Training

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Training Materials

BASIC Training Program

PDF Training files that originated with the Ontario EMO (Emergency Measures Organization) as Power Point Files. See: www.emoares.org/course/

These PDF files can be read on any machine (PC, Mac, Linux, Etc) using the free downloadable Adobe Acrobat Reader available from the Adobe web site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Lesson # 1 - Regulations and Policies

Lesson # 2 - Operating and Procedures

Lesson # 3 - Block Diagrams Definitions & Safety

Lesson # 4 - Circuit Components

Lesson # 5 - Basic Electronics & Theory

Lesson # 6 - Antennas

Lesson # 6 - Feed Lines

Lesson # 7 - Radio Wave Propagation

Lesson # 8 - Interference

Regarding the use of the following Industry Canada question banks:

I cannot lie to you and say that all questions make sense and the correct answer will just jump out at you and say “Pick Me.”. Some questions are just not well written. I can’t fault the fine folks at Industry Canada, I’m sure they were doing the best they could, but after all, there are 1,000 questions. You will need to read over the questions and familiarize yourself with the answers. Logic alone is not adequate for some of it. A great memory helps. For those who have a great memory try to understand the questions and the answers where logic is required. The math is fairly simple, some of the concepts require you to work at it. Borrow or buy an ARRL Ham Radio handbook to help you with the math and theory. Those books are very helpful.

Basic Question Bank (RIC-7) a 493 KB download

In the Basic Question Bank there are approximately 1000 questions. Out of this 100 questions will be randomly drawn by computer from several sections and sub sections of the question bank to make up a test. The length of the test is only limited by the endurance of the people writing the test and the person giving the test. There is usually time for a person to go back over his/her answers and make corrections if required. Experience has been that students going back and changing answers often change from a correct to an incorrect answer. This question bank was edited from the original available from the Industry Canada WEB site to make it easier for the students to study from.

When you take the Basic exam and get 70% to 79% you will achieve a pass that will allow you to operate on frequencies above 30 MHz.

If you achieve an 80% or higher you can also operate on HF, something particularly handy to those involved with emergency preparedness or blue water sailing.

If you achieve a 70% pass plus you pass a Morse code exam you can also work HF.

Advanced Question Bank (RIC-8) a 270 KB download

In the Advanced Question Bank there are approximately 500 questions. 50 questions will be randomly drawn by computer to make up a test. Similar to the Basic Question Bank this has been edited to make it easier for the student to read. You need a 70% pass to attain your advanced certification.

If you are working through a dial-up connection some of this material could be lengthy in downloading, something to keep in mind.

Basic Question Bank With Explanations

Basic Question Bank with Questions Grouped to Suite the RAC Basic Training Manual or the training manual put out by WARA (West Coast Amateur Radio Association). Not only are the questions grouped in a sensible way but they have explanations attached as to why certain answers are correct or other answers are wrong. It's close to being a Basic course in itself. This material was extracted from the ExHaminer basic testing files with permission of the originator, François Daigneault VE2AAY (a gentleman and a scholar).

ldsradio.ca/pdf/Basic_QB_with_explanations.pdf

ADVANCED CERTIFICATION

Yes, there is now some material on a Canadian WEB site to help you on toward getting your Advanced Certification. You can find it at: http://www.rac.ca/en/amateur-radio/beginner-info/exhaminer/

Download the "EXHAMINER" program file and then download the "Advanced QB Data File" and follow the instructions.

Beyond that there is the actual RIC-8 file from Industry Canada. It has approximately 500 questions but most questions are somewhat duplicated with slight variations. Realistically there are probable closer to around 200 questions that could be distilled out of that and ExHaminer does that rather than duplicate all 500 questions.

As a course of study I recommend working through the Advanced question bank, check off the questions you have no trouble with, and dig into the ARRL HAM Handbook or the RAC Advanced Study guide to resolve the answer. If you have access to a HAM handbook from the Radio Society of Great Britain then that would also do the job. All of those are good resources. Most large public libraries have the ARRL HAM Handbooks. A new one is put out each year with minor changes from the previous year. You can pick one up cheap from a used book shop and if it's four or five years old it's not a large problem. Another source of information is using Wicki on the WEB and Google. The trick is to know how to phrase your query string to find the right answer.

Additional Tutorial Material From: "ELECTRONICS POINT"

http://www.electronicspoint.com/electronics-tutorials-f101.html

There are some very useful bits of training on electronics on that web site. It's worth the time to have a look.

CW (Morse Code) Training

CW is still considered to be a useful means of communications. It's no longer a prerequisite for obtaining access to the HF bands. You now only require a Basic certification with 80% or more for HF.

There are other reasons to have your Morse code ability. It's the most basic way to communicate. All you need is something that will allow you to send dots and dashes and a lowly flashlight will do that. In radio all you need to send out is a carrier wave. No modulation required other than to start and stop the carrier output with a Morse code key. One other thing to remember is that you are sending out a carrier with no modulation and so your radio signal has a finitely narrow bandwidth. That means you can transmit a very long way with very little power. The low power Morse is called QRP and it has thousands of followers. Where many of us use 100 watts of power out of our single sideband radios QRP adherents use 4 watts or less.

