A light introduction into the world of Amateur
Radio and how to obtain a Ham Radio License
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A brief history of radio
An overview of Ham Radio
It’s like CB radio, but…
What you can and can’t do with Ham Radio
All about getting your license and other
details
A little bit about bands and frequencies
Suggested Equipment and a little demo.
Repeaters and nets
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Radio expands back to the late 1800’s.
In 1901 it became possible to communicate
across the Atlantic.
1912 United States Congress passed the
radio act of 1912 to set regulations on radio
and provide licenses.
Over the past 100 years, radio has continued
to expand and develop in different areas.
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Ham Radio is a non-commercial radio service
which provides both local and worldwide,
over the air, communications between two or
more stations.
It’s available to anyone in the United States
regardless of their age.
If you can pass a written test, you can have a
license to use the bands.
Communications can be made worldwide.
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Ham Radio is like CB radio, but you can
operate with way more frequencies, power,
and range.
CB radio provides forty channels that are
open to anyone to use.
The channels are really frequencies, but to
make things simpler, they preset the
frequencies by channel numbers.
Later on in the equipment section, I’ll talk
about presetting frequencies in a radio.
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There are some restrictions on what you can and
cannot use amateur radio for.
For example, you can use ham radio for the
following:
◦ Personal communications between friends, family, and
other licensed operators.
 You can speak locally and worldwide
◦ Emergency communications.
 You can request for help or assist others in need when
you can’t communicate by normal means such as cell
phones being down.
 Organizations like ARES, SKYWARN, and SATERN have
trained volunteers to help in disaster relief.
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Contesting
Radio Direction Finding. Also known as Fox Hunting
or T Hunting.
Join a local radio club which provides social
activities and repeater usage
Certain digital modes offer communications over
the air and through the internet
◦ Images, VOIP (Think Skype), email, and instant messaging
use radios, computers, or a combination of both to provide
additional communication options voice
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Test and use your own “homebrewed” radio
equipment
◦ Antennas, radio kits, and other equipment
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You can’t use ham radio for the following:
◦ Promoting a business or selling items that are nonham radio related
◦ Using it for business communications
◦ Playing music over the air
◦ Intentionally causing harmful inference to other radio
services
 Certain military and government agencies share some of
the same bands as amateur radio operators. Government
agencies have primary use.
 Jamming signals and interfering with emergency traffic.
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In previous years the FCC managed and held
amateur radio exam sessions.
However, all exam sessions are now held by
Volunteer Examiners (VEC’s) who have been
certified by their organization to handle all
testing sessions, testing materials, and
license classing training.
The American Radio Relay League arrl.org is
one of the main organizations that manages
and provides testing for those who want to
obtain their Amateur Radio License.
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Preparing for the exam can be done by either
purchasing a study guide from directly from
the ARRL, a book store, one of the amateur
radio stores, or possibly borrowing a book
from your local library.
Be sure that the book is up to date with the
current exams questions.
Exam guides are normally revised about every
three years.
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The guide you’ll want to use is The ARRL Ham
Radio License Manual, Third Edition which is
for the current Technician exams through
June 30, 2018.
The book costs about $25-$30.
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Currently there are three Amateur Radio license
classes available: Technician, General, and Extra.
◦ Some older operators hold licenses under the older class
system. So you might hear the term Novice or Advanced.
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When obtain your license, you are given a call
sign which uniquely identify who are or your
station.
◦ You can get a vanity call sign if you desire.
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All licenses are valid for ten years, renewing is
free and you don’t have to take the exam again
unless your license has been expired for more
than two years.
Renewing is done through the FCC’s website at:
◦ Universal Licensing System
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This is the license you begin with which
grants all access to the higher end of the
frequency spectrum.
◦ Starting at 50 MHz up into the Gigahertz range. You
also get some frequency range on 28MHz – 29Mhz
with limited modes.
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Most of your communications will be made
locally through repeaters to give greater
range.
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This license opens up all the lower frequency
bands and allows you to use all modes and
higher power on the bands that techs are
limited to.
The test covers more technical aspects of
radio, electronics, and some important rules.
