Quick reference

Reference Tables

The things worth having in one place: band plans, calling frequencies, phonetics, signal reports and Q-codes.

Check before you transmit

These tables summarise US FCC Part 97 for convenience and can go out of date. The ARRL band plan and the current FCC rules are authoritative. Outside the US, your own administration's allocations apply.

HF Bands

Band	Range	Privileges	Character
160 m	1.800 – 2.000 MHz	General, Extra	Night-only "top band". Local-to-regional after dark, transcontinental in winter. Antennas are large and receiving is the hard part.
80 / 75 m	3.500 – 4.000 MHz	Technician (CW 3.525–3.600), General, Extra	Regional workhorse at night — nets, ragchews, emcomm. Noisy in summer. Dead to DX in daylight.
60 m	5 fixed channels	General, Extra	Five USB channels only, 100 W ERP, secondary allocation. Fills the awkward gap between 80 and 40 for regional daytime work.
40 m	7.000 – 7.300 MHz	Technician (CW 7.025–7.125), General, Extra	The most reliable band there is. Regional by day, continental to worldwide at night. If you build one antenna, build it for 40.
30 m	10.100 – 10.150 MHz	General, Extra	CW and digital only — no phone, ever. 200 W limit. Quiet, uncrowded, and open far more hours than 20 m.
20 m	14.000 – 14.350 MHz	General, Extra	The classic DX band. Open somewhere in the world nearly every daylight hour, and the first place to look for long-haul contacts.
17 m	18.068 – 18.168 MHz	General, Extra	Narrow, no contests allowed, and consequently civil. Behaves like a calmer 20 m when the sun cooperates.
15 m	21.000 – 21.450 MHz	Technician (CW 21.025–21.200), General, Extra	Excellent daytime DX near solar maximum. Closes hard after sunset.
12 m	24.890 – 24.990 MHz	General, Extra	Another no-contest band. Sporadic and rewarding when the solar flux is up.
10 m	28.000 – 29.700 MHz	Technician (28.000–28.300 CW/data, 28.300–28.500 SSB), General, Extra	Spectacular at solar maximum — worldwide DX on low power and a simple wire. Also carries summer sporadic-E regardless of the cycle. The band that makes a Technician license worth using on HF.

VHF & UHF Bands

Band	Range	Character
6 m	50 – 54 MHz	The "magic band". Mostly local, until sporadic-E opens it to 1,000+ miles with no warning, usually in early summer.
2 m	144 – 148 MHz	Repeaters, simplex, APRS (144.390), satellites, and weak-signal SSB near 144.200. The default first band for a new licensee.
1.25 m	222 – 225 MHz	Underused and quiet. Propagation splits the difference between 2 m and 70 cm; cheap radios are scarce.
70 cm	420 – 450 MHz	Repeaters, digital voice (DMR / D-STAR / C4FM), satellite downlinks. Penetrates buildings better than 2 m; less range outdoors.

Digital & Calling Frequencies

Dial frequencies, USB unless noted. See FT8, End to End for setup.

FT8

Dial frequency, USB. 15-second transmit/receive cycles.

3.573 · 7.074 · 10.136 · 14.074 · 18.100 · 21.074 · 24.915 · 28.074 · 50.313 MHz

FT4

Faster 7.5-second cycles, aimed at contesting.

3.575 · 7.0475 · 10.140 · 14.080 · 18.104 · 21.140 · 24.919 · 28.180 MHz

JS8Call

Keyboard-to-keyboard messaging built on the FT8 waveform.

7.078 · 10.130 · 14.078 · 18.104 · 21.078 · 28.078 MHz

WSPR

Propagation beacons. Transmit 200 mW and watch where it lands.

7.0386 · 10.1387 · 14.0956 · 18.1046 · 21.0946 · 28.1246 MHz

PSK31

Conversational keyboard mode. Much quieter than it was a decade ago.

3.580 · 7.070 · 14.070 · 21.070 · 28.120 MHz

RTTY

Contest-heavy. 45.45 baud, 170 Hz shift is standard.

7.080 · 14.080 · 21.080 MHz

SSTV

Slow-scan television. 14.230 is the busiest.

14.230 · 21.340 · 28.680 MHz

APRS

North America. 1200 baud AFSK. Other regions differ — 144.800 in most of Europe.

144.390 MHz

FM simplex calling

The national simplex calling frequencies. Call, then move off.

146.520 · 446.000 MHz

ITU Phonetic Alphabet

Use these. Improvised phonetics are harder to copy, which defeats the purpose.

AAlfa
BBravo
CCharlie
DDelta
EEcho
FFoxtrot
GGolf
HHotel
IIndia
JJuliett
KKilo
LLima
MMike
NNovember
OOscar
PPapa
QQuebec
RRomeo
SSierra
TTango
UUniform
VVictor
WWhiskey
XX-ray
YYankee
ZZulu

RST Signal Reports

Readability and Strength on phone; CW adds Tone. Give honest reports — a reflexive “five nine” tells the other operator nothing.

R — Readability (1–5)

1: Unreadable
2: Barely readable, occasional words
3: Readable with considerable difficulty
4: Readable with practically no difficulty
5: Perfectly readable

S — Strength (1–9)

1: Faint, barely perceptible
3: Weak
5: Fairly good
7: Moderately strong
9: Extremely strong (S9; above this, report dB over S9)

Common Q-Codes

Essential on CW. On phone, a few have crossed over — the rest sound affected.

QTH

My location is…

"QTH is 20 miles north of the city."

QSL

I acknowledge receipt

Also the paper card confirming a contact.

QSO

A two-way contact

"Thanks for the QSO."

QSY

Change frequency

"Let us QSY up 5."

QRM

Interference from other stations

Man-made. Another operator on your frequency.

QRN

Interference from natural noise

Static crashes, lightning, power-line hash.

QRZ

Who is calling me?

Also "QRZ?" to solicit more callers after a contact.

QSB

Your signal is fading

Normal on HF — report it, it helps the other operator.

QRP

Low power

Conventionally 5 W or less output.

QRO

High power

Running an amplifier.

QRT

I am shutting down

"Going QRT for the night."

QRV

I am ready

"QRV on 20 meters."

QRL

Is this frequency busy?

Ask this before you call CQ. Twice.

QSK

Full break-in

CW operation where you hear between your own dits.

US License Classes

See How to Get Your Ham Radio License for the full path.

Technician

Element 235 questions · 26 to pass~400-question public pool

All amateur privileges above 50 MHz, plus limited CW on 80/40/15 m and CW, data and SSB segments on 10 m.

The entry license, and a genuinely useful one — 10 m and 6 m openings put a Technician on the other side of the world with a wire antenna.

General

Element 335 questions · 26 to pass~450-question public pool

Most of every HF band, on every mode, at the full 1,500 W limit.

The license that matters. This is the one that opens HF properly, and most people can go straight from Technician to General in the same exam session.

Amateur Extra

Element 450 questions · 37 to pass~620-question public pool

Everything — including the exclusive Extra-only CW and phone sub-bands where most rare DX operates.

Harder, and more theory-heavy: circuits, components, and rules. Worth it if you chase DX or want the shortest path to a 1x2 vanity call.