Ham activity is not intended as a mere hobby or as a way to chat
with other people. Its main purpose is to experiment communication
technology. To begin experimenting you need to prove you have
a real interest in radio and also that you have enough knowledge to use
properly radio transmitters and receivers. Otherwise, you could even
cause serious interference to other radio services. For all these
reasons you need to pass some exams in order to get a license.
Rules vary in each country and you can have different kinds of license.
For example in Usa there is five levels of license, each permitting a
different use of the ham bands and a different
maximum transmitting power.
The following rules are valid in Italy, where we have only two
levels of license.
Special Permit and License
First of all you need to pass a written examination, organized by
Circolo Costruzioni Telefoniche e Telegrafiche of Ministry of Post
and Telecommunications (there is one in each region capital).
The exam is about basic principles of electronics, radio, antennas,
propagation, rules and operating modes. If you pass this exam, you get the
Special Permit of Radio Operator
and you can operate ham radio stations (but you cannot install
and run a station), with a maximum transmitting power of 10 Watt and
only on frequencies over 50 MHz.
Once you get the permit, you can ask the
Special License of Radio Amateur.
No examination is needed here, you need only to wait for the Ministry
to check if there is some problems in giving you a license.
The license enable to the installation of your own station, with the
same limitations of the permit (10 Watt on 50 MHz and up).
Standard Permit and License
For a full license you need to pass the same written examination of
the special permit, plus two
Morse code tests (transmission and reception).
Once passed the three exams, you get the
Standard Permit of Radio Operator
and you can then use all
ham bands available in Italy, with the
maximum legal power.
By the way you can only operate stations of other hams,
so you should immediately ask for the
Standard License of Radio Amateur,
so that you can install your own station, covering all
ham bands with maximum legal power.
