Six years in the making, after much prodding
from fellow amateurs, the transcripts of the
weekly podcast "
Foundations of Amateur Radio"
are now available as a series of eBook
volumes on Amazon to bring together the over
300 different episodes covering topics about
our amazing hobby. Short discussions about
hundreds of different topics outlining the
thousand different hobbies that amateur radio
represents.
Starting in the wonderful hobby of Amateur or
HAM Radio can be daunting. Using low power
with little experience is challenging but can
be very rewarding. Originally published as a
weekly podcast, each volume contains a year
of edited audio podcast transcripts, each
article looks at a different aspect of the
hobby, how you as a beginner might fit in and
get the very best from the hobby.
In these pages I outline many of the amazing
attributes and activities that a beginning or
aspiring amateur can discover with the base
level license - in Australia the "Foundation"
or "F-call" license.
My aim is to inspire and encourage new
entrants into our community and to rekindle
the fire for old hams, to explore and
experience all that we have to offer without
fear of failure. I share my own journey
through this experience and explain what I’ve
learned along the way about the hobby, the
community, the science and technology.
In Volume 1 - Join the hobby - you’ll be able to follow my
initial journey through the community, what
to buy when you start, how to participate in
the community, things to practice, what the
first steps look like once you have a
license, playing in radio contests,
encouragement and sharing.
The chapter index for Volume 1 is:
- Dedication
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Australian (and other) Expressions
- Foreword
- Welcome
- Your F-call can do more than you think.
- This is step 1 of the hobby
- Be Brave
- Buying your Kit
- 7130 DX net and phonetics
- Welcome to the hobby.
- This is a community
- Real License
- What to buy and how much to spend?
- Practice makes Perfect
- Education of your community
- The nature of this hobby
- Participation is a Promise made
- Repeating History
- Contests
- Share your Hobby Around
- There is room for experimentation in this hobby.
- You have a license, now what?
- Ask around, QRP is not futile
- How did you get into Amateur Radio?
- Antennas
- Encourage F-calls
- Whom have you inspired lately?
- Same Old Story
- Setup Remote once in a While
- The spark of curiosity.
- Public Relations
- Faith and Generosity
- Being Inventive
- What have you shared lately?
- Experience
- More Power
- Tuning your transceiver 1950s style
- Tolerance
- Propagation and Solar Flux
- What do you want to do with your radio?
- Troubleshooting
- CW Pileup
- Operating Envelope Surprise
- Don’t reinvent the wheel, ask an Amateur
- QSL cards in 2 minutes
- Foundation License DXCC
- Anyone can contribute.
- Crimping and Soldering
- Go outside "your" band once in a while.
- How well do you know your radio really?
- What does Amateur Radio mean for you?
- What is the DXCC
- Thinking about handhelds for travel.
- If you plan to fail, you will.
- Single Points of Failure
- Afterword
- About the Author
Amateur radio is a thousand hobbies rolled
into one. I hope you find your way.
Search for my callsign (VK6FLAB) on your
local Amazon store or click one of the links
to have a look inside.
de Onno VK6FLAB
