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Your Entry To Amateur Radio
Do you, or someone you know, want to get your UK Amateur Radio Foundation Licence? If so, this free on-line course is for you, or them.
South Bristol Amateur Radio Club are going to provide a free on-line UK Amateur Radio Foundation Licence Course commencing in May 2024, read on for more details.
Amateur Radio licencing has gone through a substantial change in February 2024 and there was a degree of uncertainty about how this would feed into the examination and training system. We now know that the new Licence Conditions will become examinable at all levels of the Amateur Radio Licence from 1 September 2024. We believe that we can fit in an on-line Foundation Licence course between now and the change over date.
What We Will Do
- Ahead of the Training Evening we will send you a set of training notes in PDF format by email to you to allow you to prepare for the on-line lesson.
- Ahead of the Training Evening we will send out an invitation to the on-line lesson which will be undertaken using the Open Source Jitsi Meet platform.
- On a weekday evening (Monday – Friday other than Thursday), based on majority preference, we will host an on-line lesson using the Open Source Jitsi Meet platform where one of our trainers will present the lesson topic or part of the lesson topic. We expect these lessons to take about an hour and be held weekly.
- At the end of each lesson send copies of the presentation slides in PDF format by email to each participant.
- At the end of each module (there are 8 modules) we will provide a set of revision questions to be undertaken as “homework” to allow you to assess your understanding of the points discussed.
- At the end of the formal training sessions hold 1 or more “mock exams” in an interactive virtual classroom format.
- After the exams are complete, or largely complete, hold an on-line “conversion course” to explain the new Licence Conditions.
What You Will Do
- If you are interested; send an email to Training[at]sbarc[dot]co[dot]uk including: your name, email address, postal address, date of birth and which weekday evenings (Monday – Friday excluding Thursday) and times you are available. Note: only send this information by email to the address given; please do not:
- Send these details to other general purpose addresses we list, your details might not get passed to the training team.
- Telephone us to give us these details, we probably won’t be in a position to write your details down and we will forget them!
- Text us with these details, it makes the work of setting up mailing lists for course communication more time consuming.
- DM, WhatsApp, Use other Social Media communication channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (sorry X), Mastodon, Discord etc. to send us these details. We don’t have the manpower to monitor all possible communication avenues.
- Save and/or print and file the PDF lesson notes we send; and read/review these ahead of the on-line lesson.
- Attend the on-line lessons.
- Complete the homework.
- Attend the interactive “mock exams”.
- Book and pay for your own on-line examination through the RSGB Exam Booking System, selecting a date before 1 September 2024. Exams for dates after 1 May 2024 will cost £35.50 per sitting.
- Let us know your result and callsign.
We estimate 11 – 12 sessions to cover all of the syllabus plus allow time for the recap homework and mock exams. To allow time for you to book and sit your exam before 1 September 2024 we would need to start this course during week commencing 20 May 2024, with the following proposed programme:
- Module 1 (Licensing Conditions): w/c 20/05/2024.
- Module 2 (Technical Basics) w/c 27/05/2024 and w/c 03/06/2024.
- Module 3 (Transmitters and Receivers): w/c 10/06/2024.
- Module 4 (Feeders and Antennas): w/c 17/06/2024.
- Course break due to Trainer Holiday 24/06/2024 – 07/07/2024.
- Module 5 (Propagation): w/c 08/07/2024.
- Module 6 (Electromagnetic Compatibility [EMC]): w/c 15/07/2024.
- Module 7 (Operating Practices and Procedures): w/c 22/07/2024.
- Module 8 (Safety): w/c 29/07/2024.
- Mock Exams: w/c 05/08/2024 and w/c 12/08/2024.
- Exam Period: 19/08/2024 – 31/08/2024. If you have a late August exam we can have a on-line session during w/c 19/08/2024 and/or w/c 26/08/2024 depending on demand.
- Licence Conditions Conversion Course: w/c 01/09/2024.
Please pass this information onto anyone you know who might be interested in finding out more about Amateur Radio.
What will you need
In order to participate in the on-line sessions you will need:
- A working desktop or laptop computer with a modern web browser (Chrome, Firefox or similar), microphone and webcam or an Android tablet/iPad. Note: although it is possible to run the Jitsi Meet client on an Android or iOS mobile phone we do not recommend this as the screen is usually too small to efficiently watch the slide show presentations that are used during the on-line lessons.
- A stable connection to the internet.
- A PDF Reader such as Adobe Acrobat, MuPDF or GNU gv.
- An operational printer if you want to create hard copies of anything sent to you.
Jitsi Meet
It is possible that you have not previously used, or even heard of, the Jitsi Meet platform. Jitsi Meet is an Open Source alternative to online video conferencing platforms such as Zoom. At the South Bristol Amateur Radio Club we try to use and support Open Source alternatives such as Jitsi Meet, WordPress, Libre Office and GNU Image Manipulation Programme.
Jitsi Meet can be accessed using a modern web-browser. We will send out links to the meetings but you can also log in at: https://meet.jit.si/ with the meeting details. Clients are available for both Android and iOS.
