Australia Radio Amateur Foundation Exam

Hi all,

Recently, in a conversation on another posting, one of our esteemed members, (you're all esteemed btw), posted a link to the 'Wireless Institute of Australia', (W.I.A.) Foundation Licence.

It was so interesting I thought it worthy of a posting of it's own.


Jeff, (43CT016), is a resident of Australia and makes up some of Charlie Tango's International membership. (He's London born before anyone starts up the "G'day" quips.)

I've had some brilliant conversation with him and really enjoyed the subjects and debates we've had garnering some great information and even interest paths to explore. As a Radio Amateur and CB operator amongst other things he has a lot of knowledge.
(I won't spout further about his knowledge but he holds Ham licences for several countries as well as his exemplary work as a Volunteer Exam Invigilator.)

Before I waffle further, (unlike me I know ), I'll give you the link he posted :-

https://www.wia.org.au/licenses/foundation/onlineexams/foundation.php


This will take you to the W.I.A. as mentioned at the start and contains a practice online test for the Australian Foundation licence.

I thought it was great that they have such a facility and was pleasantly surprised that when I gave it a go, I got a pass! 

I tried it several times in case it was a fluke, but obtained a pass everytime. I was fortunate to know that Australian Foundation licence holders have a four letter callsign and their mains voltage is the same as ours only getting caught out on the odd organisational acronyms. (Stupidly I was on the W.I.A. site but got a W.I.A. question wrong......idiot!)

It was however great to compare the knowledge I recently obtained on my UK Foundation examination and compare notes. It turns out that it is 'all radio' after all.


Anyway, sparked my interest and hopefully provides some interest to others.

If you have a spare few minutes it's worth visiting the site and giving it a go.


Oh, one last thing. Jeff is bound to answer this posting being an active member of the Charlie Tango forum, so if this was of interest to you give him a 'thumbs up' like or even a click on that 'Thankyou' for him. 


All the best,
Victor

I just passed as well Vic, 23 out of 25 the two I got wrong were very Aussie specific questions 

73's Gary.

I have been thinking of taken the foundation exam but never looked at doing it but i had a try at the link i got 14/25 which i dont think is bad and i know nothing about ham radio

Passed lol.

Ha! Ha!

Well done Gary mate. There were some Australian specific questions but all the radio stuff is the same.

Apparently, according to Jeff, the four letter callsigns that used to be assigned to Foundation licences were dropped to a three letter combination recently so it looks like that exam is slightly outdated.

I'm of a mixed opinion about such callsign changes. Sometimes I think that being an "M7" holds a disadvantage and when I explain that I'm not a total newbie I get quipped at for not doing my Intermediate or Full!?!
Give me a chance, only been a licenced Ham for three months!


I like the Charlie Tango number assignment, I can tell which country you come from but glean no other information about who you are....(Unless I look up your profile of course)

....bet there's still some that think having an early number gives them an elitist stance somehow though


Luckily we've not seen such example


All this has got me interested in what others have to face to obtain an Amateur Radio licence in other countries.
I'm off for a look-see and in my head at least gain a licence for every country!

Hi Michael, I would very much recommend taking your Foundation exams it opens up a whole new world of radio. Just make sure you take the RSBG ones, the link in Victors post was a mock for the Australian Foundation exam and we were just seeing if we could remember our studies!! 

73's Gary.

Michael, (Chefsdead),

Not too shabby mate if you've never studied any Ham material. Bet with a little bit of reading on the subject you'd breeze through a Foundation


----------------------------------------------------

Alan,

Ha! There was you in a panic about the UK Foundation and now you're happily passing the Australian Foundation.
Well done mate, shows that the info you studied has actually stuck in your head




Glad people are having a bit of fun with this and even seeing if they could pass a Foundation.


All the best guys!

Nicely put Gary.

If anyone really has an interest in gaining their Ham licence you'll get a lot of support here.

All those lovely bands and frequencies with 10 watts has given me thousands of miles range with my bits of wire in the loft!

The one i got wrong was stupid i should have thought about it more.
Can't remember but i put wia instead of the other like your test is with rsgb but ofcom can shut you down.
I put wia derrrrrr.

Victor wrote:

Ha! Ha!

Well done Gary mate. There were some Australian specific questions but all the radio stuff is the same.

Apparently, according to Jeff, the four letter callsigns that used to be assigned to Foundation licences were dropped to a three letter combination recently so it looks like that exam is slightly outdated.

I'm of a mixed opinion about such callsign changes. Sometimes I think that being an "M7" holds a disadvantage and when I explain that I'm not a total newbie I get quipped at for not doing my Intermediate or Full!?!
Give me a chance, only been a licenced Ham for three months!


