2026-03-13 18:55:40 +00:00
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---
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title: "Amateur radio licence"
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slug: /amateur-radio-licence/
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date: 2026-03-12
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tags: ["radio"]
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---
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2026-03-16 19:33:58 +00:00
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In February I bit the bullet and booked the exam for the UK Amateur Radio
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Licence (Foundation Level).
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Having the exam in the calendar helped me concentrate and remain focused, as my
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learning style is naturally quite slow and meandering. I really wanted to earn
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my licence so that I could get on the air and begin to advance my practical
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knowledge.
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I used the official Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) textbook and a
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simplified syllabus from [Essex Ham Train](https://www.essexham.co.uk/train/).
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In the mocks, I was averaging an 80% pass rate but in the exam itself I did
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particularly well and scored 92%, getting only two questions wrong (one of which
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didn't come up at all in the training materials). I completed the exam remotely
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but there was an RSGB invigilator observing my screen and environment to check I
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wasn't cheating! (Thank you Malcolm, G3ZNU.)
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Having received my certificate I was able to apply to Ofcom for my callsign. I
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chose **M7SYO**. The first two characters are mandatory and denote my
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qualification level ("Foundation") and the last three are your personal choice,
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based on what is available. Luckily I was able to choose letters reflecting
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"Systems Obscure". When appropriate to do so, I can add "E" as my regional
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secondary locator to indicate that I am operating from England (e.g. ME7SYO).
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The Foundation level is pretty generous given that it is the entry-level. I can
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transmit up to 25W and am permitted to use most of the amateur bands (10m, 12m,
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15m, 17m, 20m, 30m, 40m, 80m) at HF, apart from 60m, and many of the VHF/UHF
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bands.
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I am lucky that my uncle, Greg, is an experienced amateur operator and secretary
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of his local amateur radio club in Macclesfield. He has been helping me with my
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practical knowledge and advising on what gear to start with. For now, I have
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ordered the affordable and well-regarded
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[Baofeng UV-5RM Plus](https://www.baofengradio.com/products/uv-5rm-plus-8w-multi-band-radio)
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handheld along with a NA-771 antenna. This will enable me to connect to
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repeaters and hopefully make my first QSOs (contacts). I also plan to construct
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some home-made antennas that I can attach to the handheld and experiment with.
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As I'm still waiting for the radio to arrive, I am currently limited to
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monitoring transmissions via my
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[SDR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software-defined_radio#Amateur_and_home_use)
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(RTL-SDR v.4). I've been able to pick up some Morse conversations and a faint
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read of the strange - possibly Iranian - number station that is currently
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[perplexing the amateur community](https://youtu.be/ErmbTpxAM7Q?si=auxTnY8HSSnu1xZ5).
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In order to access the HF band and reach contacts further afield by exploiting
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[ionospheric propagation](https://www.qsl.net/4x4xm/Propagation/Ionosphere-propagation-of-radio-waves.htm),
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I will need a better and more powerful tranceiver. I am looking into getting a
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second-hand portable Yaesu through one of Greg's contacts. My plan is to drive
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or cycle to good spots locally and work in the field. I also eventually want to
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communicate over CW using Morse code and experiment with some radio astronomy.
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The possibilities are pretty limitless with this hobby!
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To facilitate my field work I wanted a small and robust laptop so I bought a
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2026-03-16 19:42:23 +00:00
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second hand ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen.9). It's very sleek compared to my T15 which
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I mainly use as a desktop device. I'm running Fedora Workstation for a
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hassle-free and easily maintainable Linux environment.
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2026-03-16 19:33:58 +00:00
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Finally, I joined the RSGB. This gives me access to lots of useful radio
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resources, free access to the
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[National Radio Center](https://rsgb.org/main/about-us/national-radio-centre-gb3rs/)
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at Bletchley Park, and the print edition of the monthly _RadCom_ magazine which
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is a really good read.
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Once I start transmitting I will report here on my progress...
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