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A young amateur radio operator from Germany

Amateur radio is hobby or pastime enjoyed by many. But with readily available cell phone and internet communications it is now usually practiced by an enthusiast rather than for practical reasons. Amateur radio is often used in remote areas where there is little communications infrastructure or when infrastructure is damaged due to a disaster. Amateur radio includes communicating locally or world-wide by two-way radio. It can include striving for "DX" receptions that are challenging, usually because of weak signals due to the distance. Communicating with very low power transmitters (referred to as QRP) is also popular.

Obtaining a license

Obtaining a license to operate an amateur radio station requires passing an examination covering technical topics and operating procedures. The exact nature of the assessment varies in each country and by the class of amateur radio license the applicant is seeking. In many countries there are different classes of amateur radio license with different privileges.

Licensing by country

To operate on different bands you need different antenna and radios.

ITU frequency bands used in telecommunications:[1]

  • Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) 0.03 Hz – 300 Hz
  • Ultra Low Frequency (ULF) 300 Hz – 3 KHz
  • Very Low Frequency (VLF) 3 KHz – 30 KHz
  • Low Frequency (LF) 30 KHz – 300 KHz
  • Medium Frequency (MF) 300 KHz – 3 MHz
  • High Frequency (HF) 3 MHz – 30 MHz
  • Very High Frequency (VHF) 30 MHz – 300 MHz
  • Ultra High Frequency (UHF) 300 MHz – 3 GHz
  • Super High Frequency (SHF) 3 GHz – 30 GHz
  • Extremely High Frequency (EHF) 30 GHz – 300 GHz

Here are standard antenna lengths for 1/2 wavelength long dipole antennas and 1/4 wavelength long vertical antennas for some of the popular amateur bands:

Band   Frequency type   Frequency range                 Antenna length
Dipole Vertical
160m Medium1.8 – 2.0 MHz234 ft117 ft
80m High3.5 – 4.0 MHz117 ft58.5 ft
40m High7.0 – 7.3 MHz64 ft32 ft
30m High10.10 – 10.15 MHz ??46 ft23 ft
20m High14.00 – 14.35 MHz ??32 ft16 ft
17m High18.07 – 18.17 MHz ??26 ft13 ft
15m High21.00 – 21.45 MHz ??22 ft11 ft
12m High24.89 – 24.99 MHz ??18 ft9 ft
6m Very high50 – 54 MHz8 ft4 ft
2m Very high144 – 148 MHz3 ft1.5 ft

Equipment

Antennas

There are two basic types of antennas, antennas that propagate equal in one direction eg. "unidirectional propagation" or antennas that propagate in all directions eg. "omnidirectional propagation"

  1. /Unidirectional propagation antenna
  2. /Omnidirectional propagation antenna

QRP tranceivers

QRP refers to operating transmitters at very low power.

References

Search for Amateur radio on Wikipedia.
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Amateur Radio Manual.
Look up Amateur radio in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
  1. ↑ Radiocommunication Sector of ITU (ITU-R) (August 2015). Nomenclature of the frequency and wavelength bands used in telecommunications (PDF) (V.431-8 ed.). Geneva: International Telecommunications Union. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
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