Daniel, M7DNL – 10 years old

Daniel says: “I often used to watch my Dad mess around with radios. When lockdown began he suggested it might be worth me getting my own amateur radio licence. I signed up for the Essex Ham online Foundation course and my Dad taught me quite a bit, too.

I found memorising the different frequencies and connector types tricky. I thought I was going to struggle with the maths, but in the end it wasn’t so bad.

I was a bit worried about doing the exam as it was the first proper exam I’d ever done. Once I got started and saw the other people on the WebEx meeting it helped me to relax me a bit.

I’m enjoying keeping a log of the contacts I made – as a present for passing the exam I got a personalised log book with my call sign on the front.

Watching the slow-scan pictures from the ISS come down got me interested in using satellites, so I’d like to give those a go next.

Unfortunately no-one in my class or my cub group is a radio amateur but we’re hoping that our local club will take part in the next JOTA event.”

Category: GOTA2C: Licensee stories