Royal Army College

Lesson Overview

The earlier lessons of this course taught you to operate a net well: to speak by procedure, to keep the net disciplined, and to pass and log a message that is understood the first time. This lesson steps back from the microphone and asks a question that sits underneath all of it. By what right do you transmit at all, and on what frequencies, with how much power, and within what law? Radio is not free air to be used as a unit pleases. It is a shared and finite resource, governed in every country by a licensing authority, and a force that means to operate lawfully, as the Royal Kaharagian Army does, must understand that governance before it keys a single set.

This is the law-and-licensing lesson. It teaches the structure of amateur radio licensing using the United States system as the worked example, because it is the most widely documented and the one our study material draws on, and then generalises it to the principle that holds everywhere: you must hold the proper licence, for the band and the place you transmit from, before you transmit on the amateur bands. It teaches what the radio bands are and what each is good for, so you can choose the right one for a task. It teaches the licence-free and low-barrier options the Army uses for training when members are not yet licensed, so that exercises stay lawful while the licensing is in progress. And it teaches the common shorthand of the radio world, the Q-codes and the readability and signal-report system, together with a note on the International Code of Signals for distress across a language barrier.

This is the knowledge layer. It tells you what is lawful and what each tool is for. The hands-on operating, actually transmitting on a live amateur band, programming a repeater, running a real net, is practised and signed off in person and on airsoft milsim exercises, and on the amateur bands it is done only by members who already hold the proper licence. Where members are not licensed, exercises use licence-free or low-power sets so that the training is lawful without exception. By the end you will be able to explain why radio is licensed and state the firm rule that you must be licensed to transmit on the amateur bands while listening is always free; describe the three United States licence classes earned in sequence and generalise them to the licensing law of any jurisdiction; explain what the HF, VHF, and UHF bands are good for and the difference between simplex and a repeater; choose an appropriate licence-free or low-barrier service for a training task; use the common Q-codes and give a signal report on the readability and strength scale; and explain in outline what the International Code of Signals is for.

Key Terms

Licensing authority: the government body that governs use of the radio spectrum in a jurisdiction and issues the licences to transmit on it; in the United States the FCC, with an equivalent body in every country.
Amateur radio: the licensed radio service for self-training, private experiment, and non-commercial communication; "ham" radio in common speech. Using it requires a personal licence earned by examination.
Licence class: a tier of amateur privilege earned by passing an examination; a higher class unlocks more bands and modes. In the United States the three classes are Technician, General, and Amateur Extra, earned in that order.
Band: a defined range of frequencies set aside for a purpose. HF, VHF, and UHF are the broad bands this lesson uses, each with its own propagation and its own best use.
HF (High Frequency): roughly 3 to 30 MHz; long-distance radio that can skip off the ionosphere to reach far beyond the horizon.
VHF / UHF: roughly 30 MHz upward (VHF) and higher again (UHF); local, line-of-sight radio for short to medium range, the staple of section and patrol work.
Simplex: radio to radio directly, both stations on one frequency with no equipment in between; range is limited by terrain and line of sight.
Repeater: a fixed station, usually high and well-sited, that receives on one frequency and re-transmits on another at once, extending the usable range of VHF and UHF radios far beyond simplex.
Licence-free service: a radio service the public may use without a personal licence, at low power and on fixed channels; FRS, PMR446, and MURS are examples, used by the Army for unlicensed training.
Q-code: a three-letter shorthand beginning with Q that stands for a whole question or statement, such as QTH for location or QSL for acknowledged; a worldwide convention from the early days of radio.
RST / readability: the system for reporting how well you receive a station, by Readability and Strength (and, in Morse, Tone); plainly, "how readable and how strong" the other station is.
International Code of Signals: a published international system (NGA Pub 102) of flag, light, and sound signals carrying safety and distress meanings across language barriers.

