I know the term "newbie" is embarassing, but We all were new to Ham Radio at some time.

In My case it was 1956, I am Sam KO6JQ,

My best advice is to get active with a Local club for advice, but some are to far from a club for that to be practical. They are left with advice from QST,CQ, and CQ-VHF

read carefully.

drooling is NOT an Option!!!

joining a local club, is a great way of meeting others in your area, and as a bonus most clubs support local repeaters that is good starting point into VHF Ham radio,

In My area we have,OARS, GEARS, and the YSARC both have great repeaters and freindly Hams that are more than willing to Help new Hams.

and are great clubs with a lot in interesting stuff at the meetings.

Buying a 2 meter rig, buy a digital rig, with a PL (tone Squelch) that covers from 144 to 148, as Your first Rig. a mobile rig will be your best choice! Stay away from wide band recieve if You live in a large metro

Start out with an FM rig using NBFM

(Narrow band Frequency modulation) this is where most start, but don't be limited as 2 meters has CW (Morse code) SSB (single side Band) and Terrestial (Space) communications on it as well, but I recomend You start out on FM to get started and get Comfortable in having many a nice time just talking to others on the band. you will find a nice group of Amatuer (Ham) radio freinds that will be glad to help you out

area as when you wide band you open yourself to many sources of Interference.

get a rig WITH the Owners Manual, or what We hams call "Paperwork".

now You must match Your rig to a 50 ohm Antenna, for Mobile (Car or Truck) operations

you will need a good antenna, a mobile mount

type will be the trick for you I recomend You start out with Magnetic Mount with at least 8

foot of Coax antenna. these usually come pretuned. or set for the lowest SWR for

the 2 meter band, email the seller on ebay

to make sure of this.  tuning is not hard, but

scary on your first attempt, remember not ALL SWR meters respond well at 146MHZ

most CB type SWR meters, get screwy at over 50MHZ.

for home Use i recomend a good Vertical antenna, as you will probably begin Your Ham Radio experiences talking and listening to,and on repeaters.

again check to see if the ebay seller does pretuning, and his antenna has full instalations instructions with it.

You will need to set your PL to get into many

repeaters, and your split as You recieve on one frequency, and transmit on another, in the US we have a 600KHZ split

to power your mobile you will need a 12 V DC

power Supply(13.6 Volts) at the wattage of Your rig for find that out Multiply Your voltage (12Volts) by the amprage of the rigs output this give your wattage or simply

Volts times Amps gives you Watts.

Not all watts are the same as you have input watts, and output watts which might be half

that of input watts. this is called efficiency.

BUT remember most rigs are rated in Output

wattage not input, as the input is your nimber

you are looking for so for 30 watts look for the power supply that will do 60 watts by your multiplication.

you are entering a hobby, and a way of life that will give you many hours of enjoyment and leaning i hope this helps you

73

Sam/KO6JQ