I like the Charlie Tango number assignment, I can tell which country you come from but glean no other information about who you are....(Unless I look up your profile of course)

....bet there's still some that think having an early number gives them an elitist stance somehow though


Luckily we've not seen such example


All this has got me interested in what others have to face to obtain an Amateur Radio licence in other countries.
I'm off for a look-see and in my head at least gain a licence for every country!

I was a bit worried that I might of forgotten the basics Vic!! 

I've seen many times that people have had negative experiences as a foundation license holder from more established amateurs' but I can honestly say I never did. I did my intermediate in fairly quick succession then had a gap and did the advanced studies a couple of years ago which was a whole summer with my club B.D.A.R.S. Our trainer was Alan Betts the author of the study material and head of training for the RSGB who happens to be a member at B.D.A.R.S. so I was in good hands. Unfortunately my mum was rushed into hospital the night before the exam with a suspected heart attack and I had to give the exam a miss. With one thing and another I never got around to re-booking the exam and now the new syllabus is in effect I will definitely need to re do the course before considering an exam attempt!! 

You never know Vic we're not worlds apart only a bit of the M1 between our QTH's perhaps you could get the intermediate out of the way and in time we could do a joint effort on the advanced at a convenient location between the middle of us? Food for thought!!  

I too like the CT way of allocating call signs Vic but it's far too straightforward for the world of amateur radio so I can't imagine it ever being adopted that's for sure.

73's Gary.

Does you good for self reassurance knowing that knowledge isn't leaking from your brain Gary

Be awful to forget the basics but I'm sure Ham radio is one of those things like riding a bike.
(I remember component numbers from devices obsolete back in the 80's!)

I remember you mentioning before about your studies and then the health scare with your Mother. Think we said back then that family always comes first.


Well, I have taken a look at the Intermediate requirements. The electronics shouldn't be an issue () but I had to borrow a laptop for the Foundation as no Linux support is offered. I'd have to figure out the two webcam requirements as well!

As and when we get settled into the vaccination program I shall venture more down that path and hopefully succeed.

Your gracious offer of going for the Full with a joint effort is a fantastic suggestion mate, I'd be thrilled to bits for the opportunity!



Oh, seems a bit more study could bag me a US licence, (in my head ), it still all being radio. Hit a snag with other countries though.....I don't speak any other languages!! 


73's to all! Rather enjoyed this.

Why do you need 2 webcams on the intermediate keep meaning to look that one up.

I assume it's better protection to ensure no one 'cheats' it being a requirement for just Intermediate and Full.
(Although as you know, the invigilator watches you like a hawk during your one camera Foundation!)

I do know that you have to run them on separate devices as you can't run two cameras on one computer via Zoom or WebEx. Whether the second device could be a phone or tablet rather than another PC I'm unsure of.

Perhaps a member or someone reading this that has gone through the process could share more light?

When i did my test there was 3 of us.
One guy was doing the intermediate and used a phone as the second camera.
Don't know how you link that to the Zoom or whatever video software but might do a bit of homework on that.

Homework done lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnbu3C1ht9Y&ab_channel=VideoLane

Victor wrote:

Oh, seems a bit more study could bag me a US licence, (in my head ), it still all being radio. Hit a snag with other countries though.....I don't speak any other languages!!

Well, it seems we can look forward to a lot more overseas Australian licensed amateurs judging by this thread!

We can always count on Victor to drum up interest!

As I always say to people here, with just a little bit of study and effort, a whole new world awaits which can co-exist nicely with 11m.

As for US exams....Vic, any time mate, and we can do you a remote assessment from here if you don't want to find a US VEC.

As for the question on two webcams - this is also a requirement for the US exams, and it's to ensure the three (In the case of US) VE's conducting the exam can see the room at the same time as watching you to make sure you're looking at the screen or scrap paper and no-one else is there....when I did mine, I just ran one Zoom session on my iPad, and one on the laptop I was doing the exam on.  Phone woudl work equally well.

I couldn't use the far better setup in my office, as there was too much stuff lying about, like bandplans on the wall, etc., so ended up in the kitchen!

I just downloaded "IRIUN" a free software on both my windows pc and my iPhone.
It set itself up but not gone any further so how easy it is to set both up in Zoom or WebEx but might try it on the shack pc later as that has Zoom installed on it.
Next thing i will find myself studying again lol Pin your ears back Victor you started this 

Ah, there's the man himself. Hiya Jeff!

(Everyone, give him a 'like' or 'thanks', he's a star in the true sense!)


Isn't it great that technology allows me to sit an exam for the US. Never even been there


Thanks for clearing up the second camera requirements Jeff, was just about to come back on this myself after finding out some info. As you rightly point out you use your main computer or laptop as your main device and then you can simply run a second device, (whether that be another computer or even a phone or tablet), as a camera joined to the same Zoom or WebEx meeting.

