UK Amateur Radio Intermediate Licence 1.5

Topic 07 - Operating Practices and Procedures

Good Operating Practices and Procedures

Other Country's Prefixes

All countries have their own international prefixes that will allow you to identify the country of origin of the other operator.

The prefixes in the Intermediate Syllabus are:

• EI
• F
• I
• JA
• PE
• VE
• VK
• W
• ZL

All countries have their own international prefixes that will allow you to identify the country of origin of the other operator.

The prefixes in the Intermediate Syllabus are:

• Eire (Southern Ireland)
• France
• Italy
• Japan
• Netherlands
• Canada
• Australia
• USA
• New Zealand

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Awards and Contests

Awards are designed to be something that is employed to set yourself targets and can be a very enjoyable addition to the hobby.

Many organisations operate award schemes including the RSGB, ARRL and many others.

Awards usually revolve around working certain specific entities such as:

• Continents
• Countries (DXCC)
• Prefixes
• Islands (IOTA)
• Locator Squares (WAB)

Contests are a challenge to perform better than others people in the same class as you in a fixed period of time.

Contests typically involve the exchange of standard information usually: callsign, signal report, serial number and often something unique to the contest such as: locator, postcode, age, DX zone.

When participating in contests or awards a log is essential to claim points.

Do check the contest rules to ensure that you operate: at the correct time, on the correct bands and with the correct mode

Band Plans

Band plans are established by the IARU, which breaks the world into 3 zones as shown. Note the following:

• No SSB on the 10MHz (30m) band
• No contests on the 10MHz (30m), 18MHz (17m) and 24MHz (12m) bands
• No contests on the 5MHz (60m) band (NOTE - 5MHz is only available to Full Licensees)
• Avoid transmitting on the Beacon Allocations listed in the Band Plans
• Reserve satellite frequencies for earth to ground and vice versa and not for terrestrial contacts

Codes and Abbreviations

There are a wide range of abbreviations that are in use is Amateur Radio many of which come from the days of the wired telegraph and early morse code, even "73" comes from the "Philips" code. Typical examples are:

• QRM
• QRN
• QRO
• QRP
• QRT
• QSB
• QSL
• QSO
• QSY
• QTH

All of these codes have a defined meaning and can be very useful in having a limited QSO with a foreign station where there is no language in common as the codes have a universal meaning. The codes mean:

• Man made interference
• Natural interference
• High power
• Low power
• Shutting down
• Fading
• Confirm/Confirmed
• Contact/Conversation
• Change frequency
• Location

Digital (Machine Generated) Modes

Machine generated modes are created using a PC to feed audio tones to a transceiver and controlling the switching of transmit and receive.

There are a wide range of "digi" modes including:

• RTTY
• SSTV
• PSK31/63
• Olivia
• FT8/FT4
• JS8 Call

Digital Interfaces

Things to watch out for when configuring digital modes:

• An interface is desirable to eliminate ground loops
• Simple interfaces require some additional ways of controlling the transmitter
• More sophisticated interfaces can provide this control as part of the interface
• Ensure that there is minimal distortion on the transmitted signals by setting the levels either via the PC sound settings or by adjusting the interface
• Remember that if you are using the main PC sound card then system sounds such as mail or IM notifications can also be broadcast

Satellites

OSCARS (Orbital Satellites Carrying Amateur Radio) are mainly in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) about 250km and up. The ISS, which is also a LEO satellite, is about 400km above the surface of the earth.

Satellites at this altitude are not geostationary (unlike QO100) and appear to move with respect to an earth based observer.

This means that a specific satellite will only be visible above the local horizon for limited periods at different times based on the orbital characteristics.

Repeaters in Space

A satellite may be considered a repeater in space, however it has a couple of fundamental differences compared to a terrestrial repeater

1. It is in motion and can only be used when it is above the local horizon whereas terrestrial repeaters are (hopefully) stationary
2. Whereas terrestrial repeaters transmit and receive within the same band to avoid the deployment of heavy and large cavity filters a satellite usually receives and transmits in different bands

When operating through a satellite it is important to be able to receive the downlink frequency whilst transmitting on the uplink frequency

Satellite Footprint

All stations being contacted through a satellite have to be within the "footprint" of the satellite at the same time.

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Only stations located within the satellite footprint can be "worked" through a satellite.

Doppler Effect (or Shift)

Doppler shift results in the apparent frequency of the transmitted signal being higher than published as the satellite moves towards the operator and lower than the published frequency as the satellite moves away from the operator.

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At the mid-point of the pass the apparent frequency of the satellite's transmitted signal will be similar to the published frequency. SImilar effects apply on the receive frequency too.

Satellite Operation

Advance knowledge of the satellites passes over the operating location are required, this will give details of the:

• AOS - Acquisition of signal time
• Max Elevation at the mid-point of the pass
• Time of the mid-point of the pass
• LOS - Loss of signal time
• Bearing to the satellite at AOS, mid-point and LOS

Remember to keep power low to conserve the satellites resources. There is no need for your downlink signal to be any stronger than the satellite transponder, monitoring the downlink will show how strong or weak the signal is.

Any Questions?