# AMATEUR RADIO

# Obtaining a Licence

## [ How to obtain a licence ] #### Obviously it must involve some sort of qualifications before one can be let loose with such a heavy responsibility, and such wide ranging freedom. The qualifications take the form of a Radio Amateur Examination (RAE or the slightly easier Intermediate Exam NRAE). Either of which can be tackled with just a little time spent in study. The qualifications are also held in high esteem by some employers. Having passed the exam, and obtained a license, the whole world becomes much smaller. The first thing to do, would be to track down a suitable hopefully local NRAE/RAE course. Both the course, and the exam can be found at some technical colleges as well as some of the local amateur radio clubs. The very best local advice on courses and exams, can be found by contacting you nearest local contact on the page on this site set up for the purpose. Technical colleges tend not to run the courses unless there are a viable number of candidates. It is often helpful to both you doing the course, and those offering the courses, if you can manage to persuade a group of friends to tackle it together. Those already possessing some form of technical background often find the course and exam very easy, but those with no technical background whatsoever are not excluded. It simply means they will have to put just that bit more effort into studying the course material. The exams are at City and Guild level. The question papers are set out in the form of a question (around 80 in total), followed by four possible answers (a,b,c,d), only one of which is the correct answer. A separate sheet is provided for your answers with four boxes for each question, and you simply tick the appropriate box. The actual pass mark can vary for each exam somewhere between 50% to 75%. So it is best to ensure you aim for the higher figure during mock exams, to be confident of a pass. A failure could mean a long wait to re take the next exam. Doing as many mock exam papers as possible, both gets you used to the exam system, and can help show up the limitations in your knowledge where you perhaps need to put in more time. A pass, means you can then fill in and send off the appropriate form, for a license. For those under 21, or over 85, this is free, but for the rest of us it costs £15 per year. It is now possible to select your own call sign from the pool of yet to be issued ones, or you can simply accept what is issued to you. ###

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