Lot more simple than I first envisaged.


So Alan, you don't need that 'iriun', it's just software to use a mobile as a webcam alternative and not suitable for the exam. (The video you pointed to makes mention at the end that it doesn't work on Mac and I can tell you it doesn't work on Ubuntu or other flavour of Linux either.)


I like your pointer too Jeff on sitting your exam in a clear area for clarity. We do have a lot of info and junk gathered in a typical station and it would be awful to have an exam cancelled due to uncertainty of integrity.


Well guys, this is a great thread and I hope sparked more interest than just us that answered.


Once again, give thanks to Jeff for initiating this interest.

I'm just the 'messenger' happily passing this on.....

....and you never shoot the messenger  

Victor you know what i am like for reading.
Didn't notice the 2 sessions of zoom but that's normal for me read the first bit skip the rest lol.
iPad it is then handy i have one.
Must read 3 times as i told myself for my test.

Hee!   No worries Alan mate.

Took me long enough to find out the requirements yet there it was on the RSGB website on one of their pdf downloads.
(My PC is full of flipping pdf's now though!)

I'm thinking the same mate, got a tablet and smartphone so it's possible for me too. Would still have to borrow a laptop again due to the lack of Linux support but that's gonna have to wait for the moment.

I promised myself at the end of 2019 that 2020 would be the year I got my Ham ticket. (Even made it a new years resolution.) Then the world turned upside down but thanks to the efforts of others I was able to achieve it. Intermediate should be much the same if I put my mind to it.


You've shown Alan that your best efforts to retain new information is successful. Bet you were well chuffed clicking those boxes on the Aussie test knowing what most of the answers were!


Despite all the 'disadvantages' you thought you faced you did well with your studies and Ham ticket. All down to your own hard work and dedication.

You'll be an Intermediate next mate!

Thinking about the Intermediate while i was studying for the Foundation and have thought it again from time to time.
But somebody put a spanner in the works by saying "is it worth it for an extra 40w".
 I have always had a thing on how far i could get on the lowest power and so far my 10w has served me well.
Might just invest in the RSGB book and have a look through so it's still on the back burner for now.

I don't blame you Alan mate.

Like you I've been astounded with how far you can actually get with 10W on some of those bands. It also does seem to give you the push to make sure your other operating conditions are up to spec, antenna, modulation, etc. So easy to do the 'More Watts Igor!' and crank up the power but spectacularly wonderful achieving great results with low power.

Personally I've never been interested in the massive antennas and masts, kilowatts of power etc. Not that I'm knocking it, (before someone jumps on me ), just not my 'thing'.

Maybe the QRP bug has bitten?


You've got a point.....40W more? Ability to 'legally' build a transmitter? More 'respect' from my fellow Hams?

I think between you and myself I've gone and talked myself out of it!

40w more is nothing well i don't think so and no way do i want to build i would blow my shack up lol.
One thing i have found is adding "QRP" to the end of my call get's a better response.
I called back to KE5EE Stan yesterday but nothing but with qrp on my call he came straight back to me.

That's a brilliant little tip Alan!

The amount of times I've called out with no response putting it down to my stations limited capabilities. I'll have to remember to add that QRP to my call!

Victor wrote:

Does you good for self reassurance knowing that knowledge isn't leaking from your brain Gary

Be awful to forget the basics but I'm sure Ham radio is one of those things like riding a bike.
(I remember component numbers from devices obsolete back in the 80's!)

I remember you mentioning before about your studies and then the health scare with your Mother. Think we said back then that family always comes first.


Well, I have taken a look at the Intermediate requirements. The electronics shouldn't be an issue () but I had to borrow a laptop for the Foundation as no Linux support is offered. I'd have to figure out the two webcam requirements as well!

As and when we get settled into the vaccination program I shall venture more down that path and hopefully succeed.

Your gracious offer of going for the Full with a joint effort is a fantastic suggestion mate, I'd be thrilled to bits for the opportunity!



Oh, seems a bit more study could bag me a US licence, (in my head ), it still all being radio. Hit a snag with other countries though.....I don't speak any other languages!! 


73's to all! Rather enjoyed this.

The one thing I can assure you Vic is that my poor old brain is leaking knowledge faster than it's gaining it these days!!! 

I definitely remember us having the conversation about my mum and the exam before. 

I love Linux Vic, it's such a clutter free operating system. I've had a Raspberry Pi for a long time now in fact I also run my DMR set up using a Pi and Pi-star which is an excellent way to access all the DMR systems although I've only ever used Phoenix and Brandmeister. 

I will definitely embark on the advanced exam again at some point so as I said if you're up for it I'd be delighted to do it together buddy.

I really didn't know you could hold another country's license without living there, who knew!!  

All the best Vic,

73's Gary.