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:

1. Dedication
2. Preface
3. Acknowledgements
4. Australian (and other) Expressions
5. Foreword
6. Welcome
7. Your F-call can do more than you think.
8. This is step 1 of the hobby
9. Be Brave
10. Buying your Kit
11. 7130 DX net and phonetics
12. Welcome to the hobby.
13. This is a community
14. Real License
15. What to buy and how much to spend?
16. Practice makes Perfect
17. Education of your community
18. The nature of this hobby
19. Participation is a Promise made
20. Repeating History
21. Contests
22. Share your Hobby Around
23. There is room for experimentation in this hobby.
24. You have a license, now what?
25. Ask around, QRP is not futile
26. How did you get into Amateur Radio?
27. Antennas
28. Encourage F-calls
29. Whom have you inspired lately?
30. Same Old Story
31. Setup Remote once in a While
32. The spark of curiosity.
33. Public Relations
34. Faith and Generosity
35. Being Inventive
36. What have you shared lately?
37. Experience
38. More Power
39. Tuning your transceiver 1950s style
40. Tolerance
41. Propagation and Solar Flux
42. What do you want to do with your radio?
43. Troubleshooting
44. CW Pileup
45. Operating Envelope Surprise
46. Don’t reinvent the wheel, ask an Amateur
47. QSL cards in 2 minutes
48. Foundation License DXCC
49. Anyone can contribute.
50. Crimping and Soldering
51. Go outside "your" band once in a while.
52. How well do you know your radio really?
53. What does Amateur Radio mean for you?
54. What is the DXCC
55. Thinking about handhelds for travel.
56. If you plan to fail, you will.
57. Single Points of Failure
58. Afterword
59. 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.

• Volume 1
• Volume 2
• Volume 3
• Volume 4
• Volume 5
• Volume 6

de Onno VK6FLAB