My HAM license expired about a year ago, I had the Kenwood TS-140S which I really liked cause 100 watts and if you de-solder I think it was resistor 30 you could use it illegally on citizen band.
I had the first license (technician) and never got around to taking the other 2 tests.
Currently I have several side-band CBs which I use for skip on 38 lower side band and a 22+ foot
Hy-Gain SPT-500 Penetrator antenna on the roof. The furthest I've talked was Tasmania roughly 7,600 miles away during skip.

I had a few 2 meter radios but didn't use them so I can't really help you with yours.
I do highly recommend getting at least your Tech license to use that radio and just for your personal education.
I was most interested it building and tuning antennas to optimal performance and found it personally rewarding.
We built several antennas from scratch including a 20ft 5 element beam and a 2 element cubic quad. I love cubic quads except for the upkeep and they don't hold up in storms.

I have my technician and will pop on repeaters from time to time. I have a triband yagi on my roof that came with my house, I've been working up to using it but I need to replace the coax running from it. You need your general anyway to get real use of HF.

Ham Radio Crash Course youtube and discord are how I got all my information.

My HT is a FT3DR, which is a lot of fun to mess around with and it has more features than I'll ever use. Sending SMS messages with APRS is amusing but of limited real world use (same with APRS in general)

73

I have no knowledge and no experience.
I wonder if I’d like to?

"I wonder if I’d like to?"

If you just want to listen get a multi-band receiver and maybe an external antenna.
If you want to talk I suggest starting with an older side-band CB like the Cobra 148, Sears Roadtalker, ect with a 12v power supply of at least 10 watts or a base station and an IMAX 2000 antenna,simplest best bang for the buck. Its a 24ft fiberglass equivalent to my aluminum Penetrator. In my opinion its better to have a good antenna and a bad radio than a good radio and bad antenna.

Thanks, Psygnosis!

He can also start out too with a HT (handheld) like his UV5R listening to repeaters where there will most likely be some good traffic. It's hard to kind of dip your toes in the hobby though, you need your technician to transmit and that's where you'll really know if you want to continue or not.

73

I have this jpole which i like to use with my HT, I can get pretty far with it just setting it up in my office on my 2nd story:
https://signalstuff.com/product/signal-staff-osj/
(you can use a cheap amazon tripod)

its portable too, which is great because I like to hike and want to eventually do some SOTA (Summits on the air, basically use radios at the top of mountains and other high places)

I still can't remember what my two 2 meter radios were but I only talked on one of them once. Everyone living out in the sticks were surrounded by hills on all sides so the repeaters were well used.
As for the antenna I chose the same one the repeaters were using at the time. The Comet CX-333 Triband Base Antenna.

I wanted to be independent of the repeaters and focused on 10 and ll meters with my Kenwood and Uniden Washington and as many antennas as I could build or get my hands on.

Idiot’s guide to shooting skip – CB radio 11 Meters Skip Conditions http://cbradiomagazine.com/idiots-guide-to-shooting-skip-cb-radio-11-meters-skip-conditions/

I feel like I just wandered into a language invention forum --- I haven't understood a word in this whole thread! At least not about the Ham stuff!

Also thanks for the listening in advice! I always thought listening to radio communications was fun! Various relatives were into short wave or CB. I always tried to sit near a railfan when on a train, because you could listen to the operational chatter & defect detectors.