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Comment by stonepresto | Hacker News Reader

Amateur Radio Licensing at http://www.arrl.org/getting-licensed for those interested. You'll need it if you want to attempt to contact the ISS.

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I haven't made contact with ISS, or many contacts at yet, but getting a Technicians license and getting on the airwaves really pretty straightforward.

I studied for maybe 2-3 weeks (a chapter a day) and paid $15 to take the test back in October, 2 weeks later I was in the FCC database and made my first check-in on the Alaska Morning NET[0] via a local repeater on a $60 triband handheld[1].

Now I'm looking to develop these skills and put them to use with my local emergency response teams in Portland, OR.

The Basic Earthquake Emergency Communication Node (BEECN)[2] program is specifically about aiding in emergency service coordination in the event of the a major earthquake in our area, and the Neighborhood Emergency Teams (NETs, our local CERT) also utilizing ham radio for emergency service coordination in the event of a communication breakdown.

I definitely encourage anyone with interest in these subjects to get a license.

Hope to eventually make contact with some HNers, till then - 73, KI7QXO

[0] http://arcticserver.com/alaskamorningnetmain1/

[1] https://www.amazon.com/BTECH-UV-5X3-Watt-Tri-Band-Radio/dp/B...

[2] https://www.portlandoregon.gov/pbem/59630

It's not so easy in some other countries unfortunately. Here in the UK, it'd cost me the equivalent of about $80 and require an effectively mandatory in-person training course that's rather inconvenient too, just for the most basic license. More advanced licenses are even more expensive and annoying to get.

Wow, now that I did not realize... do you know the reasoning behind making it so difficult?

My father wanted a license and found it incredibly difficult to get in contact with the nearby group, only to find out (when he eventually managed to get in contact) that they wouldn't be holding any exams for some significant period of time

Just seems like a clusterfuck to get the damn thing, the foundation exam is dead simple. I'm totally unsurprised by the dwindling popularity of amateur radio here. Even if the difficulty isn't the driving factor, I'm sure it deters lots of people who otherwise would be interested.

Hard to say. At one time you could turn up and sit a City & Guilds exam, of course to become a bonafide amateur you had to pass the Morse test, but they've relaxed that now. I went from UK Foundation licence to Full licence in about a year, not difficult from a technical point of view as I was working on 500kW broadcast transmitters at the time. The questions about the arcane rules and regulations were probably the hardest. UK amateur radio is quite set in its ways, the average age of UK amateurs is probably around 60. Some of it probably stems from elitism and from some of the UK history of radio piracy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio_in_the_United_Kin...

http://www.laughingpoliceman.com/amateur_radio.htm

https://hamstudy.org/ Is a fantastic resource for this as well. Along with the various flashcard apps on mobile.

For those that go this route, I found that getting to about 40% mastery for any given test bank is good enough to pass with a safe margin. That is, being able to answer 40% of the questions right every time the same one is presented. Basically you'll find that the Tech is really just "do you know the regulations", the general is "do you know the bands" + basic radio architecture and the extra is "do you know antennas" + some niche/DSP stuff

Legally that is. Nothing but the law and the fact that most people are honest prevents it. Anyone may purchase a 20 dollar 2m/440 radio and press the PTT :)

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