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Ham Train

Ham Train

The UK Amateur Radio Training Site, from Essex Ham

Foundation Study Guide
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Foundation Training Books, Manuals and Guides

Kelly Foundation Training PhotoIf you’re looking to study for your first amateur radio licence, having a book on the subject can be  a great help – for study on the move, for highlighting sections of interest, or just as a handy reference and revision guide.

The good news is that there are now several options for study books, guides and manuals – you can choose a printed manual sold from suppliers like Amazon, printable PDF guides, and eBooks for the Amazon Kindle platform (so that the guidebook can be with you all of the time in electronic format).

On this page, we’ll cover the various options available to those starting out in amateur radio.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please add them in the comments section below.

HamTrain’s Foundation Study Guide

Amateur Radio Foundation Study GuideOK, we’re a little biased here as this is our own product. To support our free online course, we released a handy Foundation Study Guide in 2024. This includes diagrams, photos, tables and material from our successful online course that has helped over 12,000 students to study for their Foundation licence.

Our Foundation Study Guide covers the current syllabus and is suitable for exams from 1st September 2024.

The Guide covers the essentials and is broken down into sections that match our course modules. The guide ends with some handy tips on how to pass the Foundation exam, as well as a mock test. It also contains a handy glossary and an exam FAQ.

The Guide is a handy size, with over 80 pages covering both the syllabus and how to pass the Foundation exam.

Our Foundation Study Guide is available now from Amazon in two formats: Paperback, Kindle, Apple Books, Audiobook, Apple Audiobook and Kobo Readers.

RSGB’s Foundation Licence Manual for Radio Amateurs

Foundation ManualIt’s hard to recommend the RSGB’s Foundation Licence Manual currently. A new version was released in July 2024 and it contains several errors, omissions, incorrect statements and information that is intended for higher levels of exams, making it more challenging for new students than it needs to be.

The RSGB’s “third edition” was released in July 2024, intended for exams on or after 1st September 2024. As with all RSGB training manuals, it’s not clear from the cover which version is which, meaning it’s common for students to be buying older manuals and studying from out-of-date versions. For more, see our page on the RSGB Foundation Licence Manual.

The latest version contains 42 pages of study material, plus many additional pages of adverts. The Foundation Licence Manual (by the RSGB) is available from around £8 online from the following places:

  • eBay Book Store (Paper format)
  • Amazon (Kindle format)
  • RSGB Bookstore (Paper format)

John Hislop’s Foundation Student Guide

Trainer John Hislop has released a range of free manuals in PDF format, including a Student Guide for Foundation.

You can download a free copy of this and other manuals from www.g0hrs.org/g7oho-training-manuals

RSGB’s Exam Secrets

RSGB Exam Secrets BookThe RSGB publishes a book of exam questions. This includes questions for all three licence levels.

At the time of writing, the book is available from Amazon (Kindle), or the RSGB (paperback):

  • Exam Secrets for Radio amateurs (Paperback, from RSGB and Moonraker’s eBay store)
  • Exam Secrets for Radio amateurs (Amazon Kindle)
  • Exam Secrets for Radio amateurs (RSGB Book Store)

 

 

M0TZX’s Foundation Radio Revision Questions

Foundation Radio Revision QuestionsThis is an independent book containing over 200 mock questions for Foundation questions. As far as we know, the latest version is the 2022 edition, so may not cover the 2024 syllabus changes.

At the time of writing, the book is available from Amazon (Kindle), or the RSGB (paperback):

  • Foundation Radio Revision Questions (Paperback, from Amazon)
  • Foundation Radio Revision Questions (Amazon Kindle)

 

 

Related content

  • Training Links
  • Foundation Training Material
  • Foundation Study Guide: Training Book
  • Foundation Training Books, Manuals and Guides
  • How to become a radio amateur

Comments (2) on “Foundation Training Books, Manuals and Guides”

  1. Tom says:
    16 March 2025 at 15:49

    The ebay links are unusable for adblock users, I’m sorry to say. They result in 1x1px gif (used for cross-domain tracking, basically).

    Reply
    1. Pete Sipple Pete Sipple says:
      16 March 2025 at 16:05

      OK. There are a couple of options – disable Adblock temporarily, or go to eBay direct and search for the product you want manually. Hope that helps.

      Reply

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Calendar IconOur Foundation Online courses are FREE. There are no live lessons, you study at a time to suit you and you can now take your exam at home online.

Here are our upcoming course dates:

  • 1st June 2025
  • 15th June 2025
  • 6th July 2025
  • 3rd August 2025

Courses run for 3 weeks. If you have an upcoming exam booked and need to start now, we have an "on-demand" "fast track" option.

Want to get started?
Apply here

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Essex Ham Recommends:
Foundation Amateur Radio Study Guide

  • HamTrain's Foundation Study Guide. Available now on Amazon: (Kindle & Paperback), on Apple Books and now as an Audible Audiobook and Apple Audiobook
  • Basic handheld to get started: Baofeng UV-5R 2m/70cm handheld: £35 (See also: Pre-programmed Baofeng)
  • Listen to the bands on your computer: USB Software Defined Radio Dongle: £20

More Recommendations

Recent Posts

  • RSGB Exam Stats and Trends 2024
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  • Radio Tutor Mock Tests – Use with caution!
  • RSGB Exam Questions – Students Beware
  • Guidance for Students on courses before Course 168

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Foundation Online is a FREE course aimed at helping people study towards their UK amateur radio Foundation licence.

  • Total enrolled so far: 15,172
  • Number of courses run: 199
  • Average course size: 81.6
  • Pass rate: 98.2%

Stats updated 20 May 2025. Stats Summary

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