Essex Ham Chat Forum

Intermediate is definitely not being scrapped. If Ofcom were considering scrapping Intermediate, that proposal would have been part of last year's consultations. Moreover, scrapping Intermediate does not make any sense; it would leave a massive leap from Foundation to Full. Moreover, Intermediate is all the licence that many amateurs will need.

Not only is Intermediate staying, but the recent changes allowed greater power and new Intermediate licences will eventually get M8 callsigns (existing Intermediates will get the opportunity to move: 2x0 to M8 and 2x1 to M9).

The upcoming changes to Intermediate exams will not take effect until September 2024. Until then, the exams will be based on the old licence terms and conditions, not the new ones. There are no other changes in the pipeline for the Intermediate exam.

I would get on with studying for Intermediate whilst your Foundation knowledge is fresh. You can always leave the licence terms and conditions part of your studies until last, when it is clear whether you are targeting a pre-September (old licence terms) or post-September (new licence terms) exam.

yep as G0WZA says above, not seen any mention of scrapping intermediate

only changes are the 2E0 / 2E1 moving to M8/ M9

billy GM6DX does a great free intermediate online course Amateur Radio Courses by GM6DX (thinkific.com) get it done asap as its not a massive leap from foundation to intermediate

enjoy the uplift in power, foundation now allowed 25w and intermediate 100w

get the RSGB intermediate exam manual and the exam secrets book (it has lots of additional questions and information)

welcome to the hobby, most of all have fun

73

Peter 

M0PWX (not Pete M0PSX who runs the site)

Hi Steve, I'm just like you a newbie and just got my licence today (thanks a lot to Essex Ham and M0PSX for that!) . I've just joined the OARC club on Discord as they offer both intermediate and full courses in a similar way to Essex ham as in 'enthusiast run', with regular zoom sessions. There is a nominal 5 quid charge for each course. I have also been talking today to an Irish ham who is also a long term OARC member and colleague of mine about the amateur radio satellite and the plans they have which is super cool! The next intermediate course they are running I think starts in a month or so, and the full course in October and then I plan to do the 'straight to full' exam rather than both intermediate and then full ... has to be better to have less questions than more :-)

have heard good things about OARC, didn't realise they ran courses, must be a relatively new thing in the last year or so