Why radio is licensed, and the rule that follows

The radio spectrum is shared. Every transmission, anywhere, occupies a frequency that no one else can use cleanly at the same time and place, and a careless or powerful transmitter interferes with aircraft, emergency services, broadcasters, and other users far beyond its operator's intent. Because the spectrum is finite and shared, every country governs it. A licensing authority, the FCC in the United States and an equivalent body elsewhere, divides the spectrum into services, sets who may use each and under what conditions, and issues the licences that grant the right to transmit. This is not bureaucracy for its own sake. It is the only way a shared resource stays usable for everyone, and it is law, carrying real penalties for those who ignore it.

From this comes the single firmest rule in this course, and you should fix it now and keep it. You must hold the proper licence, for the band you transmit on and the jurisdiction you transmit from, before you transmit on the amateur bands. Listening is a different matter entirely. Receiving needs no licence anywhere; you may scan, monitor, and learn the amateur bands freely with nothing more than a receiver. It is transmitting that is governed. The discipline is therefore simple to state. If you are not licensed, you may listen all you wish, but you do not transmit on an amateur frequency, full stop. When the Army needs unlicensed members to transmit in training, it puts them on a licence-free service instead, never on an amateur band borrowed without a licence. The Royal Kaharagian Army trains lawfully, and lawful operation begins here.

The three licence classes, and the principle behind them

The United States amateur service is earned in three classes, passed in sequence, each unlocking more of the spectrum. The lowest is Technician, the entry class. It is the gateway licence, earned by a single examination of basic rules, safety, and operating practice, and it grants full privileges on the VHF and UHF bands plus limited slices of HF. For section and patrol work, which is local and line-of-sight, the Technician class already covers most of what a signaller needs. The middle class is General. It adds most of the HF spectrum, opening long-distance communication that can reach across a continent or the world, and it is the class that turns a local operator into one who can talk far. The highest is Amateur Extra, which grants full privileges across all amateur bands and modes with no remaining restrictions. Each class is earned by passing its examination, set and marked by volunteer examiners, and you study for them with free question pools and practice tests at sites such as hamstudy.org and through the national amateur radio association, the ARRL in the United States.

   US AMATEUR LICENCE CLASSES (the worked example)

   CLASS          EARNED BY        PRIVILEGES UNLOCKED
   -----------------------------------------------------------------
   TECHNICIAN     entry exam       all VHF/UHF + limited HF slices
   (entry)                         -> local, line-of-sight, repeaters
                     |
                     v   pass the next exam
   GENERAL        second exam      adds MOST of HF
                                   -> long distance, worldwide
                     |
                     v   pass the next exam
   AMATEUR EXTRA  highest exam     FULL privileges, all bands/modes
   (full)                          -> no remaining restrictions

   Earned in sequence. Each class keeps everything below it
   and adds more. Study free at hamstudy.org / ARRL.

Now generalise, because most members of this Army will not be licensing under the United States system. The names and the exact privileges differ from country to country, but the shape is almost universal. There is an entry class, earned by a modest examination, that grants local working; there are one or more higher classes, earned by further examination, that add long-distance and full privileges; and the rights always follow the licence, never the radio. So the rule for an RKA member is to study the licensing law of your own jurisdiction, find its entry class, and earn it; then, if you want real long-distance capability, earn the higher class that unlocks HF. Do not assume the American three-class names apply where you live. Assume instead that some licence exists, that it is earned by examination, and that you must hold the right one before you transmit. The Army encourages every member who will carry a radio in earnest to get properly licensed, because a licensed operator is a lawful, capable operator, and an unlicensed one is neither.

The bands and what they are good for

Choosing a band is choosing a kind of range, because the physics of each band decides how far and how reliably its signals travel. The two broad families you must understand are HF on one side and VHF with UHF on the other.

