Get on the air
A licence is permission to transmit. This section is about what you actually say, where you say it, and what else radio can do besides talking.
Your first contact
What to listen for, what to say, and why nobody is judging you.
Using repeaters
How a hilltop repeater turns a pocket radio into city-wide coverage, and what a "net" is.
Beyond voice
Digital modes, Morse, images, satellites and bouncing signals off the moon.
When it counts
Amateur radio in storms and emergencies, and how to be useful rather than in the way.
The etiquette, in four lines
- Listen before you transmit. Most mistakes come from talking over someone you could not hear.
- Identify with your callsign at the end of a contact and at least every ten minutes.
- Leave a gap between transmissions so someone with an emergency, or someone joining in, can break in.
- No swearing, no music, no business, no encryption. Anyone can listen, including regulators and children.
Where the conversations are
On VHF and UHF with a Technician licence: local repeaters, club nets, and events. On shortwave with a General licence: worldwide contacts that need no infrastructure at all. Both are open to you the moment your callsign appears in the FCC database.