Eric wrote:
Hi,

I should begin by stating that I'm not an amateur radio operator, however I
have been putting some serious consideration into taking up the hobby.
There are two groups in my area, one at the University that I attend - the
other a city group, and I have collected various information from their
respected web sites. I plan on attending some upcoming events to see what
its all about, get a feel for the community, and then hopefully become
involved.

I do have some background in RF, however. I was in the military and worked
with microwave (SHF) satellite and troposcatter terminals. I'm familiar
with basic component electronics, multiplexing techniques,
modulation/demodulation techniques, up/down conversion, signal amplication,
antenna gain (at least for parabolics), bulk encryption techniques, test
equipment (made much use out of signal generators, spectrum analyzers,
o-scopes, multimeters, attenuators, etc). Basically, I have familiarity
with everything that was required to bring up the systems I used and keep
them running. I'm more familiar with the properties of SHF than HF though.
We had HF equipment as well, but they were worked by people who had training
for HF equipment specifically. Some of the properties of HF came across to
me as being almost "black magic", since I didn't have familiarity with it.
The HF guys regarded HF as much of an art as a science. :^)


You should have no real problem passing the written tests
other than some rules and regulations and some HF related
stuff. See http://www.aa9pw.com/ for practice tests. Also
nowadays it's only 5 words per minute Morse code for the general
and extra licenses. The tech is no code, which gives you all
ham privs above 50MHz.