Information for New and Prospective Hams

What is Amateur Radio?

Amateur radio is a multifaceted and service-oriented hobby, with the only commonality being the use of radio in some way. For some people, it’s all about the social aspects, while others prefer the technological elements. Some prefer to build projects. Others choose to contact people in far-off and exotic locations or even to travel to these locations, thus becoming a highly sought station for “DX chasers.” There are many opportunities for public service. It often involves formal or informal learning and teaching, and many people have attributed an early interest in amateur radio to a successful career in a related field. The ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications states, “As a community of communities, amateur radio can be whatever you want it to be.”

Amateur radio is often called “ham radio,” and the licensed operators are called “hams.”  With over three-quarters of a million hams in the US alone, the individual interests and specialities are wide-ranging.   Many hams start by simply talking to other local hams using a hand-held radio (also called a Handi-talkie or HT), which you can purchase for $35 or less. You can reach a wider area by using an “HT” by using an existing repeater to re-transmit your signal. There are thousands of repeaters in operation worldwide, run by clubs, organizations, or even individuals. Some operators interconnect repeaters via the Internet. There are even repeaters on satellites in orbit around the Earth (although it takes somewhat more effort and more equipment than an HT to use them).

One of the more popular activities is contesting, an on-the-air sport where hams compete for points, primarily by making as many contacts as possible during the contest period. Causal or part-time contesting is a great way to make many contacts in a few hours or over a weekend. Digital modes of communication are another popular facet of ham radio, used for routine communication and experimentation. Some spectrum-efficient digital modes excel at packing a lot of data into a narrow bandwidth. Other digital modes, such as those used by WSJT-X (Weak Signal Communication by K1JT), are used for weak signal communication, allowing successful contacts with minimal information when other modes, such as voice, will not work.

The establishment of the Amateur Radio Service in the United States is recognized in law as having these primary purposes:

• Providing a voluntary, non-commercial communications service, particularly for emergency communications.
• Contributing to the advancement of radio art.
• Advancement of skills in both the communication and technical phases of radio.
• Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio service of trained operators and electronics experts.
• Continuation and extension of the amateur’s unique ability to enhance international goodwill.

Exam Study

There are a great number of resources available for license exam study. Which ones are better for any particular person will vary based on the student’s educational background, learning style, available time, and budget. This section will list some recommended study resources. Note that many of the online aids are free.

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL)

The American Radio Relay League is the largest membership association of amateur radio enthusiasts in the United States. While there is some valid criticism of the ARRL, it is an excellent resource for anyone interested in the hobby. Several benefits are limited to members. However, many of the resources for prospective hams do not require membership. There are many references to the ARRL Training Resources in this document.

In-person classes

With the vast resources available on the Internet and in the wake of the COVID pandemic, in-person classes have become less common. In the Charlotte metro area, the Cabarrus Amateur Radio Society advertises in-person classes using the Gordon West study guides.

Books and Study Guides

Study guides by Gordon West (WB6NOA) are well-regarded.

The A.R.R.L. license manuals are perhaps the best-known license study guides.  Still, some people find them rather challenging unless supplemented with lectures. They might be the best option if one has a technical background or uses them with a lesson presentation. Otherwise, some other study materials might work better.

Easy Way Ham Books. These guides generally have good reviews as an “easy way” to get licensed, but there is some criticism for a lack of depth on the technical aspects.

Similar to the “Easy Way Books” are the “No-Nonsense” Study Guides by Dan Romanchik (KB6NU). His guides deserve mention because the Technician Class Guide is a free download. It might be all you need to pass the Technician class license test.

Videos

exam preparation. The ARRL has licensed his lesson videos from YouTube, which are available on the ARRL site. Dave uses the ARRL license manuals.

In conjunction with the Greer (South Carolina) Amateur Radio Club, Gary Wise (W4EEY) and Dave Ivey (KE4EA) offer free amateur radio Licensing classes online via Zoom. Their prior lessons are also on Gary’s YouTube Channel. You might find these classes helpful as they focus on getting licensed without delving unnecessarily deep into theory. These are unedited recordings of the entire in-person classes and can be lengthy. You can reduce the time required significantly by using the settings on YouTube to play the videos faster and by skipping segments that are not part of the formal class.

