Ham Radio Graduation

It was the perfect scenario for my personality...

I've been taking my Amateur Radio Basic course for two months and the test was scheduled for a Thursday night. The examiner had offered to come into the Tuesday night class and we would do a "test" test and then review it. This was meant to be the final review class before we wrote the final test.

I studied like a maniac on the weekend before and used the practice software to take a "test" test many many many times. When I wandered into the Tuesday night review class I was ready to write the real test, but I was also calm as I knew we weren't writing the real test. The examiner opended the class by saying something magical...


"Well since the practice test I was planning on giving you this evening is a legitimate copy of the test and since some of you seem ready to write the real test how about (if you want) we can treat this as a proper test and let you write it if your ready"

Some people were not ready and decided to write the real test on the Thursday as originally planned. I was one of the people who was ready and did.

For my personality this was a perfect situation, no time to psych myself out and worry. Within 5 minutes of being told I could write the exam now, I was actually writing the exam.

35 minutes later I had a 89% score and had passed the license exam with honors. This was my goal all along so I was very pleased.


In Canada there are only 3 licenses for ham radio operators

• Basic - Pass with 70% or higher and you have rights on VHF and UHF up to 250 watts. This is a mandatory license everyone must pass first.
• Basic with honors - Pass the same exam with 80% or higher and you unlock HF frequencies as well.
• Morse - Add this license to your Basic by passing a separate exam with 5 words per minute (or higher) morse code and your licensed for CW, plus you unlock the HF frequencies if you didn't already have them as a result of a Basic with Honors.
• Advanced - Add this license to your Basic by passing a separate exam. By passing you will be allowed a 1000 watt amplifier limit (an increase from 250 watt for Basic), you will be allowed to build your own gear, and setup equipment for clubs (i.e. repeaters, etc), plus you unlock the HF frequencies if you didn't already have them as a result of a Basic with Honors.

This is a simplistic explanation and there are more details of each class that you learn or can lookup if your thinking of getting your amateur radio license in Canada.

Merry Christmas!