Ham radio

On the air, from the farm.

Daniel is a radio ham, and a properly knowledgeable one. He’ll help you get your licence, put up an aerial that works, track down the interference spoiling your reception, and sort two-way radios that reach the far field.

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Illustration: a timber radio shack glowing at dusk beside a Cotswold farmhouse, with a lattice mast and beam aerial, a long wire aerial running to an oak, and cows lying in the field.

How Daniel can help

From first crackle to full licence

  • Getting started

    A first chat about what amateur radio is and what you'd enjoy, from the local net on a Sunday morning to the far side of the world. What to buy and what not to. Then help through the Foundation course and exam, with practice questions and time on a real radio.

  • Aerials and the station

    Farms have the one thing every radio ham wants: room. Wire aerials between trees, a mast by the shed, feeder run neatly, everything earthed and protected against lightning, and planned to stay up through a winter gale.

  • Hunting down interference

    A buzz on the radio in time with the electric fence. Hiss on DAB since the solar panels went up. Solar inverters, cheap chargers, LED lights and fence units are the usual suspects. Daniel tracks the noise down with a portable receiver and cures it at the source.

  • Radios for the farm team

    Two-way radios that reach the far field. Licence-free PMR446 sets are fine across the yard. For more range, Ofcom's Simple UK business radio licence costs £75 for five years and allows handhelds of up to 5 watts. A base station or repeater needs a different licence; Daniel can arrange that too.

Radio help is charged like any other visit: £65 including the first hour, then £55 an hour.

Try it

Say it like a radio ham

Radio hams spell everything in the phonetic alphabet, so nothing gets lost down a crackly line. It works just as well spelling your postcode to the broadband company. Then hear it in Morse, the way it’s still sent today.

Say it

  1. MMike
  2. IIndia
  3. LLima
  4. SSierra
  5. CCharlie
  6. HHotel

Send it in Morse

Try CQ, 73 or QTH, and see what they mean.

The whole alphabet, for the wall by the phone

Alfa and Juliett are spelt that way on purpose, so they sound the same in every language.

  • AAlfadit dah
  • BBravodah dit dit dit
  • CCharliedah dit dah dit
  • DDeltadah dit dit
  • EEchodit
  • FFoxtrotdit dit dah dit
  • GGolfdah dah dit
  • HHoteldit dit dit dit
  • IIndiadit dit
  • JJuliettdit dah dah dah
  • KKilodah dit dah
  • LLimadit dah dit dit
  • MMikedah dah
  • NNovemberdah dit
  • OOscardah dah dah
  • PPapadit dah dah dit
  • QQuebecdah dah dit dah
  • RRomeodit dah dit
  • SSierradit dit dit
  • TTangodah
  • UUniformdit dit dah
  • VVictordit dit dit dah
  • WWhiskeydit dah dah
  • XX-raydah dit dit dah
  • YYankeedah dit dah dah
  • ZZuludah dah dit dit
  • 0Zerodah dah dah dah dah
  • 1Onedit dah dah dah dah
  • 2Twodit dit dah dah dah
  • 3Threedit dit dit dah dah
  • 4Fourdit dit dit dit dah
  • 5Fivedit dit dit dit dit
  • 6Sixdah dit dit dit dit
  • 7Sevendah dah dit dit dit
  • 8Eightdah dah dah dit dit
  • 9Ninedah dah dah dah dit

Getting licensed

Three steps, and you can stop at any of them

You need a licence to transmit, not to listen. In the UK there are three, each a step up in power and in what you can do.

  1. Step 1

    Foundation

    25 Won most bands

    The starting point: the basics, safety and how to operate, then 26 multiple-choice questions in an hour, sat online at home with a remote invigilator. You're on the air on most bands, and allowed to build your own kit.

    Exam £35.50

  2. Step 2

    Intermediate

    100 Won most bands

    More of the theory: how radios, aerials and feeders really work. Up to 100 watts on most bands, which is plenty to talk round the world.

    Exam £39

  3. Step 3

    Full

    1 kWwhere the band allows

    The lot. Every amateur band and mode, and up to 1,000 watts on the bands where amateur radio is the main user.

    Exam £45

The licence itself is free from Ofcom, and lasts for life. You just confirm your details online at least every five years. Exam fees are the RSGB’s, which runs the exams: check them when you book.

Ofcom on amateur radio

Why the countryside

A farm is the best place for a radio

  • Room for aerials

    The best aerials for the long-distance bands are long: a simple wire for 40 metres is about 20 metres end to end. In a town garden that's a struggle. On a farm it's between two trees.

  • Quiet airwaves

    Every phone charger, LED driver and power supply adds electrical noise, and towns are thick with it. A farm a mile from the village can hear signals a town never will.

  • Height

    VHF and UHF go further from high ground. A handheld on a Cotswold edge or a Wiltshire down carries for miles.

And when the power goes off and the mobile masts go quiet, a radio still works. A farm with a licensed ham, a charged handheld and a friendly voice on the local RepeaterA radio on a hilltop or a tall building that picks up handhelds and sends them on, far further than they'd reach alone.More on this is never quite cut off.

On the bands right nowLive

Checking the sun…

A rule of thumb from the solar flux and the K index, from the US space weather service (NOAA). A busier sun opens the higher bands; a geomagnetic storm scrambles them.

The long-distance HFshort waveThe long-distance radio bands. The signal bounces off the upper atmosphere and comes down hundreds or thousands of miles away.More on this bands bounce off the upper atmosphere, which the sun charges up and storms knock about. The local VHF and UHFThe local radio bands, used by handhelds, repeaters and farm two-way radios. They travel in straight lines, so height matters more than power.More on this bands don’t mind either way.

Daniel on the air

73 de Daniel

Radio is the thing Daniel does for fun, and he knows it inside out: why a band’s open today, how to build the aerial to use it, and how to explain it all over a cup of tea. It’s the same patience he brings to a farm office, pointed at the sky.

Every radio ham has a CallsignA radio amateur's own name on the air, issued with the licence. Like a number plate for your voice.More on this, and swaps postcards called QSL cards to confirm a contact. Here’s his card.

QSL card

Milsch radio

Operator
Daniel Bedwell
QTH
North Wiltshire

Tnx QSO · Pse QSL · 73

Find your people

Clubs, and the people who help in emergencies

Questions

Ham radio: questions

Do I need a licence to listen?

No. Anyone can listen to radio amateurs, and plenty of people start that way. A licence is only needed to transmit.

Is it ham radio or amateur radio?

The same thing. “Amateur” means unpaid, not unskilled: radio amateurs have been behind a fair bit of radio history, and still help out in emergencies.

How long does it take to get licensed?

Many people do the Foundation course over a few weeks of evenings or a couple of weekends, then sit the exam online at home. The licence itself is free from Ofcom.

Can I put up a mast?

Often, but it depends on the size, where it goes, and whether you’re in a conservation area or the Cotswolds National Landscape. A simple wire aerial is far less likely to need planning permission than a tall mast. Daniel will tell you what to ask the council.

Will it upset the neighbours' TV?

Not if it’s set up properly. A good aerial in the right place, filters where they’re needed and sensible power keep a station well-mannered, and Daniel checks for it.

What does it cost to get going?

Less than people think. The Foundation exam is £35.50, the licence is free, and a basic handheld for the local repeaters costs less than a tank of diesel.

Jargon, translatedWill a beam reach the barn?

Fancy a natter about radio?

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