Is your club running amateur radio training courses? And if not, why not?
Here is a quick checklist of some of the things you may need to consider when thinking about setting up training:
Training Roles
Some of the roles that you may need to have in place. In general, people can hold multiple roles as needed:
- Training Manager: Decide on the course structure & staffing
- Training Administrator: Take bookings, take money, contact students, book venue
- Exam Secretary: Book exams, pay RSGB, sort exam papers
- Registered Assessors: Ensure the practicals are done correctly (Require RSGB approval)
- Morse Assessor: Ensure CW practical is done correctly
- Tutors: To run though the training material (if teaching locally)
- Invigilators: Lead plus one or two others. Lead can’t be involved with training the students
- Helpers: Teamaking, remote end of QSO, revision
- Reader: For any dyslexic or blind students (ideally not licensed)
Foundation Topics
From the Syllabus, here are the Foundation modules:
- Technical Basics
- Transmitters & Receivers
- Feeders & Antennas
- Propagation
- Licence Conditions
- EMC
- Safety
- Operating Practices
Requirements
- An RSGB-approved venue
- Slides & Projector (Essex Ham offers free Foundation slides)
- Whiteboard
- Wi-fi & PCs (if going for online exams – recommended)
- VHF radio and PSU
- HF radio and PSU
- Dipole (for tuning practical)
- CW key, oscillator, crib sheets
- Safeguarding policy (DBS checks for volunteers? Training for young people & vulnerable adults)
- Exam clock
Training
- 8 modules (classroom slides, online course or RSGB book)
- 5 practicals (HF QSO, VHF QSO, Station Build, Antenna Tuning, CW appreciation)
- Exam (26 question multiple choice). Preference is for online exams – requires club (or students) to provide laptop and wi-fi connection
