What is Amateur Radio?
Amateur Radio, also affectionally known as “Ham Radio”, is
a hobby of constructing, experimenting, and communicating
with radio equipment.
In New Zealand, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and
Employment (Radio Spectrum Management) issues
licenses to Radio Hams. Once licensed, an amateur can operate radio
equipment from home, from their vehicles or from anywhere
in New Zealand. Several radio frequencies have been set
aside for Amateur Radio. Using these frequencies any
amateur radio operator can talk across town or around
the world.
The scope and possibilities are endless – from talking
across town to your local repeater, to operating in
international contests or talking through Amateur
Radio satellites.
Who can be Hams?
Anyone can become a Ham, there is no age limit or any other
barrier to becoming a Ham. Some famous Musicians, Actors,
Kings and Prime Ministers are Hams, but most are people from
all walks of life who like communicating and experimenting with
radio
and electronics. Young people find Amateur Radio a great training
ground, older people find “Ham Radio” an absorbing retirement hobby.
Amateur Radio is more than a hobby, it is also a service. Hams
willingly contribute their time, equipment, and
operating skills whenever the need arises, especially during Civil
Defence emergencies as well as search and rescue operations. The
Amateur Radio Emergency Communications (AREC) are a subgroup of NZART
that assists emergency communications for the Emergency Services.
How do I become a Ham?
Passing a Ham license is a lot easier than it used to be back in the
days when I became licenced.
To obtain an Amateur Radio license, you need to correctly answer at
least forty out of sixty questions from a multiple-choice question
paper. The questions cover radio theory and regulations.
A good way to start is to download the study guides from the link
below.
NZART Study Guides
There are two exam study books you can download, one with the answers
and the other without.
It is best when studying, to use the teachers edition. The teachers
edition has the correct answers, so knowing the correct answer, you
can learn it to guide you and not be mis-lead by the incorrect
answers.
There are explainations on each topic before the questions are given.
If you wanted to know more infomation, on that question you can try
to search it yourself or make notes if you don't understand any topic
and ask at your local club for more help.
Knowing the answer to the question, try to reverse engineer it, to
see how they get to that answer, and if you can work it out to obtain
the same answer with the info given. Simply skip it if you need more
help on a topic.
Everyone who takes these courses are often suprised and have a wide
range of knowledge already, possibly that just needs to be accessed
again, or even from not having any to very little knowledge, but by
reading these course notes, it can be done. Give it a go, make notes
on questions you are un-sure of and don't be afraid to ask.
When you think you are ready, swop over books to the non answers and
quiz yourself, using your partner or note down your answer to check
it when you are done.
If you think you are ready, take the online exam and see on how well
you do.
The Same applies to the question banks, see the answers first and
when you think you are ready take the online exam and you will see
how well you do afterwards.
You can also download the public domain question generator on the
link below.
NZART Question Generator.
Online NZART Exam Trainers
You can sit these online exams as many times as you like by clicking
on the links below.
You will need to answer 60 multiple choice questions with four
possible answers A,B,C,or D, but only one answer out of the four will
be correct.
There are two links, you can choose from.
NZART Exam Trainer
This link takes you to the NZART's trainer where you will have 60
questions to answer before you get marked.
or
Exam Trainer
This version of the Exam Trainer has been developed by ZL2ST
You can start a normal 60 question mock exam, the same as the NZART's
exam trainer above or you can choose any of the topics to be tested
on.
This is very good if you want just to be tested just on one topic or
your weakest topics, so you don't have to answer all 60 questions,
until you are ready.
Documents Required when Sitting the Exam
When you are ready to sit the exam, you would need to bring along on
the day, your passport, driving licence and birth certificate. A
driving licence will do if you are born in NZ.
If you were born outside NZ, your passport, permanent visas or
citizenship proof, birth certificate and drivers licence would also
be required.
A passport photo of head and shoulders is required, but we can take a
photo of you on the day of the exam. A digital photo is prefered with
your application.
There are forms to be filled out when you pass and you need to choose
3 choices of callsigns. The reason for this is if your 1st choice is
unavaliable, your 2nd choice would apply etc.
Selecting Your Callsign
You can check using the link below to see if a callsign is available
or if has been registered. you can choose a two or three letter call
after the prefix number ZL1xx or ZL1xxx etc.
Radio Spectrum Mangement - Finding a callsign
Once you click on this link, enter the callsign in the box (center of
screen) to check, and see if it is available.