Yaesu makes a lovely little QRP type transceiver model FT-817. It can be run from flashlight batteries. Besides Morse it can be used on most modulation formats as well. Very small and light, great for back packing. A friend has one and uses a little telescopic whip antenna called a Miracle Antenna. I think that he has enjoyed it more than any other rig simply because it's fun to take along wherever he goes. He was working at a school and during breaks he'd take his radio and antenna out and sit it on aluminum soccer net frames using the aluminum as a ground. One day he was talking on SSB to someone in Arkansas. The kids watching this were quite impressed. They learned that there was more to life than their Gameboys.

The current favourite training method of learning/teaching Morse seems to be the Kosch method. One thing to remember is to not try to learn Morse at too slow a rate. If you do then you will discover that you almost need to learn all over again when moving up to a faster rate, or so I have been told. Once you learn your letters you will advance to learning prosigns and then learn basic words. What you are doing is learning what word groups sound like. For instance - when we talk we don't sound out each individual letter, we pronounce whole words. If we did otherwise speech would be far too slow and the person listening would be bored to tears.

Don't try to go too long at a stretch. See if you can manage 15 to 20 minutes at a time or whatever is comfortable. Do something else, then come back and do some more. You may find half an hour a day to be tops or you may find you can just keep at it. We are all different. You need to determine what you can manage.

Morse Code training material

Kotsch Training Software from G4FON (free) - http://www.g4fon.net/CW%20Trainer.htm

LCWO.net - Learn CW Online (learn code online, not necessary to have software on your computer, can practice anywhere you have access to the internet from anyone's computer)

http://lcwo.net/

Ham Radio Instructor & Student Resources

http://www.hamradioinstructor.com/powerpoint.html

Commercial WEB Based Training Programs
for both Basic and Advanced Certification

HAM Study: http://www.hamstudy.com/

HAM Test On Line: http://www.hamradiolicenseexam.com/

Both of the above courses will help you to get your Basic or Advanced certification. The second web site offers courses to both Canadians and Americans and is a bit more economical than the first. Both have faccettes that are attractive. You choose after examining their information, maybe do a search on Google to see if you can find comments or reviews.

Books: Please move over to the "Recommended Reading" Page

Burnaby Radio

4257 Hastings St
BurnabyBCV5C 2J5
Phone: (604) 298-5444
Fax: (604) 298-5455
http://www.burnabyradio.com/contact_us.htm

Com-West Radio System, Ltd.
8171 Main Street
Vancouver, BC V5X3L2
604/321-3200

http://www.com-west.com/

Alfa Radio Ltd.
11539 - 160 St.
Edmonton, AB
T5M 3V9
(780) 466-5779
http://www.alfaradio.ca/

NTF Communications Inc.

Interpacific Business Park

Unit #136, 3132 26th St. NE

Calgary, AB

T1Y 6Z1

(403) 219-0555
http://www.ntfc.ca/

Radioworld

4335 Steeles Ave, W,

Toronto, ON

M3N 1V7

(416) 667-1000
http://www.radioworld.ca/

Self Testing

Industry Canada Test Generator (Basic & Advanced)

Industry Canada who provides the question banks also provides a question generator which you can download onto your computer. You can select Basic or Advanced and have it create a test for you to try your skill on. Each time you run it you’ll get a different test because it does a random selection. Once you

ExHaminer - Self Testing (Basic and Advanced testing in English and French) – RAC :

The ExHaminer is a testing program with a difference. It provides the answers to show you what you should have selected and then tells you why that answer should have been selected and sometimes why the other answers were incorrect. Very handy as a learning aid. When you download the package you do it in two parts, one is the exam generator and the other is the question bank. I recommend looking over the question bank because there is a lot of useful study material there. Enjoy!

Getting Started - RAC Information on the BASIC, ADVANCED, and Morse Code

Examinations for Basic, Advanced and Morse Code

The exams must be by an examiner certified by Industry Canada. In order to get that certification a radio amateur must have his/her Basic, Advanced, and Morse Code endorsements. Most amateur radio clubs have one or two people who are qualified examiners. For examining someone outside of their organizations a small fee of around $20 is often charged. It can take anywhere from an hour to over two hours to write a Basic exam and half that for an Advanced exam depending on the student’s ability. The RAC (Radio Amateurs Canada) web site has an Excel spread sheet listing examiners who are currently certified at: http://www.rac.ca/regulatory/examiner.htm

Examiners

There are many examiners across Canada. You can find them on the RAC web site:

http://www.rac.ca/regulatory/examiners/

Note that there is a time limitation on examiner certification so if you know of someone who was an examiner you should check with them or else the RAC web site to see if they are still able to do testing. Recertification for examineras is not difficult. Industry Canada just wants to periodically ascertain who is still capable of administrating exams and who no longer wish to bother.

Please advise me if there are any failed links. Thanks!

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