How to start in AR.
(Just in case I get too absorbed in writing this, I'll put a Glossary at the end of this page!)

So, you may be interested in AR? How do you go about it? What do you need?
Firstly, what do you want to do? Talk to people? Listen to people talking? Listen to far-off broadcast stations? Build your own receivers and transmitters? That's a lot of questions on the start of what should be an information page! Perhaps it serves to highlight that AR can be (nearly) all things to everyone.
To start with - listening requires no licensing of any kind, you just have to build or buy a receiver, and start using it! By law you are only allowed to listen to a few types of radio signals, and whilst ownership of a receiver (such as a scanner) which can pick-up other signals is not illegal in itself, using it to listen to, say, mobile telephone calls IS illegal.

You are allowed to listen to:-

Amateur Radio ( 'Hams' )
CB Radio
Broadcast stations (BBC, World Service, ILR, etc)
Standard Frequency Services

What is Frequency?

Any radio signal has a specific frequency or channel, t o which a receiver needs to be tuned in order to pick it up. This frequency is determined by the number of times the radio wave 'wobbles' or oscillates up and down in a second. For example, if the wave oscillates a hundred times a second, it is said to have a frequency of 100 cycles, or 'Hertz', named after Heinrich Hertz who did a lot of research into radio waves. Generally radio waves are in the range 30,000 Hertz or more -
 

You are NOT allowed to listen to:-

The Emergency services (Fire, Police, Ambulance, Mountain Rescue)
Private Mobile Radio (Taxis, Security Guards, mobile service engineers, etc)
Cellular (Mobile) Telephone calls.
 
 
 
 
 
 


Glossary

Amateur Radio
Broadcast
CB

Cellular
Cycles
Frequency
Ham
Hertz
HF
Kilocycles
Kilohertz
LW
MW
Megacycles
Megahertz
PMR
RA
RAE
Receiver
RSGB
Scanner
Shortwave
SW
Transmitter
UHF
VHF