Education Department – Course Information 2024

Course Name: Preparing for the Canadian Amateur Radio Examinations (page updated 2024-10-06)

For more info and registration contact us: Contact Form 

2025 in person course

Our next course will probably be 2025 in late September. If we receive requests for more than 20 seats before September, we will enquire about the available dates for Emery Hall. They usually have Friday evenings open. We will then ask those on the list if they can attend on those dates.

How to join a course

If you would like to join our 2024 or 2025 course, please use the Contact Form (https://www.ve7vic.ca/education-department-contact/) to let us know that you are interested and if you have any questions. The fee will be 100 CAD by Interac to payments@ve7vic.ca. Put your name, personal email address and “Student fee” in the memo field. Note: the Interac payment notification we get does not contain your email address unless you enter it into the memo field.

2024 in person course

Our 2024 September start course is being held in Colwood at Emery Hall. Yes, we still have seats available (22 students registered to date with room for a maximum of 32). If you have a decent electronics background, you are welcome to join late and sit the exam with us.

Dates for our 8 week course are Friday evenings:

  • 2024-09-20T18:00-21:00 Introduction
  • 2024-09-27T18:00-21:00 Ohm’s Law, Inductors and Capacitors
  • 2024-10-04T18:00-21:00 Waves and propagation
  • 2024-10-11 Skipped evening as Emery Hall is not available to us with a field trip to EMBC HQ
  • 2024-10-18T18:00-21:00 Transmission Lines and Antennas
  • 2024-10-25T18:00-21:00 Solid state electronics, Power Supplies and Establishing an Amateur Station
  • 2024-11-01T18:00-21:00 Modulators, Transmitters and Receivers
  • 2024-11-08T18:00-21:00 Safety and Regulations (25% of exam!)
  • 2024-11-15T18:00-21:00 Exams: Basic and optional Advanced.

Examiners

WARA has two experienced examiners available.

Our primary examiner says: “Taking an amateur course is a good idea but not mandatory.” He does perform examinations for self studied students. An option for anyone who wishes to start now is to order the study guide discussed below, and practice with the exam questions available at: https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/025.nsf/eng/h_00040.html When you believe you are ready, send an email using the above Contact Form and our examiner will make arrangements with you. You could also participate in our Public Service activities (such as radio team support to the 2024-10-13 Royal Victoria Marathon: https://www.ve7vic.ca/public-service-and-events/marathon/) to gain some practice by pairing up with some of our experienced operators before your examination.

In person course details

Take Victoria’s amateur radio course, sponsored by the Westcoast Amateur Radio Association, and become a qualified amateur radio operator. This course will guide you through the process of learning the material required to pass the Canadian Amateur Radio Certificate Exam Basic Level. You will have access to a variety of different forms of radio communications including, voice, digital voice, Morse code, packet and many more on VHF and UHF bands.

In addition, a passing grade of 80% or more will also get you the designation of Basic with Honors, giving you the privileges of operating a ham radio station on the long distance HF frequencies (30 MHz and below).

Some of the more exotic things a ham operator can do include:

  • Talking to the International Space Station
  • Use internet-via-radio to talk to Antarctica, Australia, Asia, or Europe
  • Practice Moon bounce and satellite communication
  • Explore solar flux
  • Entering the great many radio communication contests with points and certificates for high scores
  • Contact Japan / Australia / Brazil / Western Europe / all of the US and Canada using just 5 watts with the FT8 digital modulation
  • or just talk to friends in Victoria, Canada, and the whole wide world!

Most of the local municipalities and cities within the Victoria area have emergency amateur radio communication groups. This is a great place to make connections with fellow ham operators, learn new skills related to the hobby and to provide a valuable service to the community in the event of significant emergency in the area.

Our course will be a guided tour of the Canadian Amateur Radio Basic Qualification Guide– 9th Edition 5th printing produced by Coax Publications (green book). Over an 8 week period we will have classroom sessions once per week where we will have qualified radio operators guide you through the learning sessions mostly by using slides shown on a television screen at the front of the class. Several of the instructors will bring in their own radio equipment for show and tell. There will be hands on opportunities to operate and learn with ham radio equipment. There will always be time for questions during each class. We encourage students to take advantage of the experience of the instructors. If you don’t know something, your fellow students will also likely benefit from the discussion. If they don’t know the answer to your questions, they will certainly be able to help find it.

