Amateur radio/United Kingdom

Callsigns

Regional secondary locators

A regional secondary locator forms part of a UK callsign and identifies which region the amateur radio station is being operated from. The regional secondary locator for England, the letter "E", is only used for callsigns beginning with the number "2".

Licenses

An examination for each license is required and they must be taken in the following order:

• Foundation
• Intermediate
• Full

Assessment

There is no obligation to attend a formal training course for the advanced Full license. Unlike the Foundation and Intermediate licenses, there are no practical assessments. The exam takes the same form as that for the other licenses, being a multiple choice paper. There are 62 multiple choice questions. Candidates are provided with a sheet of the formulas. (see below)

Sitting for the exam

Examinations can only be held on set dates every two months. Examinations are organised by amateur radio clubs and held at exam centres across the country, whether an exam will be held at a particular exam centre will be subject to demand.

Formulas

$R_{T}=R_{1}+R_{2}+R_{3}$	${\frac {1}{R_{T}}}={\frac {1}{R_{1}}}+{\frac {1}{R_{2}}}+{\frac {1}{R_{3}}}$	$V=IR$
$V_{out}=V_{in}{\frac {R_{2}}{R_{1}+R_{2}}}$	$P=VI={\frac {V^{2}}{R}}=I^{2}R$	$V_{rms}={\frac {V_{peak}}{\sqrt {2}}}$
${\frac {1}{C_{T}}}={\frac {1}{C_{1}}}+{\frac {1}{C_{2}}}+{\frac {1}{C_{3}}}$	$C_{T}=C_{1}+C_{2}+C_{3}$
$L_{T}=L_{1}+L_{2}+L_{3}$	${\frac {1}{L_{T}}}={\frac {1}{L_{1}}}+{\frac {1}{L_{2}}}$
$Z={\sqrt {R^{2}+X^{2}}}$	$V_{T}={\sqrt {{V_{R}}^{2}+{V_{C}}^{2}}}\;\;(or\;{V_{L}}^{2})$
$f={\frac {1}{2\pi {\sqrt {LC}}}}$	$T={\frac {1}{f}}$
$Q={\frac {2\pi fL}{R}}$ or ${\frac {1}{2\pi fCR}}$	$Q={\frac {f_{C}}{f_{U}-F_{L}}}={\frac {centre\,frequency}{bandwidth}}$
$Q=2\pi fCR_{D}$	$I_{P}=I_{S}{\frac {N_{s}}{N_{p}}}$
$V_{S}=V_{P}{\frac {N_{s}}{N_{p}}}$	$f_{step}={\frac {f_{crystal}}{A}}$
$I_{C}=\beta I_{B}$	$Gain\,(loss)=10\log _{10}{\frac {power\,out}{power\,in}}\;dB$
$c=3\times 10^{8}\;m/s$	$Gain\,(loss)=20\log _{10}{\frac {voltage\,out}{voltage\,in}}\;dB$
$v=f\lambda$	$Return\,Loss=10\log _{10}{\frac {Reflected\,power}{Incident\,power}}$
$E={\frac {7{\sqrt {erp}}}{d}}$	$Gain=10\log _{10}{\frac {power\,from\,Yagi}{power\,from\,dipole}}\;dBd$
$erp=power\times gain\;(linear)$

External links

• Foundation Syllabus
• Full Syllabus
• Advanced Radio Amateur Examination dates