HF, High Frequency, runs roughly 3 to 30 MHz, and it is the long-distance band. HF signals can refract, or skip, off the ionosphere, a charged layer high in the atmosphere, and return to earth far beyond the horizon. A well-set-up HF station can reach across a continent or around the world with modest power, independent of any infrastructure, which is exactly why HF matters for resilience and for emergency preparedness when local systems fail. The cost of that reach is that HF is more demanding: larger antennas, more skill, conditions that change with the time of day and the state of the ionosphere, and, in most jurisdictions, the higher licence class. In the United States example, full HF is what the General class opens.

VHF and UHF, roughly 30 MHz and upward, are the local, line-of-sight bands, and they are the staple of section and patrol communication. These signals travel essentially in straight lines and do not skip off the ionosphere, so their range is set by terrain and how high the antennas are: good across open ground and from height, poor through hills and buildings. For a section moving together, a patrol on a task, or a team on a milsim exercise, this is exactly the range you want, and the radios are small, simple, and cheap. In the United States example, the entry-level Technician class already grants full VHF and UHF privileges, which is why so much section-level work sits comfortably inside the lowest licence.

Within VHF and UHF you must know the difference between simplex and a repeater, because it is the single biggest lever on your range. Simplex is radio to radio directly: both stations on one frequency, nothing in between, range limited by line of sight. A repeater is a fixed station, usually placed high and well-sited, that hears your transmission on one frequency and re-transmits it instantly on another, so two radios that could never reach each other directly can both reach the repeater and so reach each other. A repeater can extend a handheld's useful range from a few kilometres to tens of kilometres. The trade is dependence: simplex works anywhere your two radios can see each other and needs nothing else, while a repeater fails the moment it loses power or you move out of its coverage. A sound signaller knows the local repeaters and uses them, but always keeps a simplex plan to fall back to, which is exactly the PACE thinking this course returns to in Lesson 10.

   HF  vs  VHF/UHF -- which band for which job

   BAND        RANGE         HOW IT TRAVELS        BEST FOR
   ---------------------------------------------------------------
   HF          long          skips off the         long distance,
   3-30 MHz    (continental/ ionosphere, beyond    resilience, HF
               worldwide)    the horizon           emergency nets
   ---------------------------------------------------------------
   VHF/UHF     local/        line of sight,        section + patrol
   30 MHz +    short-med     straight lines,       work, milsim,
               (terrain-     no ionospheric        repeater nets
               limited)      skip
   ---------------------------------------------------------------

   On VHF/UHF, range depends on how you connect:

     SIMPLEX            A )))) ))))  B        radio to radio direct
                                              limited to line of sight

     REPEATER             [ REPEATER ]        high, well-sited relay
                          /          \        hears on one freq,
                       A )            ) B     re-sends on another;
                                              extends range greatly

   Use the repeater when you can; keep a simplex plan to fall back to.

Licence-free and low-barrier options for training

Because the Army must train lawfully even before its members are licensed, it leans on the radio services the public may use without a personal amateur licence. These are low-power, short-range, fixed-channel services, ideal for exercises, and there is no excuse for borrowing an amateur band when one of these will serve. The exact services differ by country, but the United States and European examples cover the common ground.

FRS, the Family Radio Service in the United States, is licence-free and low power, on fixed UHF channels, the classic short-range walkie-talkie service for a team on the ground. PMR446 is the European equivalent, also licence-free and low power, on fixed channels in the 446 MHz range. Either is well suited to a section or patrol on a milsim exercise where members are not yet licensed: anyone may use them, the range fits the task, and the training stays lawful. GMRS, the General Mobile Radio Service in the United States, is a higher-power option that does require a licence, but no examination: you register and pay a fee and the whole household is covered, which makes it a low-barrier step up in range from FRS without the study of an amateur licence. MURS, the Multi-Use Radio Service, is a small set of licence-free VHF channels, another no-licence option useful for short-range work. The practical rule for the Army is simple. For unlicensed training, use FRS or PMR446 as the default; reach for GMRS or MURS where their characteristics suit; and reserve the amateur bands for members who hold the proper amateur licence. This keeps every exercise lawful by construction and lets unlicensed members train in earnest while they work toward their licence.

