Brushbeater

greyslayer76 wrote: ↑Sun May 16, 2021 7:04 am I ordered 4x BAOFENG UV-5R, 4 antennae, an extended battery accessory, and usb charger cable for now. Saving the rest. Will do my best to take heed of all your advice. I've been listening to beginners ham radio and back to catching up on the podcast here. In any case, I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out buddy, thanks. I will pray for us all.

This board is like drinking from a fire hose. Pick one or two things you need to research and catch up on and let everything else be noise until you're comfortably up-to-speed on that/those. I'm not sure if that USB charging cable is also a programming cable, but if it's not, it is MUCH easier to program your radios using software called CHIRP. Get the genuine BAOFENG programming cable. The knock-offs are a few dollars cheaper but they're hit or miss on working. This will allow you to have one CSV file of frequencies that all of your radios will use. I'd also say if you have interest, get your Technician's license. They're still free from the FCC but not for long. The license fee will soon be $35. It's also usually $10-$20 to take the test. See hamstudy.org. At least studying for the Tech license gets you the fundamentals about radio broadcasting. You could dedicate a couple hours a day on hamstudy and have your Technicians ticket in a week.