After wanting to get my Canadian Amateur Radio Operators Certificate (Ham Radio License) for many years, I finally obtained it in March 2017.
In order to obtain the Basic certificate you need to write a 100 question multiple choice exam and have a final mark of 70% or higher. If you get 80% or higher, you get the Basic with Honours certificate allowing the same privileges as the Basic certificate, but with the ability to transmit on all amateur bands (>30MHz). I achieved a mark of 81% on my exam.
On air, I go by the callsign in the below image. I don’t have any fancy equipment, just my little Baofeng UV-5R. For the time being it is really all I need.
I seem to have gravitated towards APRS (Automatic Packet/Position Reporting System) than voice communications in my time as an operator. With APRS I can use my UV-5R coupled with a 3rd gen. Moto G (previously a 1st gen. Moto G) running an app called APRSDroid The app uses the GPS in the phone to obtain location information.
The phone is connected to the radio with a 3.5mm aux. cable from the headphone port on the phone to the mic port on the radio. The app then sends a burst of data (audio) which keys the radio to transmit (VOX needs to be enabled on the radio for this to work). The transmission is picked up by an APRS receiver if one is within range and your position is uploaded to the internet so that you can be tracked. Using a website like APRS.fi , you can view the locations of other operators/stations all over the globe.
Current Equipment:
See Equipment page.
maltosekincaid.com 