Amateur Radio/Getting started
So, you just passed your Foundation exam. What to do? This is intended as brief guide, to provide just enough relevant info to get started with and some links where to find out more.
Get a callsign
Around six days from your examination pass, you'll get a note in the mail with details that will allow you to register on the Ofcom website. Choose a callsign that is meaningful to you, such as your initials, something that sounds cool in NATO alphabet terminology, or perhaps something that is easy to enter in Morse Code.
It might be worthwhile to run a 'callsign scrape' of the Ofcom website using Mark Steward's code hosted on github.
Consider joining the Radio Society of Great Britain
The RSGB is the group that organises various events, publishes the official RadCom magazine for its members, and helps acts as a formal gateway between Ofcom and individual amateur radio enthusiasts. There is an online 'New Starters' newsletter and various other resources available. There are often promotions for new members and those that are aged 21 or under (or in full time education until 25) can get free membership.
London Hackspace is an official RSGB-affiliated club and several of our members are individual members as well.
First steps
- Register with qrz.com
- Start a log book. Use a spreadsheet with the columns shown on page 20 of the Foundation Licence Now! book.
Bands
| Freq. range | Abbr. | Name | RSGB Bands |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3–30 kHz | VLF | Very low frequencies | |
| 3–300 kHz | LF | Low frequencies, AM longwave broadcasting | |
| 300 kHz–3 MHz | MF | Medium frequencies, AM medium wave broadcasting | 472 kHz (600 m), 1.8 MHz (160 m), |
| 3 MHz–30 MHz | HF | High frequencies or HF band, Shortwave broadcasts | 3.5 MHz (80 m), 5 MHz (60 m), 7 MHz (40 m), 10 MHz (30 m), 14 MHz (20 m), 18 MHz (17 m), 21 MHz (15 m), 24 MHz (12 m), 28 MHz (10 m) |
| 30 MHz–300 MHz | VHF | Very high frequencies or VHF band, FM radio | 50 MHz (6 m), 70 MHz (4 m), 144 MHz (2 m), 146-147 MHz (2 m extension) |
| 300 MHz–3 GHz | UHF | Ultra high frequencies or UHF band, Television broadcasts, Microwave | 430 MHz (70 cm), 1.3 GHz (23 cm), 2.3 GHz (13 cm) |
| 3 GHz–30 GHz | SHF | Super high frequencies, mmWave | 3.4 GHz (9 cm), 5.7 GHz (6 cm), 10 GHz (3 cm), 24 GHz (12 mm) |
| 30 GHz–300 GHz | EHF | Extremely high frequencies | 47 GHz (6 mm), 76 GHz (4 mm), 134 GHz (2 mm) |
| 300 GHz–3 THz | THz or THF | Terahertz or Tremendously high frequency |
Make that first QSO
Q codes
A few of the more common ones, (those that have to be learnt for the Intermediate Exam). There is a more thorough list at Wikipedia/Q code and at List of Q-codes. Q-Codes can either be a question or an answer. For example QRL? would mean Is this frequency in use? Whereas a response of QRL would mean The frequency is in use.
| Q-Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| QRL | The frequency is in use |
| QRM | Interference from other stations (M = man made interference) |
| QRN | Interference from static/thunderstorms (N = natural interference) |
| QRP | Low Power |
| QRT | Closing down my station |
| QRZ | Who is calling me? (Who’Z calling?) |
| QSB | Fading, usually signals going up and down in strength |
| QSL | Transmission successfully received (as in QSL card) |
| QSO | Contact with a station |
| QSY | Change frequency |
| QTH | Location, usually the nearest town (H = home) |
Abbreviations
There are a handful of abbreviations that you need to be aware of.
| Abbreviation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| CQ | General call, any station may reply (seek you) |
| DX | Long Distance (on HF this normally means outside your own continent) |
| SIG | Signals |
| UR | Your |
| WX | Weather |
| DE | From |
| K | Go Ahead (your turn to transmit) |
| R | Roger (transmission received and understood) |
RST reports
Often in a QSO the strength and quality of the signal is exchanged. For the reporting of strength and readability, and tone with Morse code the RST system is the de facto standard. a very strong totally readable signal would be described as RS59 or more commonly "5 and 9". Most rigs have a signal or S meter.
| Value | Readability | Strength | Tone |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unreadable | Faint, barely perceptible | Extremely Rough Note |
| 2 | Barely Readable | Very Weak | Very Rough Note |
| 3 | Readable with Difficulty | Weak | Rough Note |
| 4 | Readable with little difficulty | Fair | Fairly Rough note |
| 5 | Totally Readable | Fairly Good | Note Modulated with a Strong Ripple |
| 6 | Good | Modulated Note | |
| 7 | Moderately Strong | Near DC Note but with a Smooth Ripple | |
| 8 | Strong | Good DC Note with a Trace of Ripple | |
| 9 | Very Strong | Pure DC Note |
Phonetic alphabet
- Wikipedia: NATO phonetic alphabet
Repeaters
The recognised calling protocol is "This is (your callsign) listening through (repeater callsign)".
- How to use repeaters
- A brief guide to good amateur radio operating techniques
- A new ham's guide to repeaters
- Repeaters that Hackspace members can get to.
Bands and equipment
Some economical suggestions to help find you find your way.
2 m and 70 cm
- VHF 144 to 148 MHz 2 m
- UHF 440 MHz 70 cm
Get a Baofeng UV-5R, change the antenna to a Nagoya NA-771 and use CHIRP with a Kenwood USB cable to program it.
- Baofeng EV-5R site is useful.
- Baofeng UV-5R Programming for a quick guide.
SDR
Get an economical RTL2832U as a software-defined receiver covering 24 MHz to 1.8 GHz. These are often marketed as Digital Television (DVB-T) receivers but can receive significantly more information, including airplane transponders and various other interesting signals. They can be purchased for as low as £10 off of ebay, but be prepared to make your own antenna as the stock one is usually quite bad for general receiver coverage. Some dongles like the NooElec NESDR Mini 2 USB cost a little more but seem to have less quality issues.
Shortwave/HF
- Some useful advice in /r/amateurradio/ What is the best hf/vhf/uhf transceiver for under $600? i.e. it might be better to have different radios for HF and for VHF/UHF and that all-in-ones are compromises on both HF and VHF/UHF.
Antennae
For improved signal strenth on VHF/UHF, consider getting an omni-directional vertical antenna or for much higher gain a directional Yagi-Uda antenna.
Useful software
Some of these are listed because of the difficulty with radio shadow in the urban environment.
- Echo link – to contact other amateurs around the world via the Internet or smartphone
- WebSDR - a Software-Defined Radio receiver connected to the internet.
- APRS and APRSdroid – for reporting your position to the APRS network, displaying of nearby amateur radio stations and the exchange of APRS messages.
- HamSphere - a virtual Ham Radio Transceiver.
- GlobalTuners
Further links
There are several online resources available to you. Our favourite is naturally our own conversations on IRC chat #lhs-radio on chat.freenode.net (via web browser) and mailing list but places like the reddit /r/amateurradio web groups can also be good.
