LICENCES:

Government regulations require a licence to operate any radio transmitter in India. It is illegal and punishable to possess a radio transmitter without proper licence. At present there are two operating licences and one receiving licence available. They are General grade and Restricted grade Amateur Wireless telegraph Station Licence and Short Wave Listeners (SWL) Licence. With the SWL licence, you can possess only a Communications receiver. But with the other two, you can possess and operate transmitting and receiving equipment.

LICENCING EXAMINATIONS:

To obtain any of the operating licences, you have to take the respective Amateur Station Operator’s Certificate (ASOC) Examination conducted by the Wireless planning and Co-ordination (WPC) Wing of the Ministry of Communications, at any one of the monitoring Stations around the country. For the SWL Licence, there is no examination – just send the application form and Licence fee to WPC.

THE FIRST STEP:

The best way to begin is to join an amateur radio club/society in your area. Not having a licence is the best reason to join a club.

The Requirements for the ASOC Application Guidelines are listed here.