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Why Take a test???


RF Safety, Electrical safety, safety safety safety.

Because on amateur radio, in most cases you can operate at 1500 Watts.

It is quite a step up from CB at 4-12 watts.

If you read most of the questions in the pool, you will see it is mostly safety related.

Especially near the UHF portion, it gets dangerous.

Hope that helps ya Bobby?
 
It's the law.

Follow our friend MackMobile's example.

He fought the law....and the law won.


Really.....it was in the sports page last Monday

Law 27 - MackMobile 24 (in overtime)
 
Getting Licensed

The rules for earning an Amateur Radio license vary depending on which country you live in. You need to know the rules to operate legally. You also need to know how to operate safely and you’ll need some knowledge and training to operate successfully.
 
to learn how to not turn your brain into mush and you also learn how cells heatup and distroy themselfs when exposed to stray rf.

one thing i leaned is my antenna was way to low for the ammount of power i was running.
 
Some of it comes from International treaties.

IARUWeb:


That's the answer pretty much right there. All radio frequencies that have the possibility of traveling across international borders must be regulated internationally in order to provide some means of management and control. Being able to understand just what happens to your signal after it leaves your antenna as well as how to operate a station in such a manner so as to not cause interference to other users of the radio spectrum is necessary to obtain this management and control.

Lots of people question this and bitch about it but if they spent half the time studying that they spend complaining about it they would pass the exam with flying colors. Just be thankful the exams are nothing like they were many years ago. Twenty-some years ago when I wrote it was 50 multiple choice questions on regulations, 50 multiple choice questions on theory, and I believe another ten questions that involved either a written paragraph d4escribing something or drawing a schematic diagram of a basic circuit or block diagram of a complete station layout using components that were in a list. Funny how back then nobody seemed to complain or question the reasons why.
 
Yep, because of international treaty is the first reason.

But Happy_Hamer is also right about the safety aspect. When you start using RF at UHF frequencies and above, it can be very dangerous without even that much power. Did you know that you can cause eye damage with RF at the 440 mhz frequency range?
 
For the same reasons as you took a test to get a drivers license, and you have to take a test for a pilots license, or a bus drivers license, or a contractors license, or an electricians license... Because it is required by law.
 
Why should you have to take exams to talk on ham radios??? It just dont make sense to me.....

This is a valid question to ask, because congress cannot delegate law making to another agency. Federal regulation of hobby radio is unconstitutional at the federal level. One could make a case that it involves interstate commerce, but thats a stretch.

A licensed ham has much more privilege that just to "talk on ham radios".
You are allowed to build and modify your own radios (and related equipment), and run them legally. This requires that you have knowledge of the rules of spectral purity and the confines of frequency ranges that you may transmit in.
You are allowed to operate a repeater.
There is no limit to how far you may communicate.

Legal CB radio doesn't require such technical abilities because the intention is that you are using equipment which is certified to meet certain criteria, and that you're not allowed to modify the CB equipment.
 

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