You can hook all of it up and do receive only while you are preparing for your exam. Once you get your license enjoy the fruits of your labor!

Getting setup, turned on, and receiving is 70% of the work.

Basically amateur/ham radio.

Are you crabs yet?

There is a lot to be said for the differences here.

In the US at least, the constitutional requirements for being elected to the presidency do not prevent felons from being elected, and there are good arguments for this. A weaponized judicial system can be used to oust or prevent political opponents from gaining the presidency.

In Amateur Radio, if our first calls are not received correctly, most experienced operators will switch up and use alternates for troublesome phonetics. America for Alpha, Germany for Golf, Kilowatt for Kilo. Some folks even use amusing ones. I once heard an American station using “Kentucky Fried Chicken” for their callsign ending in KFC.

It’s what plants crave.

To be real, the worst part isn’t that we’re joking about it; it’s that it’s already happened:

One of the best no-noise locations I ever did was in a fully powered-down sailboat in the southern lagoon at Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas. Leaky consumer electronics are the worst.

To contrast, I managed to work Indonesia from Alamogordo NM despite being in a residential neighborhood, HVAC capacitors and foreign over-the-horizon-radar (OTHR) be damned. Taught me a lot about being patient and picking out transmissions in the noise.

Did it work?

*General Delivery in the US.

[Name]
GENERAL DELIVERY
[City, State ZIP]

Be certain the post office you select provides general delivery services.

I use this a lot.

https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-is-General-Delivery

Definitely don’t get the audiobook as read by Golding.

I often use it to help me fall asleep.

Soviet Russia

No no, in Soviet Russia, beans count you.

All my homies use a circular one:

I get 1 to 3 ads a week on YouTube

There’s your problem right there. I’m so close to finally dumping YT. It’s annoying af the number of ads. Every video now. Every single one.

Awesome friend! Message me when you get your Tech :)

Awesome! Easiest way: https://www.arrl.org/find-a-club

Having a shack is enviable! I travel full time, and having the portable setup I’ve got fits my missions. It sounds like you’ll be able to enjoy a dedicated space.

Get out to your local clubs. See a few so you find one with whom you get along the best. Someone’s always got gear they’re looking for a reason to let go—really good gear that’s been treated well but just doesn’t fit their use cases anymore.

Start with what you’ve got and you’ll pretty quickly find what you like to do. Personally, I’m a huge fan of dx (distance) contacts on low power. Bonus points if I’m at a park or on a boat.

Assuming you’re in the US, use HamStudy and memorize the answers to the questions (it’s legal). You can schedule an in-person test, or take them online.

Only preppers really care about shortwave radio these days.

I’d like to welcome you to the modern era of amateur (ham) radio, and encourage you to learn about the plethora of activities, equipment, and options available in the hobby now.

The miniaturization of electronics means operators are no longer bound to ham shacks. You can make contacts with as little as 1mW (Morse code), 1,500 miles with 10W SSB, (personal experience, from a park in North Dakota and a wire sent up over a tree branch), over 8,000 miles on 100W (also personal experience, with an antenna I built myself), with both home-made antennas or commercially procured antennas.

There are xOTA programs, POTA, SOTA, Scouts, BOTA—literally dozens of flavors of “On The Air” to suit all manner of individual interests.

And don’t even get me started on digital modes: RTTY, FT8, FT4, JS8, JS8Call to name a few, even old school Hellschreiber or SSTV (send fresh digital photos over the air).

There is a persistent old stereotype of amateur radio; it’s not like that anymore.

There are amateur radio operators aboard the ISS, they beam down SSTV images regularly, and if you’re particularly lucky and appropriately equipped, you can even talk with them and request a QSL card.

There’s quite a lot.

Remember, the medium is the message.

Lenticular cloud: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenticular_cloud