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\begin{center}
{\LARGE A Quick Guide to the Technician Class HAM Exam} \\
{\Large Derek A. Atkins} \\ N1NWH \\
\today
\end{center}

\subsection{What is a HAM?}

Well, if you don't know what a HAM is, you probably are reading the
wrong document.  A HAM is a nickname for an Amateur Radio operator.
This document will explain to you the basics of what is on the exam,
things you should know, and how to study and pass the Technician Class
amateur radio exam.

\subsection{What, Where, When, and How?}

The next MIT Ham exam is at 7:30pm on Wednesday, January 20, 1993.
The Technician Class license test is comprised of two exams, a 30
question novice exam (part 2) and a 25 question technician exam (part
3A).  Both exams are multiple choice.  You must have at least 75\% of
the questions correct to pass, and the exams must be taken, and
passed, sequentially (this means you must pass the novice exam before
you can take the technician exam).  The cost of the exam is currently
\$5.40, and you can take as many exams as you want, until you fail!
There is also the Morse Code exam.  To get your Technician Plus, you
need to pass {\em at least} the 5 wpm Morse Code Exam (part 1A).

\subsection{The Important Stuff}
The following sections contain most of the stuff, which you probably
don't know, that you should know for the exam.  I won't go into the
technical details, since I am assuming you've taken the equivalent of
6.002 and 6.003.  If you haven't, please feel free to ask questions.
The FCC question pools are online on Athena.  You can get to them
from any Athena workstation by executing the command:\\
{\indent {\tt cd /afs/sipb.mit.edu/project/ham/questions}} \\
{\indent {\tt more <filename>}}\\
where {\tt <filename>} is the question pool you want to read.  In that
directory are the question pools for all the ham classes.  There are
is also other information available under the {\tt ham} directory,
including the FCC Rules (part 97).

\subsection{Frequencies}
You should memorize tables of frequency bands available.  There are
other bands allocated to Amateur radio than those listed in these
tables, however I didn't list those without any privileges to
conserve space.  Even though not all of it applies to you, as a
Technician, you need to know it because it will be on the exams,
assuredly.  These are listed in tables \ref{tech-freqs} and
\ref{tech-plus-freqs}.

There are a couple of data points between Novice and Tech Plus that
should be pointed out since there are questions on them.  For the
Novice Class License, the operating privileges in the 220 MHz band is
limited to 222.1--223.91 MHz, and in the 1270 MHz band the limits are
1270--1295 MHz.  Remember that the Novice has no operating privileges
in the 6 Meter, 2 Meter, and 440 MHz bands! Another point of
information is that Technicians can send phone transmissions in the 6
Meter band on 50.1--54.0 MHz, and FM image transmissions in the 2
Meter band on 144.1--148.0 MHz.  Be sure to read over the question
pools!

Other questions ask about wavelengths for a frequency.  If you
remember this shortcut you can't go wrong. \[\lambda (m) =
\frac{300}{f (MHz)} \] Also remember that the length of a half-wave
dipole antenna can be calculated using the formula \[length (m) =
\frac{468}{f (MHz)} \]

\subsection{Call Signs}

Every HAM is issued a Call Sign which uniquely identifies them in the
world!  A Call Sign must have one or two letters preceding a number,
and then one, two, or three letters after the number.  The first
characters of the call sign identify the country and/or geographic
region where the call sign was originally issued.  In the US, all call
signs start with the letters A, K, N, or W.  Each station must
identify itself at least once every ten minutes during a conversation
and at the end of the transmission.

\subsection{Antennas}

HAMs need to know about RF propagation and antennas.  We won't go into
a lot of it here, since what you really need to know are the answers
to the questions.  I will say that you should know a little about the
Yagi antenna, which are a bunch of half-wavelength elements with
parasitically driven parallel side elements.  Another is the
cubical-quad antenna, which is a square full-wave closed loop (each
side is 1/4 $\lambda$) with parallel parasitic elements.  There are a
number of questions about antennas on the exams, and you should read
them over and learn them.

