I just edited my previous post after you read it. Take a look and let me know your thoughts.

I get you.

You want to know what it really is? We are not poor or anything, far from it. It's that we used to be poor. It's that we used to get to the beginning of the month after paying the bills, and because I was making no money for 3 years, we had $30 left in the account to make it for 30 days. (My net income for three years = $1500, and I didn't even make that till the end of the three years -- that was my one and only paycheck after working my tail off for three years.)

It is a place in my marriage/life where I don't want to go again. I've been psychologically stuck on money ever since then, and I don't really need to be. So I'm always whining about it even though I actually have been able to build a savings account over the past year or two. I'm afraid of scuba diving under large ships and I'm afraid of spending money -- just thinking of those two things literally send chills down my back. Besides, I imagine scuba diving under a ship probably costs a lot of money in the first place, so it's really my ultimate phobia.

Oh, and I do appreciate how you guys are willing to let people borrow your stuff, thanks.

hey I'm not that bad to talk to... Am I? :)

The point that I was trying to make was that the Mobile is a better value, even if the handheld is cheaper. However, neither will work under a ship.

And I love my dad.

Ha, ha!

How did I miss that your wife is a teacher?  When I was working hard a making no money, my wife was supporting us through two years of substitute teaching and her first year of being a classroom teacher --- it was a dark time, my friend, a dark time.

Back on track: I'm actually learning a lot more through eHam.net than I am through the practice testing. I'll go do the practice tests again once I study up, but I can't get past 70-75%.  And the math is really cooking me because I don't have any reference point for why I'm doing the math.  i.e., the measurement of antennas and how that relates to actually operating the transciever -- I'm very hands-on like that.  I failed math for two years in high school till I became a pilot, then I was able to get B's in algebra because I could apply it to a real world event -- and if you got it wrong you ran out of gas and died a horrible, firey death on the side of a mountain.

Anyway, the more narrative, start at the beginning, style at eHam.net is suiting me well right now.

Also, there is this for your viewing pleasure.  I only vaugely thought I knew what 2 meter, 6 meter, 144, and 7 cm were, and how they related to each other in terminology and on the RF specturm, till I was able to find a visual like this.  I think I may have to build my own cheat sheet to carry in the car, or on my iPod.

Ben,

Have you tried hamtestonline.com? It doesn't just give you practice tests. It shows you 1 paragraph of material (context) then asks you a few questions. When I first signed up the paragraphs weren't showing up and I had to tweak something in my options. Maybe that's what's happening to you?

As for the portions of the spectrum, it doesn't matter once you get your radio.  You dial a frequency in like an FM radio station, then talk.  The radio even has presets.

Craig
 

for sure.  E = I * R  ... solving for R is easy. brush off dem algebra skillz

Ben - understanding spectrum is quite a large topic.   there are a ton of books out there based on RF electronics that provide adequate tutorials of the physics behind them.   start at the public library - by the 70's and early 80's when inexpensive components and pre-etched circuit boards started coming onto the market for DIY'ers there was a bevvy of material written.   Once you understand what spectrum is in terms of electromagnetic light and how it's propogated, some of the basics will become much clearer.   Those basic concepts should provide a firm grounding in the relationships between amplitude and frequency and then allow you to visualize what that means in creating and receiving radio signals, and what that looks like in a component form of the antenna and basic circuits. 

edit:  wikipedia gives a good surface scratcher article on amplitute modulation (better known to you as AM radio) here: 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amplitude_modulation

after skimming that, check out the link to SSB - single sideband modulation to get a clearer idea of where HAM radio fits into the larger picture.

cheers,

-ike

After reading back in this thread about ground plane, I'd like to elaborate on that issue a little. Ground plane for an antenna is like a reflector or mirror to radio waves. Our common 2 meter/70cm mobile antennas typically do not have a built-in ground plane. On these mobile antennas, the ground plane is expected to come from the metal panels of the vehicle itself. The larger and flatter the better, so the best place for optimum reception and transmission is a roof mount. But for most of us who drive trails with overhanging braches, we're often forced to compromise. When selecting a compromised location, get as close as possible to the largest, flattest surface you can find, but keep in mind you won't be getting the best performance possible from your radio. I work rallies where I need to be able to talk to finish from the start location, and with the compromised antenna location on the edge of my hood can spend some time situating my truck before the stage starts to get the best reflection I can. Just turning the vehicle, yet staying in the same parked location can have a dramatic effect. That doesn't apply while driving of course, but helps illustrate the point.
These mobile antennas we typically use cannot be tuned. Like Todd mentioned, there are some specific designs that are designed to be tuned, but the average 2 meter/70cm Diamond or Comet antenna is fixed. You can still use a SWR meter to optimize reception, but about the only things you can optimize while doing that are the quality of your connections and to a small degree, the length and placement of the antenna cable.
In contrast, if you're considering a 2 meter/70cm base station antenna for your house, you'll be looking at antennas with a built-in ground plane. The ground plane on a base station antenna is accomplished with radials extending out from the base of the vertical antenna element. Since these antennas are designed to be mounted on a non-reflective surface or mast, they must create their own ground plane.
 

That's what I was thinking, Mike, I've listened for a few minutes, but I'm not just sitting there staring. I'll let you know if I hear anything. Right now I'm listening to 146820KHz, the reported freq of a repeater nearby -- I can probably see the antenna from my house if I had a scope. Do they broadcast every 10 minutes on the tens, or is it just every 10 minutes from whenever?

Craig, I went quickly through the Snowshoe thread and missed a rear mounted photo of an antenna.  The rear tire mount seems like a good compromise, so it's good to hear that you don't have real issues with reception there.