Q-codes, signal reports, and the readability scale

The radio world carries a shorthand that predates voice procedure and still threads through it, and a signaller should recognise the common pieces even though our nets run on the prowords of ACP 125 taught in Lesson 02. The Q-codes are three-letter groups beginning with Q, each standing for a whole question or statement, born in the era of Morse to save keying and kept ever since. The three you will meet most are QTH, location ("my QTH is the river crossing"); QSL, acknowledged or received ("QSL, message copied"); and QRZ, who is calling me. There are many more, but these three carry most of the everyday traffic, and recognising them stops you being lost when you hear them on the amateur bands. They do not replace the prowords on a disciplined military net; they are the common tongue of the wider radio world you are joining.

The other piece of shorthand you must be able to use is the signal report, the answer to "how do you read me", and it builds straight on the readability and strength idea from Lesson 02. The formal version is the RST system: Readability, Strength, and, for Morse only, Tone. Readability runs 1 to 5, from unreadable to perfectly readable; strength runs 1 to 9 in the formal system, from barely perceptible to extremely strong; tone applies only to Morse and you can set it aside for voice. In everyday voice work this collapses to the plain-language report you already know, "loud and clear", "weak but readable", "broken", and the disciplined habit is to give an honest report rather than a reflexive "loud and clear", because a true signal report is real information that tells the other station whether to change frequency, move, or raise power. Readability is the half that matters most: a signal can be strong and still unreadable through noise or distortion, and it is readability, can I make out your words, that decides whether the message got through.

A note on the International Code of Signals

One more system deserves a place in your knowledge, because it solves a problem radio alone does not: communicating across a language barrier and in distress when voice fails. The International Code of Signals, published as NGA Pub 102 and in the public domain, is an international system in which single letters, sent by flag, light, or sound, carry agreed safety and distress meanings understood the same way in any language. A single-letter signal can mean "I require assistance", "I am manoeuvring with difficulty", or "stop your vessel instantly", and because the meaning is fixed and international, it crosses the language barrier that would defeat plain speech. You are not expected to memorise the code. You are expected to know it exists, to know it is the established international answer to distress and safety signalling across languages, and to know where to find it, NGA Pub 102, when a situation calls for visual or sound signalling beyond your radio net. For a humanitarian home-defence force that may one day work alongside people it shares no language with, that is knowledge worth holding.

In Practice: Two Corporals and a Hill

Two sections of the Royal Kaharagian Army are working an emergency-preparedness exercise across a wide rural district, each led by a Corporal, and the two leaders handle the law and the bands very differently. The contrast is the lesson.

Corporal in the first section has one amateur-licensed Private and a pile of FRS handsets. He is impatient to use the licensed Private's good amateur radio for the whole section, so he hands amateur sets to two unlicensed nationals and tells them to net up on a local amateur repeater "just for the exercise". This is the error the lesson exists to prevent. Those two nationals are now transmitting on an amateur band with no licence, which is unlawful regardless of the exercise, and the Corporal has put his people on the wrong side of the law to save himself the trouble of doing it properly. When the exercise umpire, a signaller from the Signals speciality, hears it, the section is stopped and corrected on the spot.

Corporal in the second section does it as this lesson teaches. She separates the licensed from the unlicensed cleanly. Her one licensed national, who holds the entry-class amateur licence, works the local VHF repeater to reach the distant control station, because for that long local reach the repeater is the right tool and she has someone lawful to use it. Everyone else, all unlicensed, runs intra-section traffic on licence-free FRS handsets, which any of them may use lawfully and which exactly fit the short range within the section. She has built a small two-layer plan without breaking a single rule: licence-free FRS for the section's own chatter, the repeater worked by her licensed operator for reach beyond it, and a simplex fallback briefed in case the repeater drops. When a household needs reporting to control, the message goes from an FRS set to her licensed operator, who relays it up the repeater, and back down the same way. It is slower than one big amateur net would be, but it is lawful from end to end, and lawful is the only kind of net the Army runs. After the exercise she encourages the two nationals who showed most aptitude to start studying for their own entry-class licence at hamstudy.org, so that next time the section has more lawful reach of its own.

