How To Get An Amateur Radio Licence

Amateur radio licences are issued by OFCOM but the examinations to obtain the licence are prepared by the Radio Society of Great Britain and taken at approved centres. The Lough Erne ARC is an approved location at the SHARE centre near Lisnaskea. There are three levels of licence – Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced. A candidate must pass each level before progressing to the next. The examinations are multiple choice and candidates must obtain at least 60% to pass.

While holders of all three classes of licences may operate on all approved amateur bands Foundation licence holders can only operate with 10 watts of power, Intermediate licensees with 50 watts and full licensees with up to 400 watts which is the maximum power permitted in the UK. Only the Advanced licence is internationally recognised and permits the holder to operate in other reciprocal countries. It is known as a CEPT licence.

Courses for the different levels of examination are offered by radio clubs and the Lough Erne club occasionally offers courses for both the Foundation and Intermediate licences. Many club members obtained their licences through courses offered by the club and we have had a 100% pass rate of those taking the examinations in the past two years.

For further information on the examination please contact the club via this website. You may also like to attend one of our meetings. You can find details of dates and times also on this website in the Calendar section.

Useful Information on the Web

Some sites which members have found useful in preparing for the examination are:

http://rsgb.org/ The site of the Radio Society of Great Britain. Here you can find sample examinations and purchase manuals for the three courses

http://www.brats-qth.org/training/indexx.htm The Bredhurst Receiving and Transmitting Society has online training courses for all three levels of the examination

http://herc-hastings.org.uk/bbadl-bath-based-distance-learning-course/ The Bath Distance Learning Course is a training course for the Advanced licence