Important! Studying and preparing for your basic amateur radio exam requires substantial effort and reading. The questions aren’t too hard to understand, but there are 1,000 of them. The official question bank (with answers) is available at https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/amateur-radio-operator-certificate-services/en/amateur-radio-exam-generator. If you aren’t sure if you can commit the time required, have a look at a few random exam questions and try to research the answers using your favorite internet search engine. If you find yourself low on time as the exam approaches, concentrate on the question bank and understanding the differences between the two close answers out the 4 available multiple choice options.

Our classroom sessions will include review of the readings from the book and on the requirements and regulations surrounding the operation and use of amateur radio stations. We hope to provide a comfortable and friendly learning environment. We encourage participants to get to know each other as this will give you a small group of friends who will be going on the air at the same time as you. Consequently, you need never wonder who you can call to test out your brand new radio – simply call one of your classmates or instructors! The connections you will make during the course can follow you for many years as this is a hobby that promotes interactions with fellow operators.

During the course, we will also be arranging optional opportunities to visit ham radio operators in their home “shacks” as well as ride-a-longs to experience operating in a mobile environment. Each student should get an opportunity to listen and talk on some various types of equipment and frequency bands. As long as you are under the supervision of a qualified operator, you are encouraged to speak on the air before your receive your call sign.

The examinations come around all too soon. Each student will write the multiple choice Basic exam and will know the results within minutes. The examiner uses a light box with an answer key to mark it very quickly. Once you pass your exam and get a call sign you are good to go on the air solo and start enjoying this exciting new hobby. Although we will not be covering any of the Advanced Certificate material in our course there will be an opportunity for those who are interested, and prepared, to write the Advanced exam or the Morse code exam. Additional requirements to study for the Advanced level and Morse code exam can be discussed with the instructors.

Location

Emery Hall is located in Colwood at 537 Glencairn Lane V9B 2B3 with gps coordinates of 48.43840674044145, -123.48929077228055. Note that Glencain Lane does not connect directly to Sooke Road: you have to turn north west onto Mt View Ave next to the Shell station.

Map to Emery Hall in Colwood

Parking lot outside of Emery Hall in Colwood

Parking lot outside of Emery Hall in Colwood. There is more parking behind the view from the camera on the gravel part of the road alongside the adjacent Saint John the Baptist Church.

Class in session with tables and chairs set up for 16 students.

Maximum class size is 32 students. Extra chairs will be placed at the ends of each table which will be further staggered. The kitchen is behind the camera. Separate washrooms are through the door (not shown) to the left. There is a wheelchair ramp available to enter the back of the building.

The text on the television screen between the windows was scaled up to enable legible viewing from the back of the room. Some students bring laptops or tablets and follow along with the slide decks from their seats. The slide decks are in .odp format which can be opened by the free application that can be downloaded from https://www.libreoffice.org/ . Power Point format can be made available, but the animations may not work correctly. The password to download these slide decks from https://www.ve7vic.ca/wara-ham-class-documentation/ will be supplied once your tuition is received. There is local Wi-Fi available in the classroom (the password is written above the light switch).

Tuition:

  • Individual $100 per person (2024 September rates)

Tuition Includes:

  • 8 evening classroom sessions
  • Visits to home and mobile stations with local hams
  • Coffee, tea, hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies for the mid evening breaks
  • Examination fees for Basic and optional Advanced or Morse code examinations taken on exam day
  • Associate Membership in WARA (valid up to renewal time in 2025 December).

Note: Students are required to purchase the Canadian Amateur Radio Basic Qualification Guide – 9th Edition  (available from www.coaxpublications.ca for 49.95 CAD plus shipping).

What happens to the tuition fees?

  • Payment to the city of Colwood for the rental of Emery Hall.
  • Most of the extra fees go directly to support WARA’s extensive repeater network. You are encouraged to use the system often as you become a fractional owner of it. The main repeater on Mount McDonald had a new large battery bank installed in 2022 at a cost of 10 000 CAD.
  • Much of the remainder of the tuition fees go towards radio equipment purchases in support of public service events such as field day.
  • All of the instructors and leadership of WARA are volunteers: no one in the club is paid.
  • If you are only doing an exam, the 20 CAD fee is used for printing supplies and papers.

Additional materials

Students should download the following documents from Government of Canada Web site for study.