Websites and Software

One of the best ways to prepare for your exam is to take practice tests, and perhaps the best resource for this is hamstudy.org. The free web version and inexpensive phone/tablet app can be used offline. With hamstudy.org, you can take a simulated test with the same number of questions as a real test to see if you can pass. This would be a randomly selected subset of all the possible questions. However, in your study phase, you should use the “study mode.” This way, you get exposed to all the questions in the question pool, and if you are unsure of the correct answer, click on “I don’t know” to see the correct response. You can then click on the upper right corner to see an explanation of the correct answer.

https://hamexam.org/ is similar to hamstudy.org.

Getting Started

You can start your ham radio hobby well before getting licensed because you do not need a license to listen to amateur radio. Many hams have spent hours listening to hams and other shortwave broadcasts before getting on the air. While commercial shortwave broadcasts usually use amplitude modulation (AM), most voice ham radio on HF (shortwave) bands uses single sideband modulation. For voice communication on the VHF and UHF bands, frequency modulation (FM) is used almost exclusively. To listen, your radio will need to receive the appropriate modulation mode. The following sections in this document provide information and resources to “jump-start” you with ham radio.

Periodicals

The ARRL publishes various magazines, books, podcasts, and newsletters. Most are available online and include extensive archives. See http://www.arrl.org/news-features. The best known is QST magazine, a monthly publication first published in 1915. Membership in ARRL includes a printed copy of either QST or another magazine called On the Air, which is targeted to newer or less experienced hams. The printed copy of whichever of the two magazines a member selects is delivered by mail. However, both of these and much more are available to members online in digital format (both current and past issues). On the Air has a companion e-mail newsletter, and past issues are free. The On the Air magazine and free newsletter articles are highly recommended for someone new to the hobby.

Clubs and Elmers

In amateur radio jargon, an Elmer is an experienced ham who offers to share his time and knowledge. Most hams can name someone whom they consider their ham radio Elmer. However, in modern ham radio, there are so many varied aspects that you might want to find more than one Elmer, especially as your interests become more focused on diverse areas.

Ham radio clubs are a great way to get into the hobby. At clubs, you will usually find members with vast knowledge and experience in various areas of ham radio and related fields, such as computer science and electrical engineering. Some club members act as volunteer mentors (Elmers) in different subject areas, such as digital voice modes, or as a resource to learn about a specific equipment brand.

Ham radio clubs traditionally have an open-door policy and welcome guests or prospective members at club meetings and events. For example, the York County (South Carolina) Amateur Radio Society (YCARS) has an open house every Wednesday evening where you can see their club station in operation. Operating events such as the A.R.R.L.-sponsored Field Day offer another excellent opportunity. At “Field Day,” hams set up temporary stations, much as they might in a natural disaster, inviting the public to observe and learn about the hobby.

Once licensed, you can temporarily gain access to the frequency privileges for higher-class licenses under the control operator rule. Briefly, this means that as long as a licensed amateur radio operator controls the transmitter (legally speaking, he is the “control operator”), someone with a lower-class license can use the privileges of the higher-class license. This is a common practice at operating events such as “Field Day.”

To a more restricted extent, even unlicensed people can “transmit” using a ham radio under specific circumstances. In this case, a licensed control operator must be present and operating the station. Legally, the transmission comes from the control operator, and the non-licensed person is considered a third party, even if they are speaking into the microphone directly to the person at the remote station. Furthermore, third-party communications involving US hams and stations outside the US are only legal with countries with which the US has signed a third-party agreement. Third-party communications over ham radio are usually limited to cases where someone wishes to talk with distant friends or family far, or when health, welfare, or emergency messages are to be delivered to a third party. And, as in all of amateur radio, it cannot be for hire or material compensation (with very few narrow exceptions).

