Ham Train Recommends

If you’re new to the hobby, you might be looking for some items to add to your amateur radio shack. Here are a few items that we’re happy to recommend:

Foundation Licence Manual “The Book”: Foundation Licence Manual

Cost is around £5, and available as a Paper version or Kindle Version

Intermediate Licence Manual Intermediate Licence Manual

After your Foundation, comes Intermediate. The book’s about £9, and is available as a Paper version or Kindle Version

RSGB Full Manual Full Licence Manual

After Intermediate comes the Full licence, and the manual for that is about £12, and is available as a Paper version

Exam Secrets Book RSGB Exam Secrets

Need some extra help? This book contains a summary of the main points for each of the 3 levels, plus lots of mock questions to try out. Paper version

Baofeng UV-5R 2m / 70cm 5 watt handheld

The Baofeng UV-5R is a basic 2m and 70cm handheld recommended to get you started:

You can buy a Baofeng from Amazon: Baofeng UV-5R – from Amazon

Want a pre-programmed Baofeng with UK repeater settings installed? Service available from Prepcomm UK

Realtek SDR Dongle USB Software Defined Radio

Listen to the bands on your computer with this USB software-defined radio – priced from £10-£15

USB Software Defined Radio Dongle at Amazon.

 

RSGB Yearbook RSGB Yearbook

A book full of callsigns, repeaters, clubs and very handy information – this is the annual yearbook from the RSGB.

RSGB Yearbook

Stealth Antennas Book RSGB Stealth Antennas Book

Got a small garden and want to set up an effective antenna without upsetting the neighbours? We recommend the Stealth Antenna book

RSGB Stealth Antennas Book

RSGB Radcom RSGB Membership & Radcom

You may want to consider joining the national body that protects and supports amateur radio.

Benefits of joining include: Radcom monthly magazine (and Radcom Basics), book discounts, contests and awards, free Bletchley Park entry, Planning & EMC advice and more.

Occasionally, there are some special offers for signing up – at the time of writing… free RSGB book vouchers, and you’ll be helping us too! RSGB Membership Offers

Note that we make a small commission from some of the items on this page. This helps to fund our free courses.