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Ham Basics
These pages will help you study for your Basic Qualification Amateur Radio Operator Certificate Exam in Canada.
- References to print before getting started.
The goal of this guide is to help you learn as much as possible about Amateur Radio in general as well as help you pass the Basic test with Honours. Many books about amateur radio make a lot of sense if you already understand the material. The hope is that beginners will be able to understand key concepts, not just memorize them.
As such, the test topics have been broken down and reorganized in a different order to help tell a more coherent story. Many details that are not on the test have also been added to help you understand the material.
How To Use This Site
For self-study, we recommend the following sequence:
- Download and print the links on the reference page.
- After reading a section from this guide, read all the questions (and the right answers) listed at the end of the section.
- Move on to the next section.
- At the end, use an app like the Canadian Amateur Radio Exam to test yourself and review the sections that need the most work.
- Once you consistently get above 80%, contact your examiner and rock the test.
For Editors
This site is currently Under Construction. Editors are encouraged to do the following:
- If you see the following notice at the top of a section, please do not make any edits to the page as it may be in high state of flux:
Under Construction: CALLSIGN is editing this section, please do not edit it until this notice is taken down.
- You can make small edits (fix typos, grammar, etc) to completed sections without asking anyone.
- If you want to make a bigger edit, please contact the section's author and/or Patrick, VA7FI first.
- To take on a brand new section that hasn't been started:
- Read the entire guide first to get a sense of the style and the level of depth.
- Write Under Construction beside the section name, and add the orange notice at the top of the page so no-one else edits it.
- Throughout the site, please reference any ISEDC documents and/or any other sources of information or images.
- If you create new images, animations, or document, please add the source file in the Sync Folder:1)
Sync\SCARCS\HamBasics\
. - Contact Patrick, VA7FI if you have any questions.