Results
To pass the exam, out of the 60 questions, you only need to get 40
correct answers (or more) to obtain a pass and get issued your radio
amateurs license. Remember only one question out of the four will be
the correct answer.
After opening the link above and answering 60 online questions, and
once you click on "submit", it will display and show you the results,
on how well you did.
If you got any questions wrong it will also show you the correct
answer.
By sitting the exam, it will show your weak points, and where you may
need to study more or to get help, to get a higher pass result.
The question bank used in this website are the same as the 600
questions on question bank on the NZART website. Each exam randomly
generates 60 questions covering all topics depending on the weight of
the topic, as per the exam guidelines. This exam generators run
completely on your browser and does not collect any information from
you. You can take the exam as many times as you like.
Once you download the
NZART Study Guide (above), it explains
more on how the syllabus is broken up into parts and how many
questions will be asked on each topic.
This online exam will be what you would expect to see when sitting
the actual exam except in a printed paper version.
If this self-study is not the way you like to learn, then contact
your local radio club to register your interest and see how we can
help you.
If you require or need help on certain topics, again please contact
your local radio club and I am sure you would get help to answer your
questions required to pass the exam.
This online test is great to see if you are ready to sit the actual
exam, once you acheive over 40 questions correctly.
All exam papers questions are randomly selected, these are the actual
questions that you may get in the exam and being random you can sit
the online test as many times as you want.
The actual exam does require two examiners present on the day of your
exam and would be a printed version.
After you have sat the exam, your paper will be marked, so you will
know your results. If you get 40 answers or more correct, we will
issue you with a certificate and send then off your application to
get a licence.
Fees
Some clubs charge a small fee, to sit the exam. This is to cover the
printing costs etc. However, once you have passed the exam, the fee
to process your licence application is currently $80.00 inc GST
This fee will also get's you a free membership to NZART, up to a year,
depending on what date you passed your exam. (normally up to the end
of the NZART financal year.)
Some radio clubs do run "Ham Crams" from time to time. These can be
run over a weekend or spread out over a couple of weekends, with
enough information for you to sit and pass the exam.
Where do I get more information?
The New Zealand Association of Radio Transmitters (Inc.) is a
non-profit association of Amateur Radio Operators. NZART has branches
and instructors in most of the larger cities and towns. For more
information on Amateur Radio and details of a club near you, check
out the
NZART website
or contact The Business Manager at NZART Headquaters, via email
Business Manager
or if known, go along to your local radio club or email and enquire
more.
Next Steps after you have passed your Exam.
Once you have passed your exam in New Zealand, you need to now work
on your 50 contacts. To help logging these, here is a simple paper
logbook that you can download on the link below, customise to your
call-sign and print it out. This logbook has been designed in
microsoft excel.
It is best that you save a copy first to your PC and then open the
logbook, change to your call-sign and print.
Download Logbook
As a newly licensed Ham you will be able to operate
on amateur bands below 5MHz or above 25MHz.
After
three months operation and with fifty logged contacts you
will be able to operate on all New Zealand amateur bands
including those between 5 MHz and 25MHz.
Once you click on this link above, it will open up the template, now
at the top, simply "download file" Once downloaded, open in excel.
Enter your callsign and print off as many pages to make your logbook.
Enjoy...
Take a look at the regulations below, it also has lots of useful
information to help you.
By joining a local radio club, you should pick up lots more tips and
idea's for you to enjoy the hobby.
Regulations - The rules Explained
Take a look at the process on what you need to know with the
regulations, for establishing and operating an Amateur Radio Station
in New Zealand, and what to do once you have passed your exam.
This also list's the frequencies and bands, you are allowed to
operate in. Click on the link below.
Regulation Procedures
PLEASE NOTE:
At the time I added this PDF link above, it was the latest version I
found. This is for reference only, I have found that some
links inside this regulation procedures pdf, are no longer working.
As NZART do updates from time to time.
Please check that all the information you have seen is still current
and valid. Please do advise me if you do come across a later version
of these regulations or if any changes are found, so I can update
this website.
My contact details are below.
Papakura Radio Club ZL1VK Branch 65
As I am a member of this radio club, if you would like to join our
club or you would like more information about the Papakura Radio
Club, on who we are etc, you can contact via email
ZL1VK
our club secretary Ian Ashley ZL1AOX
Thank you for visiting my website. I can be contacted by clicking on
my mail-to link at the bottom of this page or via qrz.com under
either of my New Zealand callsigns
