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Efforts are always being made to encourage pupils in local schools to
take up the club’s offer of tuition to qualify for a Novices Amateur Radio
Transmitting licence. Mobile phones and the Internet now of course present
enormous competition to Amateur Radio, with their greater ease of
communication. But once the Amateur Radio equipment has been bought, you can
freely stay ‘on air’ for unlimited time, and it provides a far greater
challenge to both young and old to make contacts over long distance
communication, due to problems of atmospheric interference, and overcrowding of
the Amateur bands at times. Contacting someone many miles this way is something
to be proud of, and is why a system of sending post cards confirming contacts
was involved many years ago, know as QSL cards.
The Internet has virtually no controls, apart for the possible threat of
civil actions such as libel, and infringement of copyright, whereas use of the
airwaves is strictly controlled in every country throughout the world. This
especially applies in countries whose governments impose severe restrictions on
freedom of speech. Special licences are granted by the relevant authorities,
for use of the airwaves to all the Public Services, Radio and TV stations,
Taxis and Buses etc. In most countries special licences are also granted to
members of the public for personal use, subject to various conditions. In this
country these primarily fall into two main categories, use of the 27 Megacycles
Citizens Band, and a variety of licences for Amateur Radio. There are
restrictions in place for both of these categories. In general one should not
interfere with other users, advertise, use foul language, cause offence by
discussing Politics or Religion, or pass on third part messages, that would
compete with other services such as the telephone, etc.
Radio Amateurs are also obliged to study the principles of Radio
Propagation, and regulations relating to the relevant licence, and pass a test,
which used to include Morse, depending on the type of licence. By International
agreement, most countries such as ours, have now abandoned the necessity to
pass a Morse test, although some Amateurs still use Morse because of its
ability to be understood, even through considerable atmospheric
interference. They are also bound by rules, where they must periodically
identify themselves with an individual Callsign, which in the
Radio Amateurs sometimes known as HAMS, can apply for three different
licences. The initial entry is by the Foundation Licence involving a course of
study of 12 hours, and after assessments the test consists of an examination of
45 minutes. Successful candidates are now allocated a M3 or M6 call sign and
permitted to operate on certain HF and most VHF bands using a transmitting
power of 10 W. This includes the use if repeaters such as the one located on
the Ridge providing clear contacts for a larger area around
In the past those who did not wish to learn Morse, were restricted to
the higher frequency bands, suitable mainly for local contacts. Use of these
bands have now been vastly improved by the use of Repeaters, similar to those
used by Mobile Phones. The three maintained by the Hastings Repeater Group,
which is part of our club, provide possible clear contacts within a radius of
70 miles of
BEGINNERS GUIDE TO
ELECTRONICS AN RADIO
See details of an interesting alternative completely harmless form of
foxhunting, popular among Radio Amateurs by going to FOXHUNTING
Gordon
Sweet M3YXH gordonsweet2000@yahoo.co.uk Visit the Radio Society
of
Publicity http://www.g4cus.freeserve.co.uk/ Official site http://www.radioclubs.net/herc/ Registered with 
Please
note the club has nothing whatsoever to do with any site attempting to market
or trade under its name.
Local Radio Amateurs' Emergency Network RAYNET