Check Your Understanding

Explain why the radio spectrum is licensed at all, and state the firm rule this lesson sets about transmitting on the amateur bands. Why is listening treated completely differently from transmitting, and what does the Army do when unlicensed members need to transmit in training?
Describe the three United States amateur licence classes, what each unlocks, and the order in which they are earned, then generalise them to the licensing law of any jurisdiction. Why does the rule "the rights follow the licence, not the radio" matter for an RKA member licensing somewhere other than the United States?
Contrast HF with VHF and UHF: what range each gives, how each travels, and what each is best for. Then explain the difference between simplex and a repeater, why a repeater can extend range so much, and why a sound signaller still keeps a simplex plan to fall back to.

Reflection (write a short paragraph): This lesson asks you to do something concrete beyond reading. Find out, for the jurisdiction you actually live and would operate in, what the entry-level amateur licence is called, what its examination covers, and how you would sit it. Write down what you found, and be honest about where you are: do you already hold a licence, are you ready to start studying for one, or had you not thought of radio as something governed by law you must meet before you key a set? Then consider the gap between listening and transmitting. You may begin listening to the bands today with no licence at all, and listening is itself good training. What is one step you could take this month, starting to study a question pool, downloading a practice exam, or simply tuning a receiver across the bands to learn what is out there, that would move you toward being a lawful, capable operator rather than one who depends on others to transmit?

Summary

Radio is licensed because the spectrum is shared and finite, and every country governs it through a licensing authority. The firm rule of this course is that you must hold the proper licence, for the band and jurisdiction you transmit from, before you transmit on the amateur bands; listening needs no licence and is always free. The Royal Kaharagian Army trains lawfully and never borrows an amateur band without a licence.
Amateur licences are earned in classes by examination. The United States example runs Technician (entry; full VHF/UHF plus limited HF), General (adds most HF and long distance), and Amateur Extra (full privileges), earned in that sequence, with free study at hamstudy.org and the ARRL. Generalise the shape, not the names: every jurisdiction has an entry class for local work and higher classes for full and long-distance privileges, and the rights always follow the licence, not the radio. Learn and earn the licence of your own jurisdiction.
HF (3 to 30 MHz) is the long-distance band, skipping off the ionosphere to reach beyond the horizon; it is the resilience and emergency band and usually needs a higher licence class. VHF and UHF (30 MHz upward) are local and line-of-sight, the staple of section and patrol work, and usually covered by the entry licence. On VHF/UHF, simplex is radio to radio direct and limited to line of sight, while a repeater is a high, well-sited relay that greatly extends range; use the repeater but keep a simplex fallback.
When members are not licensed, the Army trains on licence-free or low-barrier services: FRS and PMR446 (licence-free, low power) as the default for exercises, GMRS (licensed but no exam) and MURS for their particular uses, reserving the amateur bands for members who hold the proper licence. This keeps every exercise lawful by construction.
Recognise the common Q-codes (QTH location, QSL acknowledged, QRZ who is calling) as the wider radio world's shorthand, distinct from the military prowords of Lesson 02, and be able to give an honest signal report on the readability and strength scale, where readability, can I make out your words, matters most. Know that the International Code of Signals (NGA Pub 102) exists as the international system for distress and safety signalling across language barriers.
This lesson is the law and licensing layer beneath everything else in SIG 201. It builds on the signals awareness of FLD 220, supports the continuity-of-communications thinking of HCR 220 (Emergency Preparedness), and leads directly into Lesson 10 (Digital and Networked Communications) and its PACE planning, where the lawful tools taught here are arranged into a plan that survives the failure of any one of them.

Amateur Radio and Lawful Operation