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Material regarding qualifications, passing grades, call signs.
Amateur radio students in Bristish Columbia will need to create a VA7xxx or a VE7xxx call sign, the xxx representing the letters you wish to attach. For those in other provinces you will need to use a prefix suitable for your province or territory.
Note: After doing the exam you will be asked to fill in a form applying for your certification. On it you will be required to provide three call signs in order of preference. Out of that Industry Canada will select the first one which is available. Industry Canada also exercises the right to refuse call sign applications which they deem to be lewd, rude, or otherwise insulting.
Canadian call sign prefixes in provinces and territories:
CY0 - Sable Island
CY9 - St-Paul Island
VA1 and VE1 - Nova Scotia
VA2 and Ve2 - Quebec
VA3 and VE3 - Ontario
VA4 and VE4 - Manitoba
VA5 and VE5 - Saskatchewan
VA6 and VE6 - Alberta
VA7 and VE7 - British Columbia
VO1 - Newfoundland
V02 - Labrador
VY0 - Nunavut
VY1 - Yukon
VY2 - Prince Edward Island
VY9 - Government of Canada
Finding out what is available is quite easy. The RAC (Radio Amateurs Canada) web site has a section containing a data base of all Canadian amateur radio operator call signs. You can find it at:
http://www.rac.ca/callbook/
or you can look it up on
http://apc-cap.ic.gc.ca/pls/apc_anon/query_avail_cs$.startup
which is the new Industry Canada web site to help you to find unused call signs.
Make up a call sign and enter it. If its in use it should come up with the name of the person it has already been assigned to. Some try their initials, some use letters of the hobby they may be interested in such as one fine lady in my ward who selected VE7XST. That was not the mysterious Madam X, nope, it referred to "cross stitch", one of her hobbies. Pretty good choice I'd say.
Please please do your own footwork and look up your own call letters, write them down, and bring them with you the last day of the course. That will save us a ton of time when filling out forms and getting them ready to FAX to Ottawa.
Also - do fill in the forms neatly so that they are legible and dark enough that the FAX machine won't have trouble with them. We get a lot of forms that look like they were written by chimps in their formative years. Preferably use a pen with black ink or if using pencil press firmly.
Bring your own pens and pencils. Pencils work well for the tests. If you bring a pencil with an eraser be sure that it's a fresh one. Old erasers tend to smear if you need to make changes.
Be totally aware that the exam "is not" an open book exam. All books and study materials need to be locked away. You can have scrap paper to do calculations but must bleave the scrap paper behind at the end of the exam. You can not bring pocket computers or memory calculators able to store formula. You are allowed to use basic scientific calculators. Once the exam has started there is to be no talking between students. If a problem is encountered then put up your hand and get the attention of an examiner or one of his/her assistants.
Pre Reading Material
I have been asked if there is anything that would be helpful to pre-read before taking these courses. The answer to that is yes and you can find that material on this web site.
Start by going over the Pre-Training Reading Material:
These are what my friend Neal calls THE ABC's. Just click on the "Pre Read" link to download the zipped file containing the information which you can then print out.
Pre Read
Read it over half a dozen times to help familiarize yourself with the terminology. Once you've done that you will start to feel a bit less worried about whether you can do the course. The terms used will start to make some sense. During training many of your own questions will be answered. Many of the terms and concepts that are still a puzzle will be made clear. In addition to the downloadable ABC files that are zipped there are four files on on line on this web site that may be helpful. Those are found on the Home Page and listed as "Basic A," through Basic D."
These are links to those pages:
Basic A Basic B Basic C Basic D
"Basic D" is an additional file containing some helps on understanding question logic. Many of the questions can be solved with deductive reasoning and or eliminating answers that couldn't possibly fit. As students ask me questions and I help resolve them more material will be added to "Basic D."
For more in depth study by going to the "Training" page. Scroll down that page and click on "Basic Question Bank With Explanations." Read through that. It is the question bank questions with answers and reasons why the selected answers are the correct ones. The Basic question bank has 4 answers per question and only one of the answers answers is correct.
