So you want to be a radio amateur? Great decision!

The steps I did were:

Note: As I’m from Austria I’ll write about how things go here. Things might be different in other countries.

  1. Find a class and sign up
  2. Gather material
  3. Study
  4. Attend class
  5. Study some more
  6. Pass the test ;-)

Finding a class

I subscribed to ÖVSV, which is the “Austrian Amateur Radio Society”. They provide a free course for all members.

Interesting fact: You pay full membership irrespective of the date of sign up and the membership lasts till to the 31. December. In my case I signed up in August, when the course started and had to pay in December again.

Gather your material

Things you can do are:

  • Buy the script
  • find the questions1 that are being asked
  • find the answers provided by someone else
  • find further material (e.g. different answers, scripts,…)
  • organize all the material you have (very important!)

Study

If your time allows it start studying before the course starts. That way you went through everything already and have a bit of an overview.

Attend class

Attend the courses (mine were online, because of ‘rona)!

If you know which topics that will be covered, it’s ideal if you read through your notes before class.

Since you already made notes you just have to edit them or highlight important things. If you already use colours (which you should), use a new colour. It’s best to make your own notes and not rely on other, often older, notes.

Directly after the course it is always good to read through your freshly edited notes again. You might want to change something thinking “This way I won’t understand my notes next week”.

Study some more

When your course is finished it’s important to continue studying. By now you should be able to understand everything when reading your notes or rewatching the lessons (as I said mine were online). Now is the time to study, that you can provide the answers when asked, without having to look at your script.

I like to use flashcards for that. A free and open source flashcard app is AnkiDroid. Use F-Droid, if you want to avoid Google.

Good luck with your exam!

Footnotes:

  1. In Austria the questions are provided by the Fernmeldebehörde ↩