Bravo.  Its been on my bucket list for a long time.

What kind of radio do you have?

Congratulations. I am thinking about getting a license too, as my husband is a Ham Radio operator with an advanced and commercial license. We have a FT2000 Yaesu. My husband is typically on 75 m.

Here in California, cities, counties, and state authorities are freezing and/or disabling repeater sites, or not rebuilding ones destroyed in the massive fires here in Northern and Southern California. With power outages, people cannot receive phone calls telling them to evacuate, so people are being killed (murdered), and now Ham Radio is being discouraged as useless. This is a stupid genocidal war on Ham Radio and the citizens of California, so we want to leave this immoral genocidal communist state of California. Most of those in California who leave the state are moving to Texas. Maybe we will soon be neighbors.

With battery operated Ham Radio stations, communications can be continued even in fire zones to alert people or to send messages to loved ones.

In Los Angeles City, the city and HOAs are getting onerous with new regulations that discourage the construction of ham radio towers.  In the latest November 2019 QST magazine, a ham radio operator had a steep snow roof with a good sized attic that allowed him to construct a VHF ham radio antennae that complied with his local HOA CC&Rs.

By the way, you may want to be careful about displaying your new call sign as it can be traced back to your home phone number and address, whatever is on your license. However, it can backfire as some people put their call sign on their car license plate, so if you put a Trump/Pence 2020 bumper sticker on your car, antifa types could target your car and your home.

Congrats.

Probably the best value in HF radios today is the ICOM IC7300.

https://icomamerica.com/en/products/amateur/hf/7300/default.aspx

With an automatic tuner, a reliable power source, and a horizontal dipole antenna, you will have good reach.

Now that we have passed solar minimum, propagation should be slowly improving.

Congratulations, I'm a ham radio operator too, though I sold my equipment some time ago (needed the money).  The Yaesu transceiver would be a nice thing to have.

Is this one any good?  The price is certainly right.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07R8PHHF3/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B07R8PHHF3&linkCode=as2&tag=httpwwwchanco-20UYyUCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNDA4MTAwMk1UMVcyNE80RFNaJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYnRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

To the best of my knowledge there was considerable misreporting on this issue. As best I know, only a single local fire district got greedy and stopped providing free access to ham club repeaters.
If there is reliable information otherwise, I am all ears.

This one single greedy fire district is setting a very dangerous precedent. This is where the problem lies. Funding in the bankrupt state of California is very limited with the state, municipalities, fire departments, and counties coming up with extra fees or scrapping free programs all together. People are moving from California to Texas and Florida where there is no income tax.

In Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, there is no problem.

California has become a rogue communist globalist state with the highest taxes in the land. There is no representation because the Demonrat-Communists have control of the entire state.

Congrats.

Probably the best value in HF radios today is the ICOM IC7300.

https://icomamerica.com/en/products/amateur/hf/7300/default.aspx

With an automatic tuner, a reliable power source, and a horizontal dipole antenna, you will have good reach.

Now that we have passed solar minimum, propagation should be slowly improving.

I fully agree that this radio would be a great use of my new Amateur Extra ham license.
It seems to be around $1100 though. 
I've heard only good things about ICOM.

I feel like a college student right after exams -- you can kick back a bit on the studying; you can at least take a decent break.
I was cramming and everything. It's quite satisfying having that crossed off my list.

The exam site I found (Boerne, TX) was 1.5 hours away with traffic, but the timing was good. The next available exam in this area isn't until Nov. 16th!

Now that I got the tests taken sooner, maybe I'll even have my call sign issued in time for my birthday! hahaha  That would be a good birthday present and all, but I hope it gets here sooner than 10 days.

Maybe my kids can make some birthday chocolate chip cookies and arrange them in Morse code or something... (actually I still need to learn Morse code... they dropped that requirement from the ham exams back in 2004 I think)