You should also know about Standing Wave Ratios, or SWRs.  Remember
that you want an SWR close to unity!  A high SWR is bad, and means
that something is wrong; either the antenna is the wrong length or
there is a short.  Another thing to remember is that if the SWR
increases as you increase frequency, the antenna is too long, and if
it decreases with an increase in frequency it's too short.

\subsection{Other random things to know}

The questions on the exams basically are a lot of memorization or
technical questions.  I expect that most MIT students who have had any
course VI experience can answer most of the technical questions.

An example of things you should know is the five principles:
Recognition of emergency communications, advancement of the radio art,
improvement of communication and technical skills, increase in the
number of trained radio operators and electronics experts, and the
enhancement of international goodwill.  MEMORIZE these!  It WILL be on
the exam!  These are the fundamental purpose of the amateur service.

Another piece of random data that you should probably know is the
effect of sunspots on radio communication.  Remember that an average
sunspot cycle is 11 years long, and that the more sunspots there are,
the higher the maximum usable frequency.  This also means that more
sunspots means a higher level of ionization in the atmosphere.

You should know about interference: different causes, possible
effects, and what to do if you get interference or someone is getting
interference from you.  All of these are in the question pools.  Read
them over.

You should also know what the different types of modulation
identifiers mean.  For example, A1A is CW modulation, or F3B is FM.
The first letter is modulation type, the second is the nature of the
modulating signal, and the third is the type of information.

If I haven't said it enough, I'll say it again!  Read the question
pools.  Read through at least once, try to answer all the questions.
The answers are at the end to the files.  These are the exact
questions that will appear on your exam.  If you learn the questions,
you will have an easier time on the exam, since you will have at least
seen them once before.  Remember, the exam is on Wednesday, so you
have 4 days to prepare!  This is plenty of time to learn the material
and pass the exams! \\
\hbox{} \\
\hbox{} \\
\hbox{} \\
73's\\
N1NWH

\begin{table}[p]
\center
\begin{tabular}{|llll|} \hline
{\bf Band} & {\bf Frequency} & {\bf Emissions} & {\bf Comments} \\ \hline
6 Meters & 50.0--54.0 MHz & All modes & Sideband voice, radio control, FM/FM\\
 & & & repeater, digital computer, remote bases,\\
 & & & and autopatches, Even CW.\\
 & & & (1500 watts PEP output limitation) \\
2 Meters & 144--148 MHz & All modes & All types of operation including satellite\\
 & & & and owning repeater and remote bases.\\
 & & & (1500 watts PEP output limitation) \\
1$1/4$ Meters & 222--225 MHz & All modes & (1500 watt PEP output limitation) \\
70 cm & 420--450 MHz & All modes & Including amateur television, packet,\\
 & & & RTTY, FAX, and FM voice repeaters \\
 & & & (1500 watt PEP limit) \\
35 cm & 902--928 MHz & All modes & Plenty of room! (1500 watts PEP limit) \\
23 cm & 1240--1300 MHz & All modes & All privileges \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\caption{Technician Class Operating Privileges}
\label{tech-freqs}
\end{table}

