UK Amateur Radio Foundation Exam Experience 

Me and the dog Vs Storm Babet, the storm won 🤪🤪Just building a couple Antennas to get on the air. Yes, too late to start learning a skill when you absolutely need it but I do have a little background experience 😆😆 Can't possibly fit everything in. Very best wishes to you and yours also

Lol…. Background! You could teach the teacher 👌🏽👍🏻😎….. take care in the fowl weather mate. Best wishes to you and yours 👍🏻👍🏻😎

Not exactly new to radios as I used to be in the Royal Signals some lifetimes ago, also worked for a short time as radio operator on a North Sea Oil Rig so not exactly new to it but not operated for many years now, except using CB and PMR while camping and generally messing about. Best wishes.

You can over study 🙂 Just sign up for the Essex ham course and book the exam before you finish as it takes about 10 days before you will get a slot. Do your studying and a few mock exams and if you keep passing a mock you will pass the actual exam. Steady away and don't worry about it. I am just making a couple of antennas at the moment and then I will be on the air VHF and UHF before I think about HF. All the best

Can you study online with Essex ham using cellphone

@@ciaranmcmanus3840 Well you certainly can't take the exam on a cell phone and I would suggest that although the internet is accessable via a cell phone you really need the screen area to view the content properly. So I would say, try and borrow a laptop running windows operating system (Or Mac is also supported). If you can't borrow one then maybe your local Amateur Radio Club or even the local Libry can help.

That will be good, at present I am only on VHF and UHF but will be on HF in the near future, possibly with a Xieug G90 or Xieug X6100

Many thanks, I have been meaning to do it for a while, you can even do the Intermediate and full online now. I might be ready for the Intermediate around January but we will see, plenty to experiment with before then. I need to put up a simple antenna for 2 meters yet and see what the repeater situation is from my location. Atb

Well for me it gave great structure to the learning process and made me think the exam was fairly easy, which means, the training was comprehensive and well laid out and above else always accessable so you could go over anything as many times as you like, and if necessary ask questions. You have to remember that of all the questions you could be asked you only get 26 multiple choice in the 60 minutes time limit, so there is a lot of learning for not so many questions.

I too was a bit dissapointed in the questions I was not asked, I guess all is not wasted though, as I start looking at the Intermediate, that looks hard 😑😑

I suspect not but am not at all sure. I think the TestReach program makes sure you can not run other programs in the background (besides the Webex program) and potentially cheat, which is probably why they will not support linux, a far more capable operating system. Once you enter the TestReach program it essentailly locks your computer down until you come out of it which I think is quite reasonable to allow an online exam to take place with a high degree of fairness. Once you progress to the intermediate or full exam it is necessary to have two computers running so you can be observed to an even higher degree. I am no expert but I hope this helps.

Webex runs on Linux using java (or it used to do). The other software will need windows. I would not risk the exam using WINE. Running Windows on a VM should be fine.

What studying did you do beforehand. I followed Essex ham and their content covers everything likely to be in the exam

I partly agree with you, but it's bringing new people in. Very few people build anything, not even simple stuff like SWR meters. I have great respect for those amateurs who built the G2DAF rx and tx. I did the old C&G exam in 1974 where answers had to be written, not answers given in multiple choice like now. Last year I found the paper I did by going online. How did I pass? I love building stuff since before being licenced making 3, 4 and 5 valve receivers and started aged 14 with a H.A.C. one valve kit that got me interested. My best project has been my 4 Watt ssb/cw tcvr now adding 60m so putting it into a larger cabinet and proper h.f. 6 Watt mosfet's for better efficiency at the higher frequencies. I'll run them at 5 Watts. Maybe try adding 70 MHz and possibly 144 MHz. 472 kHz and 136 kHz, who knows? But everything QRP. Lots of stuff made here, resistive type SWR meter, one valve xtal c.w. tx on 7.030 and 5.262 MHz and power supply, 1944 Wireless 19 Set got working, Racal RA17L to repair. I built a Pixie on 5.262 MHz, and a T.W. TopBander repaired. H.f. dipoles and inverted vee and 2 element collinear all h/b. Years ago I made a frequency counter from a kit using Ferranti i.c.'s. I did buy an FT817ND for portable as it's small to get on a motorbike. I remember showing a Pye Bantam which I had converted to 4m to amateurs in the pub and had to repair it first. One amateur who I know had passed the exam with distinction said he wouldn't know where to start. Who on paper would an electronics employer take on? Learning parrot fashion to memory doesn't mean people understand a subject. 73, Bill, G4GHB.