Essex Ham Radio Free Learning Course

[cbp125]

OMG I am *so* far from understanding any of this I'm really good at "big picture" science, a la Horizon TV programme but using formulae and understanding voltage, current etc rather than nodding at them on a list and moving on ... nope. Even taking the test for module 2 (of 9) was agony, and it was still a fail. And I was cribbing It reminds me of the Physical Anthropology component of my wiffly waffly General Arts degree: there was quite a bit of science involved, where I had to understand and use it or fail the whole degree I spent an hour a day working through something called the Hardy-Weinberg equations, for about three weeks, until one day I just got it.

Trouble is, at this stage, it's all disconnected facts, it doesn't *mean* anything - wattage, voltage, whatever. I'm seriously language and arts I'm entitled to two more goes on the module 2 test ... I may get it, I may not. If I keep on feeling nauseous, I don't think I'll carry on best be honest here!

Breath, relax, you can do this! Use youtube for visual information, my other half is the same and could not get her head around the slides or books, watch it instead.

The way I understand electronics is by visualising a gardening hose pipe. Wattage is the total amount of water that can move through the pipe in any given time. The voltage is the amount of water sitting inside your waterbutt that "potentially" can flow through the hose. The amps relates to the thickness of the hosepipe and therefore how much water it can carry. They are all connected in similar ways so if you adjust one, it adjust the other. For example is I use a bigger hose pipe this would carry more water from my water butt. The bigger hose would be able to flow more water per hour than a smaller hose therefore the "Wattage" total water moved per hour increases.

Youtube has so many very good visual cartoon based explanations for this, but just remember on the foundation test the electronic questian only give you a couple of marks out of 26, even if you did not know ANY of the electrical stuff you could still pass easily on the other stuff.

[cbp125]

A prepper example...... I want to run my house on solar power, to work out what bits to buy I do some maths.

First I go around my house writing down a list of everything that I want to run on solar eg what is important to me. My list would be

Radio 10watt
Ham Radio 10watt
Some led lights 10watt
wifi router 10watt
TV 50watt (not real figures)

Then I would look on the back of these things to find out how much power they used and add them to the list and add up all the values

Total watts I want to power from my solar system is 90watt

Firstly I now know a 100watt solar panel will be fine to cover my needs then....

I know I will store the solar power in a leasure battery, these are 12volt so.....What size battery do I need to store that power??

I would use the triangle P/V =A eg Power in watts devided by Potential difference in Volts will equal the amount of Amps I need

Using 100watt as my total I devide this by 12v to give me 8.33Amp.

So if I used an 8Amp/hour battery charged up by my panel I could power my things for 1 hour. If I want it to last longer I work out how many hours I want it to last for eg I would like to power my things and watch TV for 10 hours then I need 10x the battery size eg 8amp x 10 hours equals 80Amp/hours battery.

I know this is confusing but this is a real world example of how a prepper would work out the figures, the example is not accurate, just a hypothetical.

[Arzosah]

Thanks both! I'll have another go - I may need to make a few attempts at this, they put Module 3 up last Friday because some people were champing at the bit, and they slow it down if enough people aren't progressing at a similar enough pace

Real world applicability, absolutely - I may be trying to do too much, actually - I'm trying to cook from preps, trying to plant some seeds, and continuine some genealogy research, as well as the ham radio. Cleaning is also becoming even more of an issue but now I've chosen this as one of my topics, I'll keep going.

Much appreciated.

[cbp125]

Have a look at dxcomander on youtube, his posts are usually very good, remember the technical side is not the bulk of the exam, and tbh it is far harder distance learning, as on a course we could tell if you were struggling and take more time to explain.

Ask if your confused and I will try to explain, do lots of radio tutor mock tests, and I mean lots it helps with learning.

There is def quite a lot going on. I keep hearing that people are bored of the lockdown with nothing to do.... and I have never been so busy. Planting and prepping the allotments, teaching my kids, cleaning the house, cooking, cooking and some more cooking!!! The kitchen has never been used so much in my life and I usually cooked a lot!

[Yorkshire Andy]

Well never read a book on the subject (I've got the slightly bout of date one on eBay for £5 )

Not bad for a 1st attempt did electronics at A-level so suppose that helps matters

[diamond lil]

Arzosah, I think I'll just get a good scanner or multi band radio.

[cbp125]

Arzosah, I think I'll just get a good scanner or multi band radio.

Don't be put off it is worth the effort, we all learn in different ways. With your previous CB experiance you would fly though the test

[cbp125]

Well never read a book on the subject (I've got the slightly bout of date one on eBay for £5 )

Not bad for a 1st attempt did electronics at A-level so suppose that helps matters

You could pass the advanced exam with that type of background!

The exams are also worded in such a way that if you are able to read the insinuations in the questions you can quite easily guess the answers.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Well never read a book on the subject (I've got the slightly bout of date one on eBay for £5 )

Not bad for a 1st attempt did electronics at A-level so suppose that helps matters

You could pass the advanced exam with that type of background!

The exams are also worded in such a way that if you are able to read the insinuations in the questions you can quite easily guess the answers.

Sussed that very quickly but are designed to catch you out things like UK power 110ac 230dc 50hz and 60hz same as most of these tests like the driving theory test ..

Been having a pole about can't quiet reach the Scunthorpe repeater need to try a few others
.. then again the beaufeng would probably benefit from a better antenna

[Yorkshire Andy]

Been reading about the practical elements been suspended for now probably a good time to do it no way of altering a antenna or tuning the swr on the little hand held that said I've done it for uk40 CB