{"id":13898,"date":"2026-01-21T17:41:54","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T01:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/w6sg.net\/site\/?page_id=13898"},"modified":"2026-01-26T07:58:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T15:58:33","slug":"newcommers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/w6sg.net\/site\/newcommers\/","title":{"rendered":"Newcommers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Once you have passed your Technician Amateur Radio License (we offer <a href=\"https:\/\/w6sg.net\/site\/why-how\/exams\/\">Volunteer Examiner Testing<\/a> through the year), now what?<\/p>\n<h2>Get On Air<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Radios<\/strong>: If you&#8217;re looking to purchase a radio, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qrz.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">QRZ.com<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gigaparts.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GigaParts.com<\/a> offer an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gigaparts.com\/explorer-qrz-1-5w-vhf-uhf-handheld-transceiver.html\">Explorer QRZ-1 VHF\/UHF handheld transceiver<\/a> (with accessories) for $17.99 (plus tax and shipping) to amateur radio operators who obtained their first license from the FCC within the last 6 months.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Finding &#8220;Good&#8221; Radio Frequencies<\/strong>: See our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.repeaterbook.com\/repeaters\/location_search.php?type=county&amp;state_id=06&amp;loc=Marin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Repeaters page<\/a> for great resources.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Check in to our <a href=\"https:\/\/w6sg.net\/site\/nets\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Radio Nets<\/a><\/strong>: On Sunday mornings (10-11 am) we have a radio net for club members to check in, but all operators are welcome to also participate. On Tuesday, feel free to check in to one of the Marin County RACES\/ACS Nets (5p, 7p, 7:15p, and 7:30p)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Make New Friends<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>2m Critical Mass<\/strong>: Both our club (MARS) and the SF Radio Club have monthly gatherings that are welcoming to everyone. The <a href=\"https:\/\/groups.io\/g\/nb2mCM\/topics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MARS North Bay 2m Critical Mass<\/a> generally meets on the 3rd Sunday of each month at the Marin Civic Center (San Rafael) from 10a-Noon. The <a href=\"https:\/\/2mcmv20.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SF Radio Club&#8217;s Critical Mass<\/a> generally meets on the 2nd Saturday of each month at Spreckles Lake (San Francisco) also from 10a-Noon (great for message passing practice)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Volunteer for Public Service Events<\/strong>: Throughout the year , we volunteer to provide communications for special events like marathons, bike races, parades and other public service events.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Attend a meeting<\/strong>: We have monthly club meetings generally on the first Friday of each month at our clubhouse (27 Shell Road, Mill Valley) 7p-9p. You can also attend meetings by Zoom, but if you want to meet people, we recommend going to the clubhouse.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Once you have passed your Technician Amateur Radio License (we offer Volunteer Examiner Testing through the year), now what? Get On Air Radios: If you&#8217;re looking to purchase a radio, QRZ.com and GigaParts.com offer an Explorer QRZ-1 VHF\/UHF handheld transceiver<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/w6sg.net\/site\/newcommers\/\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-13898","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/w6sg.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/w6sg.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/w6sg.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w6sg.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w6sg.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13898"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/w6sg.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13920,"href":"http:\/\/w6sg.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13898\/revisions\/13920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/w6sg.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}