In article , Se7en writes:
I'm going to get my license soon as well as my first equipment. I
wanted to know if anyone had recommendations for equipment. I wanted to
have good equipment for all three types, regular radio, voice, and
data. Especially data transmission. I got some ideas in my head for

You may as well start learning the lingo.

The FCC has codes, like A0,A1,... for amplitude modulated schemes
including CW and AM, and F0,F1,... (I think) for frequency modulated
schemes. I suppose there are various others.

I have not really used them but they are good to know when reading
the regulations.

Hams use more informal terms. My usage is no doubt quite dated,
but these are some that come to mind:

CW (continuous wave, but keyed on and off) Basic Morse code
AM (amplitude modulation) Voice - ancient style
SSB (single sideband (suppressed carrier assumed)) Voice - newer style
DSM (double sideband, suppressed carrier) Rare. AM sans carrier
FM (frequency modulation)
NBFM (narrow band FM)
RTTY (radioteletype, generally using FSK)
FSK (frequency shift keying, think FM equivalent of CW, also used for data)

Some others, most of which I have no experience with:

PSK Phase shift keying
PSK31 A PSK system used for chat and a basis for various digital modes
MST3K 0k - not a modulation scheme - just wanted to keep you awake
SSTV Slow scan television
various digital modes??

Basically, you use CW,AM,SSB, RTTY/FSK, and PSK31 on the HF bands,
and maybe NBFM.

You use various modes above 30 Mhz, but voice is typically FM
and Morse is often, if used at all, sent via FSK, maybe via sound
card feed into a microphone input.

Digital modes I'll leave to you to investigate, but looks like
people like to use sound cards to avoid requiring anything
special on the transmitter and receiver other than CW and SSB
capabilities.

George

rigging a data transmission but I'm thinking that there might be
hardware for data transmission already so I don't have to get hacky
with it.