Essential
Information :
g0jlx at mail dot com
Tel:
07768 282880
Hello - so you want to become a Radio Amateur and you live in Hampshire, or elsewhere in the South of England ? Come and take a course with me in a registered Hampshire exam centre and learn all you need to know.
Generally speaking, I run my courses at the weekend,
usually on a Saturday afternoon from 1400 - 1700 clock time. That may vary
depending on how many courses I have running at any time. Class sizes vary
between 2 and 6. I have been known to do 1:1 tuition occasionally before now as
well.
There are three levels of course available to students with me
who would like to study for their Amateur Radio Licences:
1. FOUNDATION
The foundation level is the entry
level, and is spread over three Saturdays. No prior knowledge is necessary. You
will learn everything you need to know at this level. After two Saturday
sessions 1400 - 1700, the third Saturday is our practical day where aerials go
up and contacts are made under my callsign and supervision with other amateurs
around the country. This is where you put into practice what you have learned
with me.
At 1500 (typically) a fairly simple exam is taken, results
are given out immediately after marking is completed and assuming you have
registered early with OFCOM for a user name and password, by about the Wednesday
or Thursday following, you are the proud holder of an M6xxx licence from OFCOM
issued as a .pdf (Adobe's Portable Document Format).
2. INTERMEDIATE
The intermediate course is a bit
longer as it involves a good bit more learning - both theory and practical kit
building. You
MUST hold a Foundation licence to enrol on an Intermediate course.
Several
kits are built, and a couple of bits of construction homework are set. The
culmination of the course is for you to build a Variable Frequency Oscillator
(VFO) and calibrate it.
The course duration can vary from about 8
weeks to about 13 weeks as there's quite a lot to get through. You will need
your own tools and eye protection. I will teach you to solder properly, which
you will practice !
Each kit you build will come to the group sessions
(some of the sessions are purely practical days too as tutorials) for assessment
against neatness and functionality. There is plenty of choice of kits and
suppliers, so you are able to choose what you build.
At 1500 on the
last Saturday of the course, (typically) a moderately simple exam is taken, and
the results are given out immediately after marking is completed. By about the
Wednesday or Thursday following that, you are the proud holder of an 2E0xxx or
2E1xxx licence from OFCOM (using the same user name and password as for your
Foundation). You are allowed to hold multiple licences.
3. ADVANCED
And finally, we come to the big one.
You MUST hold an Intermediate licence to enrol on an Advanced course.
The work needed to take and pass the Advanced exam is quite high, with
a considerable amount of elementary mathematics and formulae manipulation
needed. There is no practical work as this was all delivered and completed
during your Intermediate course.
The course duration is variable,
based upon individual student ability only. I have known Advanced courses to
take 6 months to complete, and I have seen them done in 3 months.
The
exam dates are set by the Radio Society of GB (RSGB) roughly every 2 months or
so, and your papers are sent away to RSGB after the exam for marking. This
process can take up to a further month. If successful, you will be awarded the
M0xxx Advanced licence via the same user name and password mentioned earlier,
and be allowed to operate from almost anywhere in the world !
So, if that's what you want to do, drop me a line by email or phone (as at the top of the page) and I'll happily talk it through with you and explain the costs involved.
Page last updated on 20th April 2010