What is amateur radio for?
The exam likes to ask what amateur radio is for, and it likes to offer you answers that sound right but are not on the list. Learn the list and the traps together.
The definition
Amateur radio is a radiocommunication service for the purpose of self-training, intercommunication and technical investigations.
Three words to notice: self-training, intercommunication (talking to each other) and technical investigations (experimenting). Business is not among them.
The five purposes
- Emergency communications
- Advancement of the radio art
- Improving communication and technical skills
- More trained radio operators and electronics experts
- Enhancement of international goodwill
The four things that are not purposes
The exam offers these as wrong answers. None of them is a purpose of amateur radio:
- enhancing patriotism,
- preserving the history of radio,
- business communications,
- improving business skills.
You now know
- Amateur radio is a radiocommunication service for self-training, intercommunication and technical investigations.
- The five purposes are emergency communications, advancing the radio art, improving communication and technical skills, more trained operators and electronics experts, and international goodwill.
- Patriotism, radio history, business communications and business skills are not purposes.