There is no longer a Morse code requirement for any level of U. Amateur Radio license. The "pools" of questions from which the exams are made -- along with their correct answers -- are printed in virtually every license manual. Even so, you'll need to study in order to pass. Why are licenses needed? Radio signals travel great distances and improperly-adjusted transmitters could cause interference to other radio services.
It's important that hams, who are permitted to transmit with high power, understand the basics of how radios work and how radio signals behave.
Hams are also encouraged to design and build their own gear although there's plenty of commercially-built equipment available if that's not your thing , and again, it's important to have a basic knowledge of electronic circuits before trying to design a radio! Don't worry, though, the tests start out quite easy. The Technician Class license is the most popular way to start. Things you can do on VHF and UHF include FM repeaters automatic relay stations , computer-to-computer "packet radio," on-air contests, amateur TV, amateur satellites and even things like "moonbounce," microwave and laser communications.
Long-distance communications, also called "DX," may be "worked" on satellites and the 6-meter band. A Technician license also gets you voice privileges on part of the meter band Passing a question test to upgrade from Technician to General Class will give you operating privileges - including voice - on all amateur frequency bands.
Another written exam for Extra Class gives you all privileges on all ham radio bands. Many radio clubs and other groups offer licensing and upgrading courses, and a variety of study guides are commercially available.
You can save money by buying used or refurbished equipment, he said. Unlicensed individuals are free to purchase equipment and listen to frequencies, but in order to transmit they need a license. Thank you for writing such a positive story about my favorite hobby. S CIS. It took some hard work to get my Tech license, but now I am so proud of myself to join the ranks of the best HAM Operators on the Planet. I was on the B. It was a miserable commute, but I had lots of room for antennas!
Several colleagues from those days are still among my closest friends. Bob, KK3P. How is ham radio thriving? How is having to study a book for each level going to increase people getting their licenses?
I am not going to build a radio or make my own lightning arrestor. Most people buy a commercial radio and most computer chips in them would have a to 3, page datasheet for engineers written by engineers so no one would really understand how a radio works today. Some townships have ordinances that make it hard to put up a tower so putting citizens through three college courses to get their license is redundant because the manufacturers are the ones that make the product anyway.
Call it beating a dead horse. The only chatter I hear is people showing up for clubs or ham fests and not really chatting about anything interesting. If so, what are you doing to change the status quo? Do you ever get on 40m and start an interesting conversation or do you just drivel about listening to others? Sterling Mann N0SSC is advocating that ham radio shift away from a focus on person-to-person contacts.
Photo: Sterling Mann. It's a clickbait title, Mann admits: His blog post focuses on the challenge of balancing support for the dominant, graying ham population while pulling in younger people too. To capture the interest of young people, he urges that ham radio give up its century-long focus on person-to-person contacts in favor of activities where human to machine, or machine to machine, communication is the focus.
These differing interests are manifesting in something of an analog-to-digital technological divide. As Spectrum reported in July , one of the key debates in ham radio is its main function in the future: Is it a social hobby? A utility to deliver data traffic? And who gets to decide? Those questions have no definitive or immediate answers, but they cut to the core of the future of ham radio. But Grandpa's ham radio set isn't that big a deal compared to today's technology.
That doesn't have to be sad. That's normal. Gramps' radios are certainly still around, however. It's a social group, and they won't even talk to you unless you're in the group. Martin F. Jue K5FLU , founder of well-known radio accessories maker MFJ, is developing new products to accommodate the shift towards digital radio communications in the amateur bands.
Photo: Richard Stubbs. But Jue, 76, notes the ham radio space has fragmented significantly beyond rag-chewing and DXing making very long-distance contacts , and he credits the shift to digital. That's where MFJ has moved with its antenna-heavy catalog of products.
To that end, last year MFJ unveiled the RigPi Station Server: a control system made up of a Raspberry Pi paired with open-source software that allows operators to control radios remotely from their iPhones or Web browser. This collective of national amateur radio associations around the globe represents hams' interests to the International Telecommunication Union ITU , a specialized United Nations agency that allocates and manages spectrum. In fact, in China, Indonesia, and Thailand, amateur radio is positively booming, Sumner says.
Indonesia is subject to natural disasters as an island nation, spurring interest in emergency communication, and its president is a licensed operator. Trends in Thailand are less clear, Sumner says, but he believes here, too, that a desire to build community response teams is driving curiosity about ham radio.
China is also changing the game in other ways, putting cheap radios on the market. HF radios are changing, too, with the rise of software-defined radio. Nooelec often hears from customers about how they're leveraging the company's products. For example, about members from the group Space Australia to collect data from the Milky Way as a community project.
They are using an SDR and a low-noise amplifier from Nooelec with a homemade horn antenna to detect the radio signal from interstellar clouds of hydrogen gas. When you can pull in totally unique perspectives, you get unique applications. We certainly haven't thought of it all yet. The ham universe is affected by the world around it—by culture, by technology, by climate change, by the emergence of a new generation.
And amateur radio enthusiasts are a varied and vibrant community of millions of operators, new and experienced and old and young, into robotics or chatting or contesting or emergency communications, excited or nervous or pessimistic or upbeat about what ham radio will look like decades from now.
What we've learned over the hundred-plus years is that there will always be these battles—AM modulation versus single-sideband modulation, whatever it may be.
The technology evolves. And the marketplace will follow where the interests lie. Julianne Pepitone is a freelance technology, science, and business journalist and a frequent contributor to IEEE Spectrum. Julianne Pepitone is a freelance journalist who reports via text, video, and television. Now a freelancer, she works with an eclectic roster of clients. I agree with many of the comments below. Spectrum, while always in the crosshairs of commercialism, is relatively safe, largely because of global agreements.
One rapidly growing area of the hobby not mentioned much in the article is competition, or as hams are now calling it: RadioSport. This is an area attracting more younger participants. Also, there is extensive global competition to "activate" and "work" special sites, such as summits Summits on the Air , parks Parks on the Air , islands Islands on the Air , and even lighthouses Lighthouse on the Air.
There are extensive online database sites that track these contacts. The new technology integrating computers, the internet, and space does make this hobby exciting for an admittedly limited, but significant, audience. One the digital signal leaves your station it is in the very same electromagnetic form that challenged Tessla and Marconi.
This is still a very fun hobby. Plenty of women in Ham Radio. To continue operating during pandemic-related shutdowns, organizations around the world underwent digital transformations. Examples include using remote technology to collaborate with employees and customers and employing automation to improve customer experiences. The United Kingdom has nearly as many amateurs as Germany. The total member ship of the RSGB is about 30, Still, Indonesia is in no danger of losing its top status.
Spain is another country where Amateur Radio has experienced rapid growth in recent years. For more on Spain, see Hows DX?
Our northern neighbour, Canada, is in a growth spurt, thanks to recent changes in its licensing structure.
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