This class aims to introduce you to the world of amateur (a.k.a. ham) radio. It will prepare you for the Technician class amateur radio licensing exam, with emphasis on demonstrating what you could do once you get the license. Though the class material focuses on the entry-level Technician exam, you have the opportunity to obtain the General and Extra licenses as well. This class welcomes ANYONE interested in becoming a licensed amateur radio user, regardless of major or background.

What can you do as a ham?
- Talk to people (near and far)
- Build stuff (amps, sdrs, antennas, receivers)
- Emergency communications (emcom)
- First person view (FPV) vehicles (drones) at much higher power for long distance
- Hit satellites, moon, meteors, airplanes (with radio waves! ... not something else)
- Digital communication with Automatic Positioning and Reporting System, packet radio
- Use Repeaters covering the Bay Area, California and the United States, mesh networks

Each class consists of a 50-minute introductory discussion on a topic, followed by an hour of a hands-on demonstration. Before you get licensed, we want you to start listening to what’s out there, so your main homework assignment is to keep a radio log over the course of the semester. You will check out a hand-held transceiver (to be returned at the end of the semester) to monitor local bands and software-defined radios freely available online to monitor worldwide amateur bands.

Enrollment is on a first-come, first-serve basis. If there is an unusually high enrollment, the licensing exam session will still be open to more people who would like to get licensed, but cannot make it into the class.