# UK Amateur Radio ## Foundation Licence 2002
### Operating Practices & Procedures Part A This part of the course will be tutor lead at practical sessions
This is the practical section of the Foundation Licence course. You must know what you are doing before you can be let loose on the bands. You can therefore practice this by imagining you have a transceiver and microphone in front of you - before you are given the chance to operate for real.
Always have plenty of paper and several pens / pencils on hand to make notes ...AND don't forget you need to fill in your log book. You will be supplied with a sample page of a log book for the purpose of this assessment.
#### Download a sample page of a log book
Part of the sample log page |
I know this might sound crazy but try holding a qso with an imaginary person. Speak out loud as you will need to do so at the assessment. You could grab hold of small box and consider that it is a microphone and on one side think that there is a switch. This switch is call the PTT or press to talk switch. You press it to make the Transceiver go into the Transmit. To bring it back to receive you simply release the switch. At first I guess that you will be so concerned to press the switch that you will forget to let it go. If you don't let go ,you stay transmitting and you cannot hear the station's reply to you. So read through the section and then practice the CQ call. I suggest that you use the callsign G7BRC as that is the call that you will use at the Bredhurst Club should you attend their course of study. Eventually I hope you will get your own M3... call sign. The more you practice in your make believe QSO the easier it will be to do the assessment. Operating the mic live for the first time is just like the first time of doing anything - once done you wonder why you thought is was so difficult. Assuming you have made the CQ call this is the sort of response you might expect. G7BRC G7BRC this is G4VSZ golf four victor sierra zulu how do you copy? Now you have to think what you are going to say next ....I will give a response to what I think you might have said as a hint .... G7BRC this is G4VSZ nice to meet you for the first time and thank you for the 5 by 9 report. Your report here is also 5 by 9. My name is Charles and the QTH is Gillingham North Kent. The wx is very wet and windy. Can you let me know your name and QTH. Back to you G7BRC this is G4VSZ over. Again you have got to think what to say ... Obviously you did not say you name in the last over nor where you were but only gave a signal report. I will give a response to what I think you might say as a hint .... G7BRC this is G4VSZ ok on all the details and it seems that we may not be too far away from each other. I have been operating for over 20 years but find it fun to work new operators. I hope you have a great time (your name given) on amateur radio and that we work again. I will listen for your final and then will be clear. Best 73 until the next time G7BRC this is G4VSZ listening and then clear the frequency. You now make your final comment to the station as it is obvious to you that for this qso he wants to go. In fact for your early QSO's I would not think that you would be able to natter on unless you have prepared a set of comments to make and you will be glad that the other station wishes to go !!! Then if you are staying on the frequency you end with QRZ QRZ this is G7BRC... Why do you do that ... well it was "your frequency" as the station G4VSZ replied to your CQ call. If you had replied to a CQ call then it is your duty to leave the frequency for the other station to use at the end of the QSO and you must QSY. I hope you have been able to fill in the gaps. If you feel the need to make up a Crib card then that is a very good idea. You do not want to have to think what to say. Listen to the other station and if they ask a question do your best to answer, If you don't know the answer say so else they might think that you are not listening.
### The Rig
For this part of the course I am going to assume that you know nothing about an amateur radio transceiver (a transmitter and receiver combined) or a radio receiver of the amateur bands. The most daunting task for you is to understand the function behind all the knobs and switches. Even for the experienced operator being presents with a rig ( the word we use for a transceiver) can be daunting so let work through what you need to know. As I mention the controls I will indicate its position thus [].
### On off switch [1]
If you cannot find this look it up in the manual. Sometimes this is a press button and sometimes a toggle switch and sometimes it can be incorporated into the Volume control. BEFORE you turn on the rig check for the transmit button / switch [2] it there is one as it must be in the Off position before you start. anther good control to locate before switching on is the volume control [9].
So what other control/displays/socket do you need to know. starting at the top an working down. The "S" meter [10], the frequency display [11],RIT [5], band change [4], head phone socket [13], microphone socket [12], mode switch [8] mic gain control [3], tuning dial [14],IF shift [7] and RF gain control [6]. The other controls you do not need to know as they do not appear on all rigs. This rig happens to have a valve output stage and has various filters. Ok so we have checked the Send(transmit)/Rec switch is in the REC position[2], that the volume control is turned right down [9] so we are ready to turn the rig on. So what do you do next. You use the tuning control [14] to change to the frequency you are interested in to call CQ on and then LISTEN. Before we go any further let's hold you back and explain the controls.
[2] Send / Rec | This puts the rig into transmit or receive when you are not using the PTT on the microphone. You might use this when operating PSK 31 and you do not want the computer to be in full control.
[3] Mic Gain | Not all rig have this control. It is used to vary the amount of audio from the microphone socket is fed into the equipment to modulate the signal. To much modulation and you will not be heard clearly for reasons you do not have to understand just as too little modulation and you may not be heard at all. How do you judge what is right? Well as the rig is going to be used by you in SSB mode, for instance, when you look at the output power meter, assuming that it is installed you want to increase the mic gain to reach the maximum output power that you desire of you licence allows.
[4] Band Change | Changes the band of operation.
[5] RIT / XIT | Allows changes in the received signal and of the Transmitted signal without altering the main tuning dial. If you are operating a frequency and the other station drifts off, you do not want to go chasing him up and down the band. So I suggest that you keep you TX freq the same and use the RIT to follow him. That way when you transmit you will remain on the same frequency as before..... and the other station will have to find you again. There are button to press to select the RIT and XIT independently located immediately below this control.
[6] RF gain | Some times signals are so strong that you can"back off" (turn down) the RF gain control and have a much clearer listen to the signal as the Receiver is not have in work as hard amplifying all the signal thus the background noise etc is much lessened.
[7] IF Shift | Again this does not appear on all rig but is a useful control as it allows you to vary the intermediate frequency in the rig and allow you to avoid interference from nearby QSO's. Not necessarily an easy control to use but fun to play with when you know that rig.
[8] Mode select | This set whether you are on SSB USB | SSB LSB | CW | or special for this rig TUNE. Above the 3.5MHz band you use USB below that band you use LSB. The tune position is used on this rig to allow tuning up of the output valves. Doing this is out side the scope of the course but will be required knowledge should you buy a second valve rig.
[9] AF Gain | Also know as the volume control and used to set the output of the loudspeaker.
[10] S "meter" | The S "meter" is used as a guide to the signal strength. Noise that the meter has several scales but the one we are interested in at the moment is the one that is marked "S" at the left hand in in black. Note the increments 1 to 9 as units then +20 and +40. The meter is showing S9. the upper parts is also subdivided in to +10 and +30 but this is not marked on the scale. More about S reading in due course.
[11] Frequency read out | Indicate the frequency that the rig is operating on for transmit and receive assuming the RIT / XIT are not being used.
[12] Mic socket | Where you plug the mic that came with the rig or other audio source which you wish to transmit.
[13] Head phone socket | Where you plug in the head phones. The output volume is also control by the AF gain control [9]
[14] Frequency dial | Used to change frequency or QSY.

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