join LZARC
Membership is free, and getting connected is the easiest next step. Fill out the membership form, then come talk with us on Discord where the day-to-day LZ community lives.
Join LZARCJoin the LZARC Discord
Discord is where much of the day-to-day LZ community lives. Ask questions, share what you're working on, get help programming a radio, learn about upcoming events, or just hang out.
There are no stupid beginner questions.
Every experienced ham started with a brand-new callsign and a radio they barely knew how to operate.
3. Get Your First Radio on the Air
Many Technicians start with a handheld VHF/UHF radio, commonly called an HT or handheld transceiver.
That's perfectly fine.
Before buying five more radios, learn what the first one can do.
Start by learning:
- How to enter a frequency manually
- How to change transmit power
- How repeater offsets work
- What CTCSS or "PL" tones are
- How to save memories
- How to use simplex frequencies
- How to adjust squelch
- How to lock the keypad
If somebody hands you a giant programming file with 400 channels, that's convenient, but spend some time learning what those channels actually mean.
Understanding your radio is far more useful than simply having it programmed.
4. Find Your Local Repeaters
Repeaters allow relatively low-powered VHF and UHF radios to communicate over much greater distances.
Find repeaters near you and program several into your radio.
Then listen.
You'll quickly learn which repeaters are active and when people tend to use them.
When you're ready, there's nothing wrong with simply transmitting:
"[YOUR CALLSIGN], listening."
If someone responds, congratulations. You're having a QSO.
5. Check Into a Net
Amateur radio nets are scheduled gatherings of operators on a particular frequency, repeater, talkgroup, or digital system.
They're one of the easiest ways to make your first few contacts because there's already somebody listening.
The net control operator will usually ask for check-ins. Give your callsign when requested and follow their instructions.
That's it.
You don't need a speech.
Listen to a few other operators and you'll figure out the format quickly.
Nets also exist for almost everything imaginable: local communities, weather, emergency communications, technical discussions, digital voice, traffic handling, clubs, special interests, and sometimes just casual conversation.
6. Try Simplex
Repeaters are useful, but don't forget that your radio can communicate directly with another radio.
That's called simplex.
Experiment with another ham.
Try communicating from:
- Across the neighborhood
- Across town
- Inside buildings
- From your vehicle
- From a hilltop
- With different antennas
- At different power levels
You'll start learning one of the most important lessons in amateur radio:
The antenna and its location often matter more than the radio.
Moving an antenna a few feet can sometimes accomplish more than buying another 20 watts of transmit power.
Experiment.
That's what the license is for.
7. Don't Ignore HF
A Technician license provides more privileges than many new operators realize, including some HF privileges.
Technicians have access to portions of several HF bands and can operate CW on certain frequencies. Technicians also have SSB voice privileges on a portion of the 10-meter band.
When propagation cooperates, 10 meters can provide contacts hundreds or even thousands of miles away.
You don't necessarily need to wait for your General license to start learning about HF.
Find another ham with an HF station and ask them to show you.
Even better, participate in a club operating event or Parks on the Air (POTA) activation.
Seeing HF in action makes everything you studied for the exam start making much more sense.
8. Try Different Parts of Amateur Radio
One of the best things about amateur radio is that there isn't one "correct" way to enjoy it.
You might discover that you love something you didn't even know existed when you took your Technician exam.
Explore:
- VHF/UHF repeaters
- HF
- Parks on the Air (POTA)
- Satellites
- APRS
- DMR
- Yaesu System Fusion
- D-STAR
- EchoLink
- AllStar
- Digital data modes
- Winlink
- FT8
- Antenna building
- Software-defined radio (SDR)
- Fox hunting and radio direction finding
- Contesting
- Emergency communications
- Weather spotting
- Meshtastic and LoRa experimentation
- Electronics and maker projects
You don't need to choose one.
Most of us don't.
9. Build Something
You don't have to be an electrical engineer to build things in amateur radio.
Start simple.
Build a basic antenna.
Make a coax jumper.
Install Anderson Powerpole connectors.
Build a portable battery box.
Experiment with ferrites.
Set up an SDR receiver.
Try making an antenna, measuring it, changing something, and measuring it again.
Sometimes it will work beautifully.
Sometimes it will work terribly.
Both results teach you something.
Amateur radio gives you a license to experiment with radio.
Use it.
10. Start Thinking About Your General
Don't feel like you have to immediately start studying for another exam.
Enjoy your Technician privileges first.
But when you're ready, the General license dramatically expands your HF privileges and opens up a huge portion of amateur radio.
If HF, POTA, DX, digital modes, or long-distance communication interests you, upgrading to General is absolutely worth considering.
And you'll probably find the material easier once you've spent some time actually operating.
Instead of memorizing questions about concepts you've never seen, you'll start recognizing things you've already encountered on the air.
The Most Important Thing: Get Involved
You can learn an enormous amount about amateur radio from books, YouTube videos, websites, and license study materials.
But amateur radio has always been a community hobby.
Find people who are doing interesting things.
Ask questions.
Go to a hamfest.
Attend a club meeting.
Join a POTA activation.
Check into a net.
Build an antenna.
Help somebody with a project.
And don't be afraid to transmit because you're worried about making a mistake.
You probably will make one eventually.
We all have.
The important part is getting on the air, experimenting, and learning.
Looking for a Ham Radio Community?
Come check out the LZ Amateur Radio Club.
We're a community of amateur radio operators experimenting with HF, VHF/UHF, digital voice, POTA, antennas, SDR, satellites, Meshtastic, electronics, networking, and plenty of other projects.
Experienced operators are welcome.
Brand-new Technicians are especially welcome.
Membership is free, and you don't have to live in the immediate area to participate in our online community.
Join LZARC
Become a member:
Join the conversation on Discord:
Bring your callsign.
Bring your radio.
Bring your questions.
We'll help with the rest.
73,
LZ Amateur Radio Club