Next you may want to go to the "Training" page and work your way through the "lessons #1 to #8 " near the top of the page. These are Adobe Acrobat PDF files and were derived from the OME (Ontario Emergency Measures Organization) . If you click on www.emoares.org/course/ you can go right to the OME web site and then click on the lessons in their modules 1 through 3 which are Power Point presentations with some additional detail. In that case you can also read notes associated with each Power Point Page something not available on a PDF.
Helpful Training Literature:
ARRL Hanbook, new or used. New around $50 to $56 at Amazon, Radio World, Chapters. Under $10 at used book shops. Its the theory you need to get help with and that changes little over a few years so a used book is just fine.
Post Training
Please take some time to study the RIC's (Radio Information Circulars) found on the Industry Canada WEB site. These are the rules and regulations we are expected to live by as radio amateurs.
RIC-3 - Information on the amateur radio service
RBR-3: Technical Requirements Respecting Identification of Radio Stations (formerly RIC-4)
RBR-4, Standards for the Operation of Radio Stations in the Amateur Radio Service (formerly RIC-2)
After you have taken the certification course you have only just started. There will be (should be) additional mini courses that will provide additional training, especially hands-on experience -
- Communication Protocol
- How to program radios - VFO Mode, Memory Mode
- Types of antennas and how to make some of them (VHF, UHF, HF)
- How to install radios and antennas in vehicles
- How to install connectors on coax
- How to test equipment, coax, and antennas
Communication Protocol Practice
(1) Have your group practice radio communications procedures around some tables where you can pass around a pair of micophones or an pair of FMS or GMRS radios. The radios need not be turned on because you just want to start out with a simulation. At this point the members of the group should already have their call signs so when practising they will be able to use them as a part of the training.
In the following examples just fill in the "xxx" part of the call sign with the appropriate letters.
Typical call via VHF or UHF hand held
VE7xxx (called station) this is VE7xxx (calling station) portable
Typical call via VHF or UHF mobile
VE7xxx (called station) this is VE7xxx (calling station) mobile
Note that you call the station first and then tell that station who is calling and then if you are away from home in a vehicle or walking you can identify that. The purpose is merley to let the other station know a couple of things. One is that your signal levels may vary unexpectadly while moving, the other is that you must be allowed time to park in a safe place before going into any extensive chat.
If you do go into extended rag chews (long chats) remember that you have to re-identify yourself by giving your call sign out in not more than 30 minute intervals (10 minutes in the US).
When you come to the end of a chat and want to come to a close each person in the chat must sign off with his/her call sign. It is customery for most of us to say "73" as a part of that. It comes from the hay-day of Morse code and means "all the best" or something fairly positive like that. An example would be:
73 Bob, VE7xxx GOING CLEAR (meaning that the station is shutting down after the conversation or MONITORING, meaning that the station is still on the air and ready to take another call)
If a person wishes to interrupt a conversation and add or correct something that has been said or if that person just wants to be included in a round table and let the others know he is there he/she would wait for a break in conversation and then say "CONTACT" or "BREAK". If one of the others already in conversation has heard that they would say "GO AHEAD THE CONTACT." That person would then give his/her call sign and the information that they wished to interject with.
(2) Have the group practice as a net and each person be given a turn as NET CONTROL. A net prologue is in the process of being created for the Mercury BC UHF Sunday night (19:00) net. The same can be used for student practice.
For students wanting to study for the Basic or the Advanced I highly recommend that you go to the "exhaminer" web page on the RAC WEB site:
http://www.rac.ca/en/amateur-radio/beginner-info/exhaminer/
Each question is from the Industry Canada WEB site and each correct answer has an explanation of why it is the correct one. So, this is more than a self examination, it is also an education.
Examiners
There are many examiners across Canada. You can find them on the RAC web site:
http://www.rac.ca/regulatory/examiners/
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