Foundations of Amateur Radio

Training is a word that is steeped in tradition, it conjures up images of classrooms, teachers, chewing gum stuck to the bottom of your desk and being called upon to attend the front of the class to explain something based on the misapprehension that you did your homework.

Fortunately this is a hobby and training is something you can do yourself, to yourself, by yourself at your own pace. Of course, you can choose to do it with others, but it's not required as such.

We talk about being prepared for doing stuff, but what do we actually do to make that happen?

I've said many times that I like to do contests. In fact, I'm preparing for one right now. This particular contest awards points for making a contact and doubles the points, a so-called multiplier, every time I work a different area.

So, what does my training for this look like, what preparation have I done and what am I doing right now?

My first step was to read the rules, the specifics of what is proscribed, what is permitted and what is counted and what isn't. This sets up the training ground, the framework under which I have to operate my station.

My next step was to pull out a map and draw the boundaries of the areas that affected my score, showing those regions that I'd likely be in and likely make contact with. The crucial part for this was to see where the boundaries were, because it's likely that while driving around, having situational awareness will pay a good part of being successful.

Then I looked at the band conditions. I set-up with my multi-band antenna, a multi-tap Outbacker, and set it up on the 4 HF bands that I'm allowed to operate on, 80m, 40m, 15m and 10m. I set out to make a single contact with each, based on another station a couple of kilometres up the road. We both have vertical antennas to increase our chance of success.

Based on that I determined a few things. One, that this particular antenna and my car make for some pretty specific directionality on some bands. Two, that 10m and 15m were working close in, but not 20km away, that 80m sort of worked but that 40m was a winner.

Based on this test I decided that 40m was going to be my frequency band for this contest.

Then I went about getting tools together. I have a laptop for scoring and a power supply that connects to the car for the laptop. I've charged my radio battery, so it will run for a week on 5 Watts, got together pen and paper as a backup, found a USB charger for my phone and will shortly be packing fruit and water for while I'm on the road.

Last night I fuelled up the car, ready for the contest, and this morning I dug out a few spare antennas in case one of my friends is able to come out and play on-air as well.

I've looked at the map closely, did maths on how best to operate, added markers to my map where good operating positions might be found, likely they're completely rubbish, but going there is when I'll find that out.

I've told others what I'm going to do, encouraged others to get on air and play and by the time I start I'll have had a healthy lunch, a hot shower and comfortable clothes to keep me on the road. I've packed a warm coat, and gone through the contest in my mind to see if I can think of other things that I might need.

All this is only the pre-cursor to actually doing the contest. Call it Part 1. Part 2 is the contest and Part 3 is figuring out what worked and what didn't. I'll tell you about that next time we meet.

Training, it can be fun, or it can be traumatic, you decide.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB