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 Trainer
You can sit an online exam by clicking on the link below. You will need
to answer 60 multiple choice questions with 4 possible answers A,B,C,or
D.
NZART Exam Trainer
Only one question out of the four is the correct answer, and to pass the
actual exam, out of 60 questions, you only need to get 40 correct
answers (or more) to obtain a pass and get issued your radio amateurs
license.
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 as
many exams 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
