Bravo!! And thanks wyprairielady for checking into the exams! Believe me, if a radio club or VE (Volunteer Examiner) knows they've got a group of interested parties, they'll make it happen for you!
Some facts:
1. Morse is no longer a requirement for any of the Amateur Licenses.
2. The Technician License will get you legal for the VHF and UHF bands which are local areas and for some, this is as far as they want to go. To get on the long distance bands, HF and LF, you need a General License or better. The test for General isn't much different than the Technician just a little more on international laws, antennas and propagation, radio courtesies, and radios in "general". A General License will get you on all the HF frequencies with some limitations reserved for the Extra Class License.
Thanks for your impressions of the General. Glad to find this old thread. My understanding doing current research into this says that, while Morse is no longer a tested requirement, it's more of a convenience because of the HF freq space opened up to those with just a Technician license. So a Tech licensee can have access to the lower freqs, but most are CW only; CW being something you use, vs. something you are required to be tested on.
Am getting ready to sit the Tech exam as soon as the gun-deer season here is over, working on my code at the same time (one still has to take the Tech first rather than just taking the Gen exam). The Gen gets more voice permissions in the lower frequency area from what I can discern. Having reviewed the study guide & practice exams that are publicly accessible (with all possible questions), the Tech is, to me, a combination of:
- common electrical/safety sense.
- yeah, I already knew that.
- rote reg/freq memorization (arghhh)
- Hmmm! Neat, I didn't know that.
Am not one to sit in the basement thru the winter with a big blasting base station. It seems to be trendy right now but my plans are totally mobile (think pull over, tailgate with a Buddistick in a field, truck-bed convenience outlet into an inverter & small power supply) and then portable - think rucksack with radio, baby antenna tuner, some insulators, wire, paracord and a gel cell also fed by a small solar panel if needed. The Yaesu FT-817 seems to be fitting the bill as I look. In a galaxy far away (some decades now) pretty good comms could be done if one was creative enough with some wire - less about the watts, more about the antenna. But it wasn't fun to carry.
As I get "there" I'll check back in and see about waves going westward to WY.
No, I don't worry about being licensed, anymore than all the other things like pilot's license, hunting license, PO box, whatever the hell else they already know. Thus far, Hams seem to be very outgoing in general and ready to help/pass on knowledge. If all goes north, the last thing G is going to hear is an actual callsign registered to me. But a directional & clear but low-power signal can be a good thing and can be frustrating to a certain extent if one is being pursued.
If anyone is looking for reviews on equip or how-to's, besides the ARRL.Org there is also:
http://www.eham.net/
Edit: Seeing the warning that this thread hasn't been posted on for at least 4 months, have any users here continued along with creating a working, ongoing net? (Either HF or perhaps voice SSB.) Am also working on a possible trip your way this coming spring so would be interested in hearing of anything. Here in WI there are couple HF CW nets apparently for newbies at 5wpm apparently, along with another one for very raw/new CW folks to try at whatever they can cope with for speed. Uh, yeah; that would be me for now.