Tips for anyone thinking about studying for Foundation

(More specifically for those that have never had any involvement with radio previously)

Many of our intro stories here when we joined this group have similarities. We've had CB experience back when it was a big thing, but on coming back to CB in these later years either found there was little activity on the band and decided to take the ham test, or, maybe found a good amount of people still on the channels or experienced some great skip conditions and that enthused to take the ham test to get some more of that action.

But, has anyone here decided to study for a ham licence with absolutely no prior radio experience, in usage like CB or any radio theory whatsoever?

I ask because my daughter is just starting to study. Her reason for doing so is just for something to do.. she's also looking for other random courses to take too. She knows absolutely nothing about radio other than bits she's heard from me or seen me doing. Only operational experience is turning the car radio on to listen to Heart FM, but more recently talking to me on my walk home from work on PMR HTs. She's an adult and has a college education behind her, but nothing remotely connected in anyway to radio or electronics.

She's just bought the latest Foundation manual so should be covered for the latest regs.. I didn't want to give her my old one so as not to put incorrect data in her head from the start. She's also signed up for the next Essex Ham course starting beginning September. I've told her between that book and the course she will have all the info she needs to pass.

My questions to you all, is if you took the course as she is doing, going into radio almost blind, how did you fare? And what tips would you give to her, or others thinking of doing it who have almost zero prior radio knowledge?

I'm all ears.

Hi Neal,

Great posting and I hope you get some good responses.

If it helps any here's some input from my behalf.

My wife Teresa has had no prior experience of radio whatsoever until I came back to the hobby and even then she is happy to leave me to my own devices. She has been a fantastic help with my pursuits though such as stringing up my past 'lawnmower' lead antenna braving the attic spiders and more recently of financial help with a latest acquisition. (She's 24 carat gold in that respect. )

However just of late she had been asking questions regards the examination process and I obliged by asking her some questions that would be relevant for Foundation being left astounded with what she could answer. It seems that maybe some of my radio antics have 'rubbed off' a little in that respect.

I then 'sat' her through a mock Foundation paper which she completed and surprisingly would have obtained a pass had it been a real examination. (Only just though and making mention before the "Nah, it's easy" brigade come to the fore!)

She's not interested in gaining her licence but did feel chuffed that she would have passed.

I would say that anyone interested in obtaining their first steps into radio would do well with such courses as the excellent one run by Essex Ham with Peter & the gang. 

Once that licence is obtained the opportunities to learn more are many fold and in today's age probably more successful contacts would be made than by other radio mediums. It's true that there is no examination for CB or PMR usage but then it's very dependent on activity in your locality or reliant on a good setup to make contact further afield or experience some DX with sporadic E events. (Which hasn't been all that great this summer!)

I would think that there were more 'failures' of passing the Foundation by those that 'think' they know when not actually in possession of the knowledge that's actually required for the examination than anything else.

So maybe my Teresa did gain some insight from my interests but I believe that if she'd sat a suitable course she would have passed with flying colours.

I sincerely hope the same would be true for your daughter there Neal and I wish her as well as anyone else contemplating it all the very best for success.


All the best,
Victor

Thank you for that Victor. And well done Teresa.

My daughter has the links to the RSGB mock papers (yes there's three available now, only was one when I took my test). She'll have a go through soon to gauge which areas she'll need to contrate studying on more than others. She did a 10 question run through yesterday on the radiotutor.uk site and manage 8 correct out of 10, although most were just good guesses and said she truly didn't know confidently know the  answers to most. Safety she is good on already through other education, and some common sense, so she knows that's one topic that doesn't need so much time spent on.

Anyone using the radiotutor site I linked to above, do be aware it hasn't been updated for a long time, it wasn't even up to date when I used it in 2021 (time is flying by), but generally the questions are relevant. I have made sure my Chloe is aware of that if she uses it further.

One tip my invigilator for my Foundation exam gave me on the pre-exam call was that if 'Ofcom' is one of the answers given to a question, there's a good bet that is the correct answer. I have passed that same advice to Chloe and write it here for others too. The RSGB really want people to pass and will do everything they can to help people do so.

Biggest challenge for me at the moment is urging her not to get too deep into technical complexities. The sort of questions I am getting at the moment with her reading through the manual are "How does a digital to analogue convertor work?", when for this exam she only needs to know what it does. Treading a fine balance with answers I am giving of feeding an inquisitive mind and not overcomplicating and filling her head with info she does not need for this exam.


If anyone here did use amateur radio as their first steps into radio, e.g. before moving to CB, PMR, or other types of radio, with no or very little prior knowledge of radio, then do let un know how you got on or if you have any tips. I am sure there must be some people out there who did this 'just for something to do' during Covid lockdowns.