You can also become a VE, Volunteer
Examiner by taking an open book test.
◦ General’s can only help administer Technician Class
tests however.
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This is the highest license class available for
ham radio.
You gain a little extra frequency ranges for
that are great for contesting.
The focus for this license is mainly on the
technical aspects of radio.
You can become a VE and help administer any
license class exam.
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All licensing exams are multiple choice
questions taken from a pool of questions.
The Technician and General Class exams are
35 questions.
The Extra Class license exam is 50 questions.
You need to get at least 26 questions correct
in order to pass the Tech or General.
The Extra class requires at least 37 questions
correct in order to pass.
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The cost of taking the exam is $15 (give or
take a dollar) regardless of whether you pass
or fail.
Exam sessions require at least three volunteer
examiners.
Once you complete your test, your test is
graded right away and you’ll know if you
passed or not.
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Upon successful passing of the test you’ll
earn your technician license.
As a bonus, for no extra charge, you will have
the option to take the General exam.
◦ If you successfully pass the General exam, your
license will be upgraded to the General Class
◦ You will now have the option to take the Extra Exam
for no additional charge as well.
◦ If you pass the Extra exam, then congratulations,
you’ve reached the highest license class.
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All the exam questions and answers are taken
from a standard pool.
Practice testing can be done unlimited times
for free and the best part is, the questions
and answers are exactly the same, word for
word, on the practice test and on the real
exam!
There are at least two online places to go to
for taking the practice test:
qrz.com and Arrl.org's Exam Review.
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General rule of thumb, give yourself at least a month
to prepare yourself for the Technician exam.
◦ Spend about a week practice testing to go through the
whole pool of questions.
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Pick an upcoming test date that’s one to two months
in advance so you have a deadline in mind.
Try to plan on taking the test no more than two
months from the time you start reading to the test
day.
Giving yourself more time can actually cause you to
lose momentum and interest in taking the test.
License upgrades will require more study time.
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What is a radio wave?
◦ A radio wave is an electromagnetic signal that
oscillates back and forth.
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What is frequency?
◦ Frequency is the amount of times that the signal
moves back and forth per second or commonly
known as the number of cycles per second.
◦ You’ll hear the terms Hertz - Hz, Kilohertz – KHz,
Megahertz – MHz, etc.
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What is wavelength?
◦ A radio wave’s wave length is the distance between
each cycle. In other words, as a radio wave’s
frequency increases, the wave’s distance gets
shorter. If you lower the frequency, the distance
between each cycle increases.
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A band is the beginning and ending of a
range of frequencies that is named after the
approximant wavelength for that range.
We refer to bands in meters based on the size
of the wave length.
◦ For example, the 2 meter band has a frequency
range from 144 MHz to 148 MHz
◦ The 70 CM band runs from 420 MHz to 450 MHz
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Its common to hear people refer to bands by
either the frequency or meters.
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Voice Mode
◦ Referred to as Phone Mode. Voice is allowed on
almost all ham bands and is the obvious most
popular mode.
◦ Phone is used on FM, AM, SSB, and some digital
modes.
Continuous Wave also known as CW or Morse
code.
◦ Tools of the trade that are used to produce the
“dits” and “dahs” are straight keys, paddles, bugs,
and some radios have built in auto keyers or you
can purchase one separately.
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FM – Frequency Modulation.
◦ Just like your car radio, most likely this is the mode
you’ll start out with.
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AM – Amplitude Modulation.
◦ Also just like your car radio, this mode mostly used
on lower frequencies. Not as commonly used as
Single Sideband.
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SSB - Single sideband.
◦ This mode is most commonly used in the lower
frequencies. SSB is goes by USB Upper Sideband and
LSB Lower Sideband.
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Digital – There are many different types of digital
modes available. Some digital modes handle
voice and data, while others strictly handle only
data.
◦ D-Star
 A digital voice mode that requires a d-star ready radio, a dstar repeater, and club membership or registration to access
it. Icom makes d-star radios.
◦ DMR Digital Mobile Radio
 A fairly new mode on the market.
