Record numbers to take UK Foundation exam

It's a great first step.

 

and there's no tribal angle to you comments there ...

 

Thank you

 

Many thanks for the warm welcome. Home QTH is the eastern Scottish Borders les than 10 miles from the coast. Managed to QSO with Ireland tonight on 80m with 10watts from the car, ok I was parked on top of a hill 420m above sea level but cheaper and easier than a tower in the garden. Social isolation maintained.

There is talk of the intermediate being also available for online at home, which will also be a game changer if it happens.

What a debate we have here. The exams have ALL been online for quite some time now, so no matter if you're at home or in an old hall, you sit the exam online. The only difference is at home the RSGB invigilator supervises via WebEx.

To make a point on an earlier comment, if someone finds the online exam at home too much of a hastle then they must ask if Ham Radio is really for them.

Regarding the lack of practical element that so many have been bumping gums about, if someone has passed their foundation then set up their shack without any antenna tuning or SWR setting, then there has to be doubt in their interest in the hobby. The major issue is common sense is not that common for some people thanks to the nursemaid society we now live in. My tuition was with EssexHam and all questions/queries regarding set up of the home shack were delt with very well.

My final wisdom for this issue is: Do not criticise nor condem the path you have not walked. We have already has a 3 fold increase in foundation exams in the last month than we had for the whole of 2019. Sure the chaf will fall from the wheat and the hobby will retain an excellent base of new operators to keep things fresh and exciting.

Now if you other readers can't play nice I'm going to take the ball home ;-)

 

So not too far from England then.
I was Fife. Had to ship my mother from Nottingham to be buried in Edinburgh last year, in line with her wishes. Must admit l did think of the radio l could have bought with the 10k that cost.
But it was her money & she left me a lot of it.

I don't see me ever being a GM again as l no longer have any reason to go back.

 

Ah I love riding in the Borders, and I used to play the Border Pipe and the Smallpipe, and Border tunes as well, not Highland stuff!!! Go to Berwick Johnny, Johnny Armstrong, High Road to Linton......

 

Well I have managed at the ripe young age of 47 thanks to not being able to attend clubs for training etc. CW was always what put me off the exam but, now it is not compulsory I want to learn it. I do think that some need to remember that CW is not only the original form of radio communication BUT is also the original digi-mode where you can count the dit as zero and the dah as one, just like every digital transmission made.

 

Fully understand your concerns with the 11 metre clowns but, rest assured the majority won't migrate across as they think are the 'big deal' with their opened up rigs and burners, when they make setting the SWR sound like helicopter aerodynamics it is laughable.

 

I share this belief that the "clowns" will not migrate from CB. This is because in my experience the "kids these days", as in anyone under 35 years of age, have likely not even seen a CB radio before. Those that have seen them, such as those that grew up around farmers and truckers, won't see them like older people have. They will not have the experience of the "clowns" on CB from so long ago.

Anyone bringing up CB radio "clowns" demonstrates just how long it's been since they've seen one. Likely somewhere around 35 years.

And, yes, the few "clowns" on the radio are not the kind to bother with any kind of licensing. There's plenty more bandwidth to cause trouble than what license Amateur radio operators use. If some of these "clowns" do get licensed then that is, in my mind at least, demonstrating that they chose to stop breaking rules like children and chose to play by the rules like a adults.