can i get my licence without traveling 500km to the ham coll

[new f calls]

Can I get my licence without traveling 500km to the ham college in perth
if a standard class ham sits beside me and lets me make contact with a
with an wia assesor over there radio.

[Zebedee]

Can I get my licence without traveling 500km to the ham college in perth if a standard class ham sits beside me and lets me make contact with a with an wia assesor over there radio.

I live in albany can you help get me on air i spoke mount barker communications and seg were holding a course .I've heard nothing back can I do the course from home over the phone .ps is there a wia member discount as I recently joined.

Hi "New F Calls",

Sorry, your posts were held in the moderation queue as a new forum member for a few days, I was away interstate for work and didn't have much time to get on the computer. I've just noticed the queued posts and have released them. The reason we do this is the spammers tend to find new and interesting ways of defeating the registration process and post spam all over the place. By restricting new sign-ups to a moderation queue it stops it appearing on the board and the mods/admins can clean up the mess in the background before anyone else gets to see it. Of course it does mean new forum members also get their first couple of posts held in the queue until we seen them and realise you're a genuine person not an evil spambot

Now to address your questions which were over two posts in two different threads - I've combined them both to make it easier.

You're right, Ham College is based in Perth and our regular courses are all held here. We can travel to other places if we have a guaranteed six people who are willing to do a course but this isn't something that has ever happened to my knowledge.

It's tough for people who live outside Perth to study the material (and is fact a topic of discussion at this weekend's WIA National Conference in Fremantle!)

Here's the options as far as I can see - there may be others but this is what's running around in my head at the moment.

1) Come up to Perth for a weekend and do the Ham College course. The exams are usually held on the following weekend but for people who travel from country towns or cities we can run their exam on the Sunday afternoon after the course has finished to save them making TWO trips to Perth.

2) You're in Albany and there's the Southern Electronics Group based down that way. They have run some courses in the past, but I don't know what their schedule is for education and training at the moment. You could always approach them and ask. Their website is at www.hamradio.org.au if you didn't already know that. If they aren't running any courses, perhaps one of their members might be willing to mentor you one-on-one to get you up to speed for passing the Foundation exam. There's no harm in asking the question

3) Use some of the online resources such as the Radio and Electronics School. The RES is based over east but have an online presence and some online training resources. Look at www.res.net.au and look at the link at the bottom of their website. They've got some free tutorials that are really quite good.

4) Buy the Foundation Manual from the WIA and self-study. The book is around $30 or so and is quite good. It has all the material you need to know to pass the Foundation theory exam but of course you need to learn it all on your own, there's nobody and nothing to "teach" you.

Those four options cover the training side of things. Doing an exam is another matter. To sit the exam you're going to need to contact the WIA and ask for a "Remote Assessment". They'll assign you an assessor who's qualified to do them remotely. The supervisor at the other end is usually a schoolteacher, police officer, postmaster, etc. The WIA will be able to explain how that all works (or they'll get one of the nominated assessors to call you and explain it). They'll also be able to explain all the costs and the various options for callsigns, etc.

If you have any more questions, don't be shy - ask away!

[new f calls]

The reason i'm asking is mount barker
communications (aka southern electronics group)
haven't rang me back
reguarding course dates and its been a
couple of months . Ps id like to get my licence asap
if possible .

[Zebedee]

The reason i'm asking is mount barker
communications (aka southern electronics group)
haven't rang me back
reguarding course dates and its been a
couple of months . Ps id like to get my licence asap
if possible .

They may not be running any courses, I know they haven't for a little while now. Currently only the Scouts and Ham College run any amateur radio courses (and the Scouts only for their own people).

How did you contact them? Was it via their website at http://www.hamradio.org.au/site/?page_id=7 ?

What grade of licence are you looking at getting? I assume the Foundation level considering your username...

[new f calls]

Wish I could get to the wia agm and conferance
at the trade winds hotel to meet other wish members this weekend in fremantle but i've got a lot on this week.
Ps with my unden bearcat scanner am
I likely to hear the wia agm news broadcast on the VK6RAL and VK6RAA repeaters this weekend.

[new f calls]

I want to go for the advanced license but I start at the foundation level and work up
as my electronics knowledge may be rusty.

[Zebedee]

Wish I could get to the wia agm and conferance
at the trade winds hotel to meet other wish members this weekend in fremantle but i've got a lot on this week.
Ps with my unden bearcat scanner am
I likely to hear the wia agm news broadcast on the VK6RAL and VK6RAA repeaters this weekend.

Not sure, if you know any local hams, it's probably best to ask them. Those repeaters aren't listed at http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/where/ but that doesn't mean someone isn't broadcasting the weekly news over them (and just haven't had someone update the WIA that they're doing so...)

I want to go for the advanced license but I start at the foundation level and work up
as my electronics knowledge may be rusty.

Fair enough. The Foundation licence is the starting off point for a lot of new amateurs as it contains everything needed to get you on air in one neat package.

In case you're not familiar with the exams and stuff, for the Foundation level, it's a 25-question multi-choice paper covering basic radio and electronics theory plus basic regulations. As well as that is the practical session where you answer oral questions from an assessor and you need to do some practical demonstrations of a few things. Thirdly, you need to get on-air and make contacts with a remote station on HF as well as VHF/UHF.

If you can do all of those things, you pass and you get your Foundation certificate of proficiency and can apply for a licence. The good thing is that it's all packaged up and you pay one exam fee.

If you start at Standard or Advanced level without doing Foundation first, you have to sit three separate exams (with three separate exam fees). There's the 50-question radio and electronics theory exam, a separate 30-question regulations exam and you still need to do the practical (you do the practical for the first grade of licence no matter what level it is).

That's the basic reason why doing the Foundation level is the quickest way to get a ham licence and get on air

To learn exactly what level of electronics and radio theory knowledge is required, you can download the syllabus for each grade. The Foundation licence doesn't require too much technical knowledge which you can see in this document: http://www.wia.org.au/licenses/foundati ... llabus.pdf

When you step up to the Advanced level though, you can see that they expect a heck of a lot more knowledge - http://www.wia.org.au/licenses/advanced ... llabus.pdf