Proposed UK Amateur/Ham Radio Foundation Course Changes

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The RSGB has just released a draft of the new exam syllabus for Foundation, Intermediate and Full. The draft document states that this is for examinations held after 1 July 2018.

At 86 pages, this document contains a lot to review, any stakeholder who wish to make recommendations must do so by 21st July 2017.

Pete Sipple (M0PSX)  of Essex Hams has identified that there is a more of material from intermediate level to the foundation level.

RSGB Syllabus Review - http://www,rsgb.org/syllabus_review

Essex Ham Review - http://www.essexham.co.uk/news/rsgb-foundation-syllabus-review.html

Girl Guide Achieves Amateur/Ham Radio Licence

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14-year-old Madeleine Dale, a member of her local Girl Guide group has gained her amateur/ham radio licence, motivated by a talk given by her local amateur radio club.

Inspiration was given by Colin Lyne (M0TCN) of the Colburn and Richmondshire District Amateur Radio Society. The talk covered how the radio works and made contact with an amateur radio user in America, who spoke to the girls about the amateur/ham radio hobby.

Madeleine completed her training and passed the foundation exam with a 98% mark.

“It’s quite fun to plan who you’ll make contact with on a big map, you still have to be careful as you would on social media not to give out an address or postcode or personal information like that. But it’s more personal than social media because you’re just talking to someone directly.”
— Madeleine Dale

Harmonisation of CEPT Novice Licences

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VERON.jpg

In a paper for the IARU Region 1 General Conference the Netherlands national society VERON is proposing the harmonisation of CEPT Novice licences in member countries.
 
Although it is not clear from the name, the CEPT Novice licence is equivalent to the UK Intermediate, USA General and Australian Standard licence. One countries Novice is another's Standard licence!
 
Currently there are major differences among the various CEPT member countries in the frequencies permitted and transmitter power for Novice licenced amateurs.
 
VERON say that because of the international character of the amateur service, these differences are undesirable. 
 
The paper proposes to start a process to harmonise the use of frequencies and power by Novice licences, with the objective to equalize the differences within European countries. This will lead to more activity and will reduce the use of non-Novice frequencies by Novice stations.
 
VERON say Novice stations will be able to make more contacts in major contests, and improve their operating skills.
 
The aim to "equalize" may, however, give rise to some concerns. Such a move might for instance lead to both Power and Band Reductions for Novice holders in some countries if the terms were equalized down to some mid-point between all countries. 
 
The VERON paper is titled LA17_C3_38 Harmonisation of Novice Licences and comments on this and other papers can be made on the RSGB Forum. Information on downloading IARU-R1 General Conference papers - http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2017/may/discussion-of-iaru-papers-on-rsgb-forum.htm