Foundations of Amateur Radio

Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day I was browsing through the Amateur Radio Syllabus for Foundation Licensees, as you do, you know, when you're bored out of your mind, or in my case, looking for a topic to talk about. So, I came across this interesting point, if you want to look it up, point 2.2 of the Foundation Syllabus. It states that in order to attain your Foundation License in Austra...

Foundations of Amateur Radio Previously I've explained how Radio-teletype or RTTY works from a technical perspective. If you recall, it uses a technique called Frequency Shift Keying, or FSK to encode digital information. It does this by transmitting a carrier across two alternating frequencies, allocating one as a SPACE and the other as a MARK, or as a binary 0 and a binary 1. There are several o...

Foundations of Amateur Radio The continued discussion in our community about Digital Modes got me thinking about what a Digital Mode actually is. At the most fundamental level, it's about encoding information into discrete chunks to exchange information. Morse Code is an example of a Digital Mode, made up from combinations of dits and dahs. If you change frequency whilst sending dits and dah's you...

Foundations of Amateur Radio Having a Digital Mode in your shack appears to be a special privilege, at least in some parts of the world. If you'd like to learn all there is to do with using a Digital Mode you need to pay attention and I'll share the secret, it won't take long. If you want to distinguish yourself as a Digital Mode Diva, you need to know that Morse, RTTY, FSK and PSK are digital mod...

Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day a whole new world opened up to me when I came across the idea that Voltage is the same as Force and Current is the same as Velocity. It all came about when I installed two mechanical filters into my radio. You heard that right, in my shiny solid-state radio, I added moving parts! The purpose of this was to improve the way the radio ignores unwanted signal...

Foundations of Amateur Radio For the most part of my Amateur Radio life I've been an active contester. I have spoken about why I love contesting and why I think it's an important aspect of this amazing hobby. Today I want to talk about how contests are run, specifically how complaints are handled and how we could improve. I must at this time acknowledge that organisers are volunteers, just like ma...

Foundations of Amateur Radio Recently I made a point of coming up with three different names for License Classes in Australia. I proposed Low Power, Medium Power and High Power and then went on to suggest that this could also be a mechanism to update the framework that is Amateur Licensing in Australia. As it turns out, I'm told that this idea is mostly already active in the United Kingdom. My ide...

Foundations of Amateur Radio There is a time for everything. Mostly when it's most inconvenient, like in the middle of a rare contact, or while you're running a pile-up like you have never done before, or while you're getting a multiplier during a contest. For two years I've been using an antenna on my car that on occasion has the ability to remind you of it's presence. In this case, there is a le...

Foundations of Amateur Radio For a long time I've struggled with the way we differentiate between the different license classes in Amateur Radio. In Australia, the three levels of license are Foundation, Standard and Advanced. In the United States, they're called the Technician, General and Extra. In the United Kingdom they're called Foundation, Intermediate and Full. These naming conventions conv...

Foundations of Amateur Radio A little while ago I had the chance to use a mobile radio with high power. I used it to learn about the coverage of our local repeater, but also to hear what the effects were when two local radios were both using the same repeater and high power at the same time. I made all manner of observations and wondered how much of what I observed was real and how much was a case...

Foundations of Amateur Radio You know you've been at something for a while if you come across a topic that you want to dig into and discover that you already covered it in great detail a year ago. For me that topic was the "FM capture effect", which I covered in great detail a while back - the research says: "This happens, we know it happens, it happens under these circumstances, but precisely how...

Foundations of Amateur Radio The quest for the perfect antenna is likely to be one of the things that you'll carry with you during your entire Amateur life. In the past I've explained how the perfect antenna cannot exist and that the amount of variation inside just one antenna is infinite, so there is lots to choose from. One of my friends loaned me an antenna called an Alex-Loop. It's a so-called...

Foundations of Amateur Radio There's a phrase that I use quite often, "Get on air and make some noise!" In terms of Amateur Radio that makes people think that I mean that they should turn on their radio, pick a band and call CQ, for hours. I can tell you now, if you're a QRP station, this is going to be a frustrating experience unless you're lucky or happen to be located in a place where other Ama...

Foundations of Amateur Radio The evolution of Amateur Radio is a constantly changing landscape. I've previously described the transition from spark-gap to surface-mount and the ongoing progression of inventiveness that brings this amazing hobby together with the leading edge of science and technology. If you think of software defined radio as a linear increment on the radio scale you'll end up whe...

Foundations of Amateur Radio The hobby that we call Amateur Radio has been around for over a century. During that time we've seen it evolve from capacitors, inductors, through valves, then diodes and transistors, through to integrated circuits, chips and surface mount components. Along the way we collected a vast body of knowledge and experience which combine to make the hobby what it is today. Yo...

Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day I had the fortune of using a club station with an Advanced License whilst mobile using more than my usual 5 Watts. I was driving in convoy away from the main local 2m repeater and was interested in finding out what the coverage might look like and how high power might make a difference. When I say high power, that's 50 Watts FM on 2m. I learnt several thi...

Foundations of Amateur Radio There's a confession I'd like to share with you. Chatting on air is something I rarely do. When I'm working distant stations, so-called DX, my typical exchange is: AB0XYZ, you're 5 and 9. If the station has some questions to ask, I'll answer, but often times there is no conversation and I'll move on to the next one. Some of that can be explained by my initial training...

Foundations of Amateur Radio The Amateurs Code, originally written in 1928 has been quoted for almost a century. A Radio Amateur is Considerate, Loyal, Progressive, Friendly, Balanced and Patriotic. There is something almost romantic about that, but in my short life as an Amateur I've been exposed to much that leaves that as just a sentiment, rather than a social code. I'm not alone in that. I hav...

Foundations of Amateur Radio There is something magical about getting a new radio. I remember it well. Fondly even. I had done the research, consulted my bank account and picked my radio. It arrived in a courier delivery and I sat at the kitchen table, opening the box and marvelling at the parts that made up my first purchase as a radio amateur. I'd joined my local radio club a month earlier and p...

Foundations of Amateur Radio The Hobby of Amateur Radio is a curious mix of technology, rules and people. If you're new to this you're likely to find yourself being swept up in the scale of the experience and more than I think is appropriate you'll find yourself at the pointy end of a barb by another member of the community. It's taken me over six years to begin to understand what is going on that...

Foundations of Amateur Radio One question I get asked regularly is: "What's the point of Amateur Radio?" Today I'm going to begin to answer this perennial question. As you know, this activity is a hobby, something you do for your personal enjoyment. People get pleasure from a vast range of undertakings and if you combine multiple such adventures into your life all the better. Amateur Radio is a ho...

Foundations of Amateur Radio To sign or not to sign, that is the question. Last week I spoke about operating with low power, or QRP which sparked a lively discussion which evolved into a conversation about adding bits to your callsign to indicate some extra information. For example, some stations will add stroke QRP to their callsign when they're operating low power when others don't. Other exampl...

Foundations of Amateur Radio A phrase I hear regularly is "life's too short for QRP" and today I think that it's appropriate to start a conversation about that sentiment. When propagation is poor the high-power amplifiers get on air and use it to prove that you need power to get out and about. Far be it for me to deny another amateur the pleasure of working a thousand stations at the same time, a...

Foundations of Amateur Radio Last week I was casually asked "What is a resistor?" Now if you're into electronics like many radio amateurs, you'll instantly have a picture of a little blob with two wires with pretty colours painted on the outside, the size of a grain of rice and if you're not into electronics, you now know what a resistor looks like. Before I talk more about resistors, I'm going to...

Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day I managed to achieve a little personal milestone. I heard myself on-air. Before you get all misty-eyed, yes, I've heard myself on-air before - probably on thousands of occasions over the years, but that's not what this was. This was my own transmitter, in my shack, transmitting my voice via SSB and it being received and me hearing it. In broadcast radio t...