The other day I was asked a question on social media. Having answered this question several times before, I admittedly … initially … groaned, then provided the bare bones of a response. A little while later, I recalled that I had provided a detailed response to this same question, as it turns out, five years earlier on a different social media platform, so I added another response that included the link to that answer. It all still felt very incomplete and inadequate and I couldn’t leave it alone.
Which leads me to the anxiety generating question and my response to it.
Here goes: “[h]ow do you get into amateur radio? Is there like a 101 guide you could link me?”
This is a question I’ve been answering for quite some time. Searching for the word “start” across the titles of my podcasts, there’s 17 articles on the topic.
So, having searched previously and fruitlessly for something resembling a universal answer, this to disclaim that I didn’t look again and perhaps someone else has done something about it, I started a new project, because of course I did. I named it: “Getting Started in Amateur Radio” and published it on my GitHub repository.
The intent of the project is to give the visitor a gentle introduction to the hobby, provide some idea of why you need a license, how it’s different from things like the Citizen’s Band, how you’ll be starting on a life-long journey and introducing the concept that each country is slightly different. Think of it as an onramp into the hobby and our community.
To deal with those, essentially legal differences between countries, I also consulted the International Telecommunications Union, the ITU, and created a folder structure of Regions and within it a folder for each country that the ITU as a United Nations specialised agency recognises. Before you ask, Yes, I’m aware that the UN doesn’t recognise some countries that you might. I don’t know how the International Amateur Radio Union, the IARU, our global representative body deals with that. If you know, get in touch.
Since I’m based in Australia, I started with populating the information there. It contains some information about the regulator, representative bodies, callsigns, links to more information and hopefully initial information sufficient to “find” the community. It’s still a work in progress, but it gives a good idea of the intent.
Now comes the hard part. You.
My log processing tool, “awstats”, tells me that there are 209 different countries in my logs that represent you listening, reading and sharing my articles. So, I daresay that between all of us there is enough to cover pretty much all of the globe and with it, personal knowledge on how to become an amateur in your country.
So, as one amateur to another, let’s get on-air and make some noise! Let’s try and document what’s needed to become an amateur in your country. Please supply issue tickets, patches, emails, whatever you like, to get the information pertinent to your experience into one central place, so next time someone asks any of us: “How do you get into amateur radio?”, there’s a place we can share, that you contributed to and that contains the information pertinent to anyone who’d like to play.
Look forward to hearing from you.
I’m Onno VK6FLAB