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Record numbers to take UK Foundation exam

Discussion in 'Amateur Radio News' started by G4TUT/SK2022, May 20, 2020.

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  1. KA0USE

    KA0USE Ham Member QRZ Page


    WELCOME TO AMATEUR RADIO!!
     
    MM0JNL and 2E0OZI like this.
  2. KA0USE

    KA0USE Ham Member QRZ Page

    WELCOME TO AMATEUR RADIO!!
     
    MM0JNL and 4X1ST like this.
  3. KF0G

    KF0G Ham Member QRZ Page

    Mensa.org might be your cup of tea
    ..
     
    N6ATF and G7NFP like this.
  4. G7NFP

    G7NFP Ham Member QRZ Page

    That made me give some thought to how many exams l have failed in my adult life. And that's a lot of exams across my career & personal life.

    I have never before gave that a second thought & l will be 63 very soon.
    The answer is........"none"

    Not one single fail....wow. l must tell the wife.

    But Mensa? I don't even come close.
    I just made sure that l done as much study as possible before l sat the exams. I remember occasions where l was up all night preparing for exams the next day.
    Perhaps l scraped through some exams by a few %. I will never know as l was never told.

    I waited weeks on the ham results thinking l would fail because l completed both exams in under half the allocated time.
    But they simply sent the certificates. I was disappointed that they never gave me the % l had passed by.

    The Mensa kids flip through a book & remember & understand every page.

    I have also worked in the psychiaric field. And the guys that worried me were the psychopaths, as l knew they were much smarter than me.
     
    N6ATF and KF0G like this.
  5. 2E0OZI

    2E0OZI Ham Member QRZ Page

    Seems like good news to me, I am a product of the Foundation License back in 2010 and think its an excellent introduction to ham radio. I found the practical component easy - I think we all did - but then we had attended 8 training sessions teaching the Foundation syllabus, plus practical stuff at the club station (In a pub at the time!). Good old PARC.
     
    MM0JNL, G7NFP and (deleted member) like this.
  6. KF0G

    KF0G Ham Member QRZ Page

    there was a guy named Joe Frank, now a silent microphone, who did radio drama.
    most of it was a bit on the edge.
    he had one show called "just get me out of here" that described some crazy people as being better at life due
    to the fact that they were not constrained to do the ordinary things that ordinary people do.
    he described insanity as "a cathedral of light".
    there is a weird part in the middle that kind of goes off on tangent and isn't very good,
    but if you make it through that, the last part with the lady speaking in German is very cool.

    seven three
     
    G7NFP likes this.
  7. W1YW

    W1YW Ham Member QRZ Page

    The ham population of the UK has just doubled ;-)!
     
    MM0JNL likes this.
  8. 2E0NYH

    2E0NYH Ham Member QRZ Page

    Well if your username is a UK amateur callsign that shows you to be a recently licenced Foundation licence holder...

    There;s a risk that if you rely solely on the type + age of callsign someone holds you fail to take account of other experience they have with radio / electronics

    you do realise the old RAE had no practical assessments and could be sat without having to be part of a club don't you.

    the damage that someone who can;t use an SWR meter will cause is to their own kit ...
     
  9. 2E0NYH

    2E0NYH Ham Member QRZ Page

    A very good and pertinent set of points you make there Matt
     
  10. 2E0NYH

    2E0NYH Ham Member QRZ Page

    Congrats

    the online training and online assessments provide an opportunity for those who are due to circumstances unable to commit to the great English institution of the Society /Club <note sarcasm> to get licenced

    the risk of course is the naegative attitudes of the pale,. male and stale will miss the opportunities and drive folks away
     
  11. G7NFP

    G7NFP Ham Member QRZ Page

    Online, in exam room. It matters not as it's the same exam.

    A guy just told me on another forum that he intends to go to a centre to take the exam as the online exam is too much hassle.

    I agree with him. It's ideal for those who for various reasons cannot attend in person.
    But if l needed to sit "any" exam, l would prefer to go in person.

    But the ham qualifications these days are only useful if you want to be a ham.

    When l sat the RAE 30yrs ago, the 2nd exam was a City & Guilds in electronic theory.
    Now that is a professional qualification which allowed me to change career & work in the electronics industry.
    So passing that ham exam earned me many thousands. Although that wasn't the plan when l sat it.
     
    G3SEA and MW1CFN like this.
  12. G7NFP

    G7NFP Ham Member QRZ Page

    Congrats on the pass George.

    I wondered where you were located as l was a GM before l moved to Nottingham.

    Your next challenge will be the next one so you can turn up the power.
    Then when conditions are right we will hear you down here, as well as the rest of the world.

    Must admit though. I have never used more than 100w in the last 20yrs.

    I recall many years ago l was up a hill mobile in Scotland & the skip was ideal. Was in QSO with Norway station & kept turning down the power to see how low l could go & still be heard. Got it down to 1w. He could still hear me but needed 2w to be understood.
     
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  13. MW1CFN

    MW1CFN Ham Member QRZ Page

    Possibly. But then, every time I need to know how to do something with electronics (i.e. often!), I look at a few Youtube videos, and I'm ready to go. I don't think not having someone sitting next to you is necessary in most cases.
     
    G7NFP and N6ATF like this.
  14. MW1CFN

    MW1CFN Ham Member QRZ Page

    My situation was the same. Where I disagree with you is that I wanted to be a ham, but found myself sitting a full C&G electronics theory exam with a radio bias. That isn't what I wanted, I rarely found it useful in my ham activities, and it was a hell of a lot of learning about building radios that was, as much as we like to reminisce, a leftover from a long-dead era.

    Oh, and having become qualifed to C&G standard, the old timers made sure I and other 'Class B' (non-CW) holders were kept off HF, even though they themselves were often blabbing away about their hernias and valves on SSB, not CW. I have never heard any rational justification for this ban, but the committees stuck to it like glue.

    So, yes, we need exams to be a ham, not an electronics engineer. We also need to stop those, with a tendency to think about the past, dominating the hobby.
     
    MM0JNL, 2E0RLR, 2E0NYH and 3 others like this.
  15. G7NFP

    G7NFP Ham Member QRZ Page

    Yes l was in the same boat as yourself. We both passed the same exam as every other ham, but they kept us off HF unless we done the Morse.

    I certainly didn't need that C&G in electronics to operate a radio. So l was happy to discover that l could use it to enter employment in electronics.

    Do l think that the hams of this generation should be made to sit the same exams as we did?.... NO.
    We were made to study in much more depth than was needed. Those exams assumed that every ham would want to build his/her own radio. The reality is very few hams built their radios from scratch.

    I have seen the questions in the present exams. Yes they are much easier than the exams that were thrust upon us.
    But l think they are adequate & wouldn't think any less of a ham who sat the exam today as most who sit those exams will already have studied to a higher level than required to pass.
    I do not doubt that there are a few Foundation licence holders more knowledgeable than l.
     
    MM0JNL and MW1CFN like this.

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