Hi,i am new to this form of communication. I’ve got my novice license in 1982 and my full in 1983 without CW. In that time period i only could use VHF,UHF and higher. Was very active in the first couple of years from base and mobile. Due to my work i stopped with the hobby until i retired in February 2025. Picked up the radio virus and started over. The sets i use is a Yaesu FT290R 2m all mode,a Kenwood TR851E 70cm all mode. and to my suprise i did discover that my licence was up-grated to all amateur bands. So now i am saving some $ to get me a HF rig with antenna. About antennas using a 10 element cross yagi for 2m (horizontal and vertical) . a 10 element 70cm yagi(horizontal) and a Diamond X50 for 2m/70cm vertical.
All the equipment is around 40 years of age and still working ok. In July i did get help from a couple hams to place my antennas on my house. and discovered the digital world for radio communication FT8,FT4, JS8 etc. Only 1 problem no CAT control for my rigs. And an old Ham i now use the headset in/out from my laptop and the extra speaker out and microphone in off the set and for ptt a interface on the serial port from the laptop.
So that is a lot of text .i hope it makes sense . Englisch is not my native speech
with regards
John de PE1JSH