Congratulations — you passed. Your call sign will appear in the FCC database within a few days, and the moment it does you're legal to transmit. Now comes the question nobody's buying guide answers honestly: what do you actually need?
The short answer: almost nothing. A $25 handheld and the frequency of your nearest repeater will get you on the air this week. The longer answer depends on what you want to do.
This page walks through the natural progression — from first contact to first HF station — so you can spend confidently at whatever stage you're at, without buying gear you'll outgrow in three months or regret in six.
The natural progression
Most hams move through these stages at their own pace. You don't have to follow the path in order, but this is what it tends to look like for people who stick with the hobby.
The handheld: your first contact this week
A handheld transceiver (HT) covers 2 meters and 70 cm — the bands your Technician license is built around. Local repeaters, emergency nets, NOAA weather scanning, and simplex contacts. This is where every ham starts.
The radio that has put more new hams on the air than anything else — updated. USB-C charging, color display, wireless programming from your phone, and actual NOAA weather receive. Better than the Baofeng UV-5R in every way that matters, for about the same money. Program it with CHIRP or the app and it's ready in minutes.
The buy-once version. MIL-810, IP54, a receiver that actually hears weak signals, and menus that make sense. This is what experienced hams hand to someone who just passed. You'll still have it in ten years.
The home base: real wattage, real range
A mobile radio fed by a 13.8V power supply is the standard home base station setup. 50 watts through an outdoor antenna is a completely different experience than 5 watts through a rubber duck.
A genuine 50W ham mobile with a detachable front panel — mount the head where you can see it, tuck the body anywhere. CHIRP compatible, dual display, multi-band receive. Pair with a power supply on your desk and it becomes a full home base station.
Regulated 13.8V, 30A continuous, quiet fan, fully protected. Purpose-built for radio — not repurposed computer hardware. This is what turns a mobile radio into a base station.
The first HF radio: the whole world
HF is where ham radio changes completely. Forty meters to Japan on a quiet evening. Twenty meters to Europe on a Sunday morning. FT8 contacts on every continent from a backyard wire. This is what most hams are chasing. It opens with the General upgrade — 35 more questions from a published pool.
Twenty watts, a real waterfall display, built-in auto-tuner, detachable head. The radio that made serious HF accessible on a budget. You'll still be glad you bought it three years from now.
100 watts, 4.3" touchscreen, real-time spectrum scope, built-in auto-tuner. The radio experienced hams consistently point new Generals to — because nothing else at this price comes close. Buy once, never look at HF radios again.
Once you're tuning HF antennas, this is indispensable. Measures SWR, impedance, and resonant frequency. Work that would have cost hundreds a few years ago, now ~$65.
Portable operating: POTA and beyond
Parks on the Air (POTA) has pulled thousands of hams outside with a radio and a wire. You don't need special gear to qualify an activation, but if portable becomes your thing, there are rigs built for it.
Open-source 5W HF radio the size of a deck of cards. Five bands, all modes, built-in mic and speaker. Not a polished consumer product — but for $140 assembled it's made more POTA contacts than radios costing ten times as much. Buy assembled, not the bare kit.
13 ounces, 10 watts, optional built-in battery and tuner. The radio that ruined casual activations — because once you carry it to a summit and work a dozen countries on battery power, operating from your desk feels like cheating.
LiFePO4 field power. Runs a 50W mobile radio for hours, charges via solar, 8.3 lbs. The right choice for POTA, emergency comms, or any time you're off mains power.
The complete gear guide
Every category — handhelds, mobiles, HF, power, accessories, and free software — with honest picks at every price and a "what I'd buy at $100 / $300 / $750" section for people who want a straight answer.
See the full gear guideThe free study tool drills you on the real question pool.
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