Operating — National Amateur Radio Alliance

Operating is the part of amateur radio that no exam can teach you. The conventions below are not laws — most of them are voluntary agreements that keep incompatible signals out of each other's way and make crowded bands usable.

Start with band plans to know where to go, then pick an activity: local repeaters and nets, worldwide HF, weak-signal digital modes, or portable operating in parks and on summits.

Whatever you choose, software does most of the work these days — the platform pages there cover Windows, macOS, Linux and BSD, Android and iOS.

In this section

Bands and band plans What each amateur band is good for, and where to operate in it.

Operating etiquette The unwritten rules — and the handful of written ones — that keep bands usable.

HF operating Making contacts on the shortwave bands.

VHF and UHF operating Local work, simplex, and weak-signal beyond the repeaters.

Repeaters How they extend your range, and how to use one properly.

Nets Scheduled on-air meetings, and the easiest place to start talking.

Digital modes Sending data over the air, from FT8 to packet.

CW and Morse code No longer required, still the most efficient mode there is.

Images and television SSTV, fast-scan amateur television, and pictures from the ISS.

Satellites and the ISS Working orbiting repeaters with modest equipment.

Weak signal, scatter and moonbounce Meteor scatter, EME, tropo ducting and QRSS — VHF and up, beyond line of sight.

Contesting Competitive operating, and why it is worth trying once.

DX and awards Chasing distance, and the certificates that record it.

Parks, summits and portable operating POTA, SOTA and taking the station outdoors.

Software Logging, digital modes, programming and propagation tools, by task and by platform.