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Greetings. I'm Kurt Glaser for Expert Village. We're talking about ham radio, and my call
sign is N7QJM. Welcome to these 15 sessions. We'll be looking at some of the key points
on becoming a ham radio operator, how to put a station together--or, what we call a "rig,"
and other important pieces to amateur radio. First off, you have to be licensed to operate
in any country in a broadcast mode. Now, you do not have to be licensed--I'll be real clear
there--you don't have to be licensed to listen. So if you just want to listen to radio or
shortwave or amateur bands, you don't need to be licensed. Now be sure to check the country,
though, about the code test. And that's what we're talking about a little bit as well.
Because, effective in April of 2000, in our country--here in the United States--the FCC
said there are only three classes of licenses any more. The Technician class, also, the
General Class, and the third, the most important one, the highest level: The Extra Class. Some
of these--in some countries again, I want to reiterate, you'll need to check with that
bureau to see if you need to have the Morse code test, as well as the written test. So
be sure to check that throughout the world, for your own regulations in this area. Now,
in terms of online resources--because there's a lot of online resources in amateur radio
anymore--one of the ones that I use quite regularly is called HamTest. com. Especially
in preparing for any examination or test. You can take a practice exam, and you can
even look at all the questions that you'll need to respond to. Now listen, the next session
we'll be continuing in on how to actually be licensed--and until then, this is N7QJM.
73