◦ System Fusion
 Another digital mode made by Yaesu. Like D-Star, it requires
Fusion radios and Repeaters to use.
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Hand Talkies (Also called HTs) are a relatively
cheap option to start out with in Ham Radio.
Pick a Dual Band Radio that transmits on the
2 meter band 144MHz – 148 MHz and the
440/70cm band 440MHz – 450MHz.
If you want to operate in the car, get a magmount antenna with a pigtail to connect the
two together.
Yaseu, Kenwood, Alinco, and icom make
great radios.
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AES Amateur Radio Equipment
◦ There is a few locations. The closest one is in
Milwaukee Wisconsin.
◦ Good service, but not always the best prices.
◦ Aesham.com
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GigaParts
◦ Located in Huntsville, Alabama
◦ Usually the best prices, ships fast.
◦ GigaParts.com
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They are the most portable option.
You can hook up external antennas to
provide more range and mobile options
Transmit power is limited to around 5 watts.
Require recharging, but extra battery packs
can be purchased.
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Typically output about 50 watts max.
Mounting a mobile radio in your car or truck
requires a direct connection to the battery.
A separate antenna and possibly coax cable
too must be purchased separately.
Be careful about your radio overheating on
summer days if running higher power.
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Mobile radios can also be used as a base
station, but they require an AC to DC power
supply.
An antenna and coax line is required, along
with some kind of mast.
◦ The higher the mast the better the signal generally.
◦ Sometimes finding a good location can be tricky.
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Radios that are strictly base station types are
usually High Frequency Band radios which
require a General or Extra class licenses to
use.
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Antennas can be either multi band or mono
band.
For Hand Talkies, the antenna choice is easy!
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For Mobile Radios
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For Base Stations
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◦ Upgrade antennas are available however.
◦ Antenna choices can either be a mag-mount or one
directly attached to the car. This requires drilling a hole
through the trunk or other place.
◦ You can purchase a vertical antenna (Omi-directional), a
Yagi (Directional antenna), a j-Pole which is basically a
vertical antenna, or a Dipole which is usually a horizontal
wire.
◦ A mast of some kind is need that can either be mounted
on the roof, the side of structure, or in the ground.
Cushcraft AR-270
Arrow 2M/440 J-Pole
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Typically RG-58, RG-8X, or better coax is
used to connect the radio and the antenna
together.
Better quality cable usually means less loss,
but...
◦ Power loss in cable is calculated by a few things:
 The quality of the cable. For example: LMR 240 is
better than RG-58 and LMR 400 is even better.
 The frequency being used. The higher the frequency,
the more loss that occurs.
 The distance. The long the cable, the more loss occurs
as well.
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Repeaters allow low power radios and
VHF/UHF FM radios to transmit much further
(About a 50 mile radius) then if they were
They are generally purchased and maintained
by radio clubs due to their high cost.
Most repeaters can be used without being a
member of a club.
Each repeater has a set band and frequency.
You can find repeaters through a printed
directory or online such as repeaterbook.com
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Connecting to a repeater requires knowing the
following:
The repeater’s output frequency, the PL tone, and
the offset frequency.
 Note: most radios handle the offset frequency, so you
normally don’t have to worry about that.
◦ The output frequency is what everyone hears.
◦ The PL tone keeps interference out by requiring the
correct tone setting. Think of it like a access code.
◦ The input frequency is what everyone uses to talk on.
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This is called duplexing.
◦ When two radios talk directly to each other that’s called
simplex.
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Many repeaters have nets during the week
and even on the weekend.
◦ A net is when a group of radio operators get
together and talk about either a specific topic or
have a informal round table.
◦ Nets will always have a specific time and day that
they run on.
◦ When a net starts, one person is the net controller
and makes the announcement that any operators
may check into the net with their call sign and they
might mention if they have any traffic or not.
◦ If a net is going, it is customary not to interrupt the
net unless it is an emergency.
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I would like to thank the Chicago Ridge
Libaray for letting me host this presentation.
Also I would like to thank you for coming out
tonight.
Any questions please ask or email me at
jcgallaher78@gmail.com