M0TCX (2E0CTX,M6CTU) Piotr's website. I took my foundation weekend, IL practical and exam with Piotr. Although I beat him to the full licence, he has totally outdone me with the quality of his website. Latest, Piotr made it and is now M0TCX.
OZ1BXM Terrific advice and information for QRP operators. Lars advice is also more than applicable to any operator with modest aerials and lower power output.
Amateur Radio Club Sites
The Radio Society of Harrow Due to proximity, I talk to more members of the Harrow club than my own. A highly respected club going back many years.
Handy Sites for the Radio Amateur
Club Log An excellent free service (although please donate a little to help the running costs). An introduction to what it is and what it can offer can be found HERE
Ron's reputation is fantastic and well deserved. Only the very best products are sold by Ron, and he won't push a particular product simply because he can make a bit of extra profit on it compared to another product.... which is more than can be said for some amateur radio outlets. If you want the best, you go to Ron Stone at Vine, and don't think you'll be paying extra either, his prices are usually the best around.
Martin Lynch & Sons A lot of stock held, including all the goodies from Yaesu, Icom and many other brands. They can also supply practically anything in production, including Cushcraft, OptiBeam, Diamond Antennas, Hustler Antennas and Comet Antennas.
Maritime Sparks? Try this
http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/ There's a dedicated and active forum for ex/current maritime radio ops on this Shipping community. With over 42,000 members, this isn't one of those communities with tumbleweed floating around!
Maidenhead Locator Map Superb locator map based on Google mapping. Scroll around, zoom in and click the location and you'll see the locator for that square. Handy for finding out the locator of a station worked who hasn't got their locator stated anywhere but you know their town/village.
Amateur Radio Prefix List There is no shortage of prefix lists on the web, but this one is special, in that it has a breakdown of countries into their regions and the prefix for that region. I know to some it will sound anal but as an SWL I spent more time chasing S. American regions than I did U.S. states (I was never so deep that I chased U.S. counties).
In the old days it was painstaking work going through the huge foreign listings callbook and working out which prefix went with which state/region in a country, having an atlas at hand as well. Fortunately I still have my old SWL logbooks (big manuscript books) so I still had a reference to go to, BUT now it s all there for you on this link...and I can see some minor mistakes in my old books, usually spelling.
AC6V.com, I salute you!!
www.hamradioforum.net A friendly forum for amateur radio discussion from the guys who brought us hamtests
www.qrz.com/site.html The big one 'The Zed'. If your call isn't in the qrz database, it should be. Register on their forum page and then post a request to be added to the database in the 'DX Helpers' section. You can then modify your entry when you are added. Every amateur radio operator should be in this database. The forums are like any 'big board', exhibitionists will stand out but most people on there are decent guys.
Propagation Websites
Gong Magnetogram Images Not only the namesake of one of my favourite rock bands, but the site to go for the very latest solar magnetograms. Watch and pray for the magnetic signatures of aspiring sun spots. I don't think you'll find many closer to realtime than here. A great site for those too impatient to await SOHO updates.
Stereo Science Center Another great site for the impatient, continually updated images from the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), one positioned so as to see what is coming around to face the earth, and another for what has gone around i.e. you can see that activity well before it arrives on the solar surface facing the earth.
Solarycycle24.com A great site from Kevin VE3EN full of resources regarding solar conditions. A lively forum is attached.
Websites For the Aspiring Radio Amateur - Tuition Help
www.hamtests.co.uk A great place to start out and take mock exams. A very large database of questions for the first two exams and a building collection of questions for the full exams. As ever, don't over-do the mocks exams or they will become meaningless.
BRATS - Bredhurst Receiving & Transmitting Society A huge resource of study material and help for all 3 exams. A navigational nightmare, so be patient. Click HERE to go directly to their Full licence tuition section. This site really helped me in passing the full exam without the need for any course, the key by key help in terms of the mathematics side was a particular help... just buy the same calculator that they recommend ;-)
QADV - Questions for Radio Amateurs Absolutely terrific little downloadable programme for those attempting the full licence exam. A huge and regularly updated database of questions. Allows you to concentrate on the areas that you may be struggling with. I'd rate this far above hamtests at the moment. A big 'thank you' to G3KZB for this resource.