\begin{table}[p]
\center
\begin{tabular}{|llll|} \hline
{\bf Band} & {\bf Frequency} & {\bf Emissions} & {\bf Comments} \\ \hline
80 Meters & 3675--3725 KHz & Code Only & **Limited to Morse code \\
 & & & (200 watt PEP output limitation) \\
40 Meters & 7100--7150 KHz & Code Only & (200 watt PEP limit) \\
15 Meters & 21100--21200 KHz & Code Only & (200 watt PEP limit) \\
10 Meters & 28100--28500 KHz & Code & Morse code and digital computer \\
 & 28100--28300 KHz & Data and code & (200 watt PEP output code limitation) \\
 & 28300--28500 KHz & Phone and code & Sideband voice (200 watt PEP limit) \\
6 Meters & 50.0--54.0 MHz & All modes & Sideband voice, radio control, FM/FM\\
 & & & repeater, digital computer, remote bases,\\
 & & & and autopatches, Even CW.\\
 & & & (1500 watts PEP output limitation) \\
2 Meters & 144--148 MHz & All modes & All types of operation including satellite\\
 & & & and owning repeater and remote bases.\\
 & & & (1500 watts PEP output limitation) \\
1$1/4$ Meters & 222--225 MHz & All modes & (1500 watt PEP output limitation) \\
70 cm & 420--450 MHz & All modes & Including amateur television, packet,\\
 & & & RTTY, FAX, and FM voice repeaters \\
 & & & (1500 watt PEP limit) \\
35 cm & 902--928 MHz & All modes & Plenty of room! (1500 watts PEP limit) \\
23 cm & 1240--1300 MHz & All modes & All privileges \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\caption{Technician Plus Class Operating Privileges}
\label{tech-plus-freqs}
\end{table}

\begin{table}[p]
\center \begin{tabular}{|llllllllllll|} \hline
A & Alfa & F & Foxtrot & K & Kilo & P & Papa & U & Uniform & Z & Zulu\\
B & Bravo & G & Golf & L & Lima & Q & Quebec & V & Victor & & \\
C & Charlie & H & Hotel & M & Mike & R & Romeo & W & Whiskey & & \\
D & Delta & I & India & N & November & S & Sierra & X & X-ray & &\\ 
E & Echo & J & Juliet & O & Oscar & T & Tango & Y & Yankee & &\\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\caption{Phonetic Alphabet}
\label{phonetics}
\end{table}

\begin{table}[p]
\center \begin{tabular}{|llll|} \hline
& {\bf Readability} & {\bf Signal Strength} & {\bf Tone} \\ \hline
1 & Unreadable & Faint and barely & Very rough, broad signals, \\
 & & perceptible signals & 60 cycle AC may be present \\
2 & Barely readable; occasional & Very weak signals & Very rough AC tone, \\
 & words distinguishable. & harsh, broad \\
3 & Readable with considerable & Weak signals & Rough, low pitched AC tone, \\
 & difficulty. & & no filtering \\
4 & Readable with practically & Fair signals & Rather rough AC tone, \\
 & no difficulty & & some trace of filtering \\
5 & Perfectly readable & Fairly good signals & Filtered rectified AC note,\\
 & & & musical, ripple modulated\\
6 & & Good signals & Slight trace of filtered tone but\\
 & & & with ripple modulation \\
7 & & Moderately strong signals & Near DC tone but trace of\\
 & & & ripple modulation \\
8 & & Strong signals & Good DC tone, may have slight trace \\
 & & & of modulation \\
9 & & Extremely strong signals & Purest, perfect DC tone with no trace\\
 & & & of ripple modulation \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\caption{RST Reporting Chart (Tone is only for CW)}
\label{rst-chart}
\end{table}

\begin{table}[p]
\center \begin{tabular}{|ll|} \hline
QRL & Are you busy? (I am busy with \_\_\_\_) Please don't interfere.\\
QRS & Shall I send more slowly? Send more slowly (\_\_\_\_ WPM) \\
QRT & Shall I stop sending? Stop sending \\
QRU & Have you anything for me? I have nothing for you. \\
QRV & Are you ready? I am ready. \\
QRZ & Who is calling me? You are being called by \_\_\_\_ (on \_\_\_\_ KHz) \\
QSL & Can you acknowledge receipt? I am acknowledging receipt.\\
QSO & Can you communicate with \_\_\_\_ direct or by relay? I can ... \\
QTH & What is your location? My location is \_\_\_\_ \\
QTR & What is the time?  The time is \_\_\_\_ \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\caption{A partial list of Q-codes}
\label{q-codes}
\end{table}

\end{document}

