Woke up this morning with the thought that this note really needs an addendum...

Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): If you want to practice long-distance radio communication, right now all you need is the entry-level Technician license.

Typically, you need the next license up - a General license - to use the bands that will go around the world. Not so at the moment. We're nearing solar maximum, and that's causing the 10-meter band - typically a band that is of little use globally - to be wide open and quite useful for global communication. ...and this should be true for the next couple of years.

And a good, usable chunk (200kHz) of the 10m band is available for use by Technician class licensees.

Just how far can you communicate right now on the 10m band? Well Friday I rolled into Castlewood Canyon State Park on highway 85 between Colorado Springs and Denver, stuck a short, inexpensive magnetic-mount antenna on the top of my car, dialed into the Technician area of the 10m band and talked to... Sweden. Station SM3NRY to be specific.

To make a long story short, if you want to practice global communication, right now all you need is a Technician license, a HF transceiver, an antenna and a 12V battery - your car battery will do as long as you don't run it down too much.

So, if you've been thinking of a Technician license for SHTF communications, get your technician license now so you can practice using the HF bands. And if you already have your technician license, buy a HF transceiver now - and practice using the 10m band.

Links to the equipment I used to talk to Sweden are listed below, along with some alternatives. Note that they're mostly Ham Radio Outlet links, but nothing says you need to buy the stuff there.

Radio: ICOM IC-718: https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-003490
Antenna: Shark S-F10: https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-016615
Mount: MFJ-335BT: https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-008134
...and a deep cycle battery from Sam's Club.

If you'd like to take a step up in radios, this is one of the most popular transceivers out there currently:
ICOM IC-7300: https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=71-002065

A step down would be another popular radio:
XIEGU G90: https://www.radioddity.com/products/...hf-transceiver

I'm sure someone can chime in here with some Yaesu radio suggestions as well. ICOM and Yaesu are the Ford/Chevy or Canon/Nikon equivalent in the ham radio world. I'm obviously an ICOM fanboi.

O2