Syllabus for HAM radio exams in India :

Section I:
Radio Theory and Practice

Elementary electricity and magnetism

Elementary theory of electricity, conductors and insulators, units, Ohm's law, resistance in-series and parallel, conductance, power and energy, permanent magnets and electromagnets and their use in radio work; self and mutual inductance; types of inductors used in receiving and transmitting circuits, capacitance; construction of various types of capacitors and their arrangements in series and/or parallel.

Elementary theory of alternating currents

Sinusoidal alternating quantities-peak, instantaneous, RMS, average values, phase; reactant's, impedance; series and parallel circuits containing resistance, inductance, capacitance; power factor, resonance in series and parallel circuits; coupled circuits; transformers for audio and radio frequencies.

Thermionic Valves

Construction of valves; thermionic emission, characteristic curves, diodes, triodes and multi-electrode valves; use of valves as rectifiers, oscillators, amplifiers, detectors and frequency changers, power packs, stabilization and smoothing.

Elementary theory and construction of semiconductor devices

Diodes and Transistors.

Radio receivers

Principles and operation of TRF and superheterodyne receivers, CW reception, receiver VA, WA, WB.

The written examination for Grade II licence is of one hours duration. The maximum number of marks is 100. Candidates must secure at least 40 per cent in each section and 50 per cent in aggregate to pass.

The syllabus for Grade I licence is the same as that for Grade II licence, but the written examination for Grade I licence is of two hours duration. The maximum number of marks is 100 and candidates must secure at least 50 per cent in each section and 55 per cent in aggregate for a pass.

Part II: MORSE CODE

(a) Section I: Morse receiving (Speed: 5 words per minute)

The test piece will consist of a plain language passage of 125 letters, five letters counting as one word. Candidates are required to receive for five consecutive minutes at the speed of 5 words per minute from a double headgear headphone receiver, international Morse code signals from an audio frequency oscillator keyed either manually or automatically. A short practice piece may be sent at the prescribed speed before the start of the actual test. Candidates will not be allowed more than one attempt in each test. The test may be written in ink or pencil but must be legible. Bad handwriting and over-writing will render a candidate liable to disqualification.

More than five errors will disqualify a candidate.

(b) Section II : Morse Sending (Speed: 5 words per minute)

The test piece will consist of a plain language passage of 125 letters, five letters counting as one word. Candidates are required to send on an ordinary key for five consecutive minutes at the minimum speed of five words per minute. A short practice piece may be allowed before the actual test. Candidates will not be allowed more than one attempt in the test. Efforts should be made to correct all errors. However, more than five uncorrected errors will disqualify a candidate. The accuracy of signaling, correct formation of characters and the correctness of spacing shall be taken into account. A candidate is required to pass both in Part I and Part II. In the case of candidates qualifying in Part I only, the license shall be restricted.To radiotelephone operations in the VHF ham band only. characteristics-sensitivity, selectivity, fidelity; adjacent channel and image interference; AVC and squelch circuits; signal to noise ratio.

Transmitter

Principles and operation of low power transmitter; crystal oscillators, stability of oscillators.

Radio propagation

Wavelength, frequency, nature and propagation of radio waves; ground and sky waves; skip distance; fading.

Aerials

Common types of transmitting and receiving aerials.

Frequency measurement

Measurement of frequency and use of simple frequency meters.

SECTION II :
Radio Regulations

(a) Knowledge of :

(i) the Indian Wireless Telegraph Rules, 1973; and

(ii) the Indian Wireless Telegraphs (Amateur Service) Rules, 1978.

(b) Knowledge of International Radio Regulations as relating to the operation of amateur stations with particular emphasis on the following:

Designation of Emission,

Nomenclature of the frequency and wavelength,

Frequency allocation to amateur radio service,

Measures against Interference,

Interference and tests, Identification of stations,

distress and urgency transmissions,

Amateur Stations,

Phonetic alphabets and figure code.

(c) Standard frequency and time signal services in the world.

(d) The following 'Q' codes and abbreviations which shall have meaning as assigned to them in the International

Telecommunication Union (ITU) convention :

QRA, QRG, QRH, QRI, QRK, QRL, QRM, QRN, QRQ, QRS, QRT, QRU, QRV, QRW, QRX, QRZ, QSA,QSB, QSL, QSL, QSO, QSU, QSV, QSW, QSX, QSY, QSZ, QTC, QTH, QTR and QUM.

Telegraphic (Morse code) abbreviations: AA, AB, AR, AS, BT, C, CFM, CL, CQ, DE, K, KN, NIL, OK, R, TU,

Morse Code test for Grade I

Receiving-(Speed: 12 words per minute)

The test piece will consist of a plain language passage of 300 characters which may comprise letters, figures and punctuation (punctuation are indicated below). The average words shall contain five characters and each figure and punctuation will be counted as two characters. Candidates are required to receive for five consecutive minutes at a speed of 12 words per minute. Other conditions are the same as applicable to Grade II Examination.

Punctuations

Full stop, Comma, Semi-colon, Break sign (BT), Hyphen and Question mark.

Sending-(Speed: 12 words per minute)

The test piece will be similar to Morse receiving test. Candidates are required to send for five consecutive minutes at a speed not less than 12 words per minute. Other conditions are the same as applicable to Grade II examination.

A candidate is required to pass both in Part I and Part II simultaneously.

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Advanced Amateur Station Operators' Examination

Part I-Written Test

(a) Section 1: Radio Theory and Practice

In addition to the syllabus prescribed for Grade II Examination, following items shall be included in the syllabus

of Advanced Amateur Station Operators' Examinations :-

i) Motors and generators: Elementary principles and construction of alternators, motors and generators.

(ii) Alternating current: Construction of transformers, transformer losses, transformer as a matching device.

(iii) Measuring instruments: Moving coil and moving iron meters, frequency meters.

(iv) Semiconductor devices and transistors: Elementary principles of conduction and construction, symbols, biasing methods.

(v) Power supplies: Half wave and full wave rectifiers, smoothing and regulation, bridge rectifier.

(vi) Modulation: Principles of frequency modulation.

(vii) Transmitters and receivers: Elementary principles of transmission and reception of facsimile and television signals, elementary principles of transmitters and receivers employing single side band.

(viii) Propagation: Characteristics of ionosphere and troposphere. Properties of different reflecting layers, optimum working frequency, day and night frequencies.

(ix) Aerials: Principles of radiation, aerials for different frequency bands including aerials for microwave.

(x) Space communications: Elementary principles of communication via satellite.

(b) Section 2: Radio Regulations

Syllabus is same as prescribed for Grade II Examination. The test is of 3 hours duration. The maximum number of marks is 100 and candidate must secure at least 50 per cent in each section and 60 per cent in aggregate for a pass.

Part II- Morse Code

Syllabus is same as prescribed for Grade I Examination.

Part-III

Radio Theory and Practice

A. Elementary Theory of Electricity & Magnetism