That, totally. As I said in the OP, I received my UV-5RA as a gift--it was purchased for me via Amazon.
I'm interested in getting a license. but i have not had the time.
I didn't take any classes--it's very easy to get your license on your own time. Instead, I bought the official ARRL Technician handbook:
I casually read through it as time would allow--perhaps a chapter or two each night. I had planned to then read it through a second time, but a few RMEers told me just to start taking practice tests online instead... so I did. The practice tests quickly got pretty easy and I kept passing them, so then I went and took the actual test. Passed it with flying colors.
This may not be the "best" strategy, but it was easy to fit into my schedule and I can't argue with the results.
I also picked up that same baofeng radio, as well as my license recently. Just because I passed the test, does not mean I know what I'm doing! I would love to have a regular net to get comfortable with my radio, protocol, etc.
First things first: if you have a UV-5R, you should permanently bookmark this site:
http://www.miklor.com/uv5r/
This site is centered around the UV-5R radios and making the most of using them. Probably the greatest thing about this site is their 'greatly enhanced' users manual, wherein other Americans (read: English speakers) have corrected/clarified/explained the OEM documentation which was obviously translated (often poorly) from Chinese. You'll also find info about possible upgrades and much much more.
Next: get familiar with ham protocol. How do you do that? Easy--eavesdrop! Thanks to info in this thread, I have recently discovered the "76 repeater" at 146.760. Well, that's not
exactly true; I had been listening to it for a couple days, but I just didn't realize it at first. Thanks to the miklor web site, I managed to program this repeater into my radio and have now successfully conversed on that repeater. I waited a few days between first listening and finally making a contact, but that's all I needed to feel confident that I wasn't doing anything majorly wrong. Even better, if you casually mention that you're new you'll soon be flooded with lots of helpful information from the experienced guys--it's a great social community.
As far as a net is concerned, you're in luck. There is a local group of users of the "76" repeater, and they call themselves the 76ers. They have a weekly net every Thursday evening at 7pm. During my brief first contact, the guys went out of their way to tell me about it and invite me to listen in. I expect you'll have no problem picking up this repeater, so I'll encourage you to tune in tonight if you can. One of their planned topics has to do with a Baofeng radio of some sort, so I'm looking forward to tuning in myself.
Anyway, I hope you find all this info helpful. I am by no means an expert, but I'll do my best to answer any other questions you may have.
