Amateur Radio frequencies etc.
This page is about listening to Amateur Radio signals.
If you want to know about Amateur Radio as a hobby, follow this link.
We also have a page about repeaters and beacons
Equipment
You could start with a scanner or an ordinary radio that covers the shortwave bands.
Although many domestic radios cover some of the Amateur shortwave bands, they normally lack the ability to receive our high efficiency signals. Look for controls marked BFO, SSB, CW or LSB - these radios are ideal for receiving us but check the frequency coverage. Even if your radio doesn’t have this type of control, we may be able to help you with an adapter.
Alternatively, you could use a cheap plug-in adaptor on a computer ot laptop. We have a page on using USB adaptors with SDR sharp software.
Frequencies
Amateurs are allocated frequencies that range from 136KHz (longer than Radio 4 Long Wave, which is on 198KHz), through the short waves, skipping over domestic FM radio frequencies (on 88 to 108MHz) and into our own VHF and UHF bands then going through Microwaves (such as our near wifi band on 2400MHz) and up to 250,000MHz (also known as 250GHz). In older terms, our bands range from over 2000 metres to 1mm. However, some frequency bands are more popular than others. The most popular frequency bands are:
- 1.8 to 2.0 MHz
- 3.5 to 3.8 MHz *
- 7.0 to 7.2 MHz
- 14.0 to 14.35 MHz *
- 21.0 to 21.45 MHz
- 28.0 to 29.7 MHz
- 50.0 to 52.0 MHz
- 70.0 to 70.5 MHz
- 144 to 146 MHz *
- 430 to 440 MHz
- 1240 to 1325 MHz
Amateur Radio frequencies are allocated by the International Telecommunications Union, which is part of the United Nations.
The language of Amateur Radio
Like many hobbies and technical occupations, Amateur Radio has its own jargon. Many words and acronyms come from Morse Code, where there is a need to make messages shorter. Others come from the old telegraph service, where there is a need to separate information about the service from the actual message that was being sent. For example, you may hear:
- CQ (seek you) A general call for other stations to respond.
- DX Long distance
- QRZ Who is calling me (also a database of licence holders)
- QTH Location
- QRM Interference
- QRN Noise (a noisy signal)
- QRP Low Power (in the UK, a station using less than 10 watts)
- QRT Closing down
- QSB Fading
- QSL Confirmation (A QSL card confirms a contact)
- QSO A contact with another station
You may also hear “you are five and nine” (or similar). This is a signal report: five means that the message is easily understood and nine is a strong signal.
Call-Signs
All licensed Radio Amateurs are allocated their own personal call-sign, The first character (or characters) indicate the country that they are operating from. For example:
- GB British Special Event Station
- G, M or 2E England
- GM, MM or 2M Scotland
- GW, MW or 2W Wales
- GI, MI or 2I Northern Ireland
- EI Eire (Southern Ireland)
- F France
- D Germany
- K or W USA
- VK Australia
- ZL New Zealand
Single Sideband
Radio Amateurs tend to use Single Sideband (SSB) on shortwave. This is at least four times more efficient than the Amplitude Modulation (AM) that is used by professional broadcasters on the long, medium and short wave bands. With AM, a minimum of 50% of the energy goes into a ’carrier“. This carrier carries no information at all but provides a reference signal that allows your receiver to decode the information correctly. The remaining energy is split between two sidebands - in effect, the same signal is sent twice.
In SSB there is no carrier and we only send the signal once. This means that it is unintelligable on a normal (AM) radio as it has no reference signal. In order to receive SSB, you need a receiver with a Beat Frequency Oscilator (BFO or CIO). We can supply designs for external BFOs that will allow you to receive SSB on a normal receiver.
The benefit of using SSB is that we get an immediate quadrupling of power. A 400 watt SSB transmitter is equivalent to 1600 watts of AM.
Beacons and Repeaters
Beacons are fixed stations that operate 24 hours per day and 365 days per year. They are used to judge propogation conditions.
Repeaters operate in the VHF and UHF bands. They were designed to allow mobile and portable stations to keep in touch whilst travelling but they can be used by all amatuers to increase the distance on their VHF and UHF contacts.
Notes:
* The frequency band of 3.5 to 3.8MHz is great for British and European contacts although stations from further away can sometimes be heard in the morning and evening.
14.0 to 14.35MHz is probably the best band for intercontinental (DX) contacts.
Both of these bands use SSB almost exclusively, for speech.
144 to 146MHz, using FM, is the best band for high quality speech over distances of up to 50 miles (80Km) although much greater distances are possible at times (using SSB). This band also has a large number of signal repeaters that allow high quality contacts over long distances or when mobile.
Morse signals are even more efficient than SSB and will generally travel over even further distances.
We also have pages on:
Amateur Radio
Repeaters
Low cost radio receiver
Training and Exams