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.
Brilliant timing tbh because I am east coast US. I’d have to join EchoLink owing to a rediculous noise floor where I’m at and, well, I can’t touch VK land from Maryland in the US with my 100W.
I’m not optimistic about the next linkup, but I will try. At worst I’ll have to have a go at simply posting.
I’d love to have some hamshack beers with folks and work out some of the mechanics. POTA and SOTA work so well because it mostly relies on the activators. I’d need some ideas on how to make a similar mechanic for ROTA.
One of the beautiful adjacent benefits amateur radio has greatly benefitted from in POTA/SOTA is that it gets us out of the hamshack to do real-world field exercises, resulting in the miniaturization of everything from Morse keys to antenna setups, but something important we don’t really practice enough are radio relays.
We hold our hobby out as an additional means of communication for EMCOMM, something like ROTA might also supercharge our corps.
And 10m Amateur Techs!