Amateur / Ham Radio Group?

[RyanGard1977]

Welcome to the hobby, Matt. You need to join a local club. There really are no LDS ham groups that I know of so just get with a good local group. The ARRL website is a great place to start, but here is a link from that site that you can use to search for clubs near you.

https://www.arrl.org/find-a-club

[russellhltn]

There really are no LDS ham groups that I know of

I'd suggest checking with your ward or stake Emergency Prep person. If there is a LDS group in the area, they'd know about it.

There are different kinds of groups so you may have to look around. Some are more HF (long distance) and contesting, while others are more VHF/UHF repeater oriented. Yet others are more into emergency preparedness/ARES/RACES. You'll need to find one that matches your interests.

[RyanGard1977]

For awhile a number of years ago where I live we had a few good leaders who ran a monthly sunday night simplex net along the front range of Colorado and 2 Denver area based LDS nets on local repeaters. Ward and Stake emergency prep leaders/members were encouraged to get their license and participate. It was fun to be a part of, but things died out over time, members moved, passed away, or just lost interest and the nets stopped. There was equipment and antennas set up at the Denver storehouse and Colorado Springs storehouse (some antennas still remain) and even a repeater at one time at the Denver Storehouse with it's antenna on top of one of the grain silos. The church frowns upon installing radio antennas and equipment at the meetinghouses.

[Matthew75]

I now have a Kenwood 570 sg and learning too use it,
Still learning. I can use eco link and do so . I now have my
General and working on my extra. Help for me is kind of on
my own but improving.

[solson]

Hi Matt,
Have you you looked into local amateur radio clubs or emergency communications groups? If nothing is local, QRZ.com and other online forums can be helpful.
Thanks,
Steve