Hamfests

A hamfest is a ham radio gathering or convention. This is another way you can get started, even before you earn your license. Here you will usually find equipment vendors, forums, and more. By far, the biggest draw at any Hamfest is the flea market. In fact, nowadays, some hamfests don’t have a great deal of activity other than the flea market.   The Mecklenburg Amateur Radio Society (MARS) sponsors the Charlotte Hamfest each year in March. The self-described “Granddaddy of them all” is the Shelby Hamfest held every September. Search for other Hamfests on the ARRL Hamfest Calendar.

On the Air

Frequency Bands

Amateur radio operators enjoy segments of frequency allocations across a vast portion of the usable radio spectrum. The frequency of radio waves is measured in hertz, which is the number of alternating current cycles per second. The frequency determines the length of the electromagnetic radio wave as it travels through the air. The frequency bands are commonly referred to by the approximate wavelength in meters. For example, at a frequency of 50 megahertz (MHz), the radio wavelength is 50 meters, so we call the frequency allocation near 50 MHz the six-meter ham band.

Twelve groups of frequency bands describe the entire radio spectrum. Most amateur radio activity is on three groups of bands called High Frequency (HF), Very High Frequency (VHF), and Ultra-High Frequency (UHF). The HF bands are from 3 to 30 MHz (although sometimes the Medium-Frequency (MF) band of 1.8 to 2 MHz is also called HF). Ham radio VHF bands are between 50-222 MHz. UHF is the next highest group of frequency bands, and most activity is on the 70-centimeter band (420 MHz). Please refer to the US Amateur Radio Bands chart and Frequency Allocations page from the ARRL.

By the way, the HF frequency bands are referred to as shortwave by non-hams. With wavelengths of 80 meters or more, you might not think of that as a short wave, but compare it to the AM Commercial Broadcast band, where the wavelength ranges from 176 to 555 meters. On the other hand, the most popular VHF ham radio band has a truly short wavelength of just two meters, and as frequency increases, the wavelengths get even shorter. The term shortwave is based on historical usage from a time when lower frequencies were used rather than the actual size of the wave.

As a general rule, we can say that most long-distance ham radio activity is on selected HF bands, and most local (around-town) communication is on VHF and UHF bands. There are exceptions, however. For example, using VHF and UHF frequencies, in the specialized aspect of ham radio called Earth-Moon-Earth (EME), communication occurs over the distance from the Earth to the moon and back (roughly 478,000 miles or 770,000 Km)!

Nets

A ham radio net is a term for an on-the-air meeting of a group of hams. These nets meet at a designated time and frequency and usually include a net control station that will direct the activity. The purposes of nets are varied. Some nets are for emergency message handling and training. Others are for general conversation or club-related discussion. Most nets are related to ham radio in some way, but many are not. Sometimes net members cannot hear all the other members on the HF bands. In this case, messages might be relayed, or multiple net control operators who can receive different stations may be used. When repeaters are used on VHF / UHF bands, anyone who can receive the repeater clearly will be able to hear all the members equally well.

Listings for local nets are usually on ham radio club websites. The ARRL maintains a directory of nets, primarily those that support public service activities. This directory relies on the net managers for updates to the database; therefore, it might not always have the most current information.

“Q” Codes and Other Shorthand

Like most hobbies or professions, ham radio has a unique collection of acronyms, codes, and shorthand expressions. Most originated from Morse code, where there is an advantage to sending as few characters as needed to communicate a specific piece of information. Many are commonly used in other modes and even during in-person conversations. The first one to know is CQ, an open call for anyone to answer. Your “shack” is your radio room, whether a separate small building or just a corner of the living room.

Q Signals (or Q Codes) are three-letter codes starting with the letter “Q.”  For example, my QTH is my location, and I can ask for your location by adding a question mark. Other standard Q codes you might hear include QRZ? (who is calling me?), QRM (interference), QSL (I copy or confirm the contact). To say “best regards,” one would send “73” or “73s,” although technically, there should not be an “s” added. Women might be referred to as “YL” for young ladies. Being a male-dominated hobby, it might not be surprising to hear a male ham refer to his wife as the “XYL” (eX Young Lady). Additionally, a male ham of any age is an OM (Old Man), and even if he has never touched a Morse code key in his life, when a ham passes away, he becomes a “silent key (SK).  SK is also the Morse code signal (prosign) for end-of-contact.