Chapter 18
Technical Fundamentals
No matter what interests you in ham radio, from ragchewing to equipment design, you’ll get more out of the hobby if you have a basic understanding of a few technical details.
A number of license exam questions involve these technical details. Your license study guides will show you how to use this information.
If you want to dive in a little deeper, The ARRL Handbook and The ARRL Antenna Book have been reliable technical references for many years. Online you can use the ARRL Technical Information Service (www.arrl.org/technology) that is available to all hams. The appendix contains a radio math supplement that provides some common math formulas you’ll encounter in ham radio.
Electrical Units and Symbols
You should know each of the basic electrical units and what they represent:
- Voltage (volts, V): The electrical potential between two points, represented as V, v, E, or e in equations.
- Current (amperes, A): The electrical charge flowing in a circuit, represented as I or i in equations.
- Power (watts, W): The rate at which energy is expended or dissipated, represented as P or p in equations.
- Resistance (ohms, Ω): Opposition to current flow, represented as R or r in equations. Ω is a capital Greek letter omega.
- Reactance (ohms, Ω): Opposition to AC current flow, represented as X in equations.
- Impedance (ohms, Ω): Combination of resistance and reactance, ...
Get Ham Radio For Dummies, 4th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
