General Class License

General Class Syllabus

(What the test actually covers)

Section 1 (G1): Commission's Rules (5 groups, 5 questions)

• 1A - general class operating frequency privileges
• 1B - antenna structure regulations
• 1C - transmitter power regulations, emissions
• 1D - Volunteer examiners and examiner coordinators
• 1E - control category, harmful interference, 3rd party rules

Section 2 (G2): Operating Procedures (5 groups, 5 questions)

• 2A - phone operating procedures, LSB USB, VOX
• 2B - operating courtesy, bandplans, emergencies
• 2C - CW operating procedures
• 2D - amateur auxiliary, HF operations
• 2E - digital operating, signals/abbrev.

Section 3 (G3): Radio Wave Propagation (3 groups, 3 questions)

• 3A - sunspots, solar radiation, ionosphere, forecasting
• 3B - maximum usable frequencies, lowest usable frequencies
• 3C - ionospheric layers, critical angle/freq, HF scatter, skywaves

Section 4 (G4): Amateur Radio Practices (5 groups, 5 questions)

• 4A - station operation/setup
• 4B - test and monitoring equip., two-tone test
• 4C - interference with consumer electronics, grounding, DSP
• 4D - speech processors, S meters, sideband
• 4E - HF radio installations, emergency battrery powered operation

Section 5 (G5): Electrical Principles (3 groups, 3 questions)

• 5A - Reactance, inductance, capacitance, impedance, impedance matching
• 5B - decibel, current/voltage dividers, electrical power calcs, sine wave RMS, DEP calcs
• 5C - resistors, capacitors, inductors in series/parallel, transformers

Section 6 (G6): Circuit Components (2 groups, 2 questions)

• 6A - resistors, capacitors, inductors, rectifiers, solid state diodes, transistors, vacuum tubes, batteries
• 6B - analog and digital ICs, microprocessors, memory, I/O devices, microwave ICs, MMICs, display devices

Section 7 (G7): Practical Circuits (3 groups, 3 questions)

• 7A - power supplies and schematic symbols
• 7B - digital circuits, amplifiers, oscillators
• 7C - receivers, transmitters, filters, oscillators

Section 8 (G8): Signals and Emissions (3 groups, 3 questions)

• 8A - carriers and modulation, AM, FM, SSB, envelope, digital mod., overmod.
• 8B - frequency mixing, multi bandwidths, bw of modes, deviation
• 8C - digital emission modes

Section 9 (G9): Antennas and Feedlines (4 groups, 4 questions)

• 9A - antennas and fed lines, charac. impedance, SWR calcs, measurement and effects, matching networks
• 9B - basic antennas
• 9C - directional antennas
• 9D - specialized antennas

Section 10 (G0): Electrical and Safety (2 groups, 2 questions)

• 10A - RF safety principles, rules and guidelines, station evaluation
• 10B - safety in ham shack, electric shock, safe grounding principles, fusing, interlocks, wiring, antenna/tower safety

General Class Manual Outline

Chapter 2: Procedures and Practices

• HF operat. proc.
• HF comm. practices and modes
• RX/TX on HF
• digital operation on HF
• emergency comm.
• ARES/RACES
• distress calls

Chapter 3: Rules and Regulations

• international operating rules
• ITU, FCC, FAA
• Rules for exams, examiners
• Frequency privileges
• Interference issues
• 3rd party rules
• technical rules and standards
• good amateur practices

Chapter 4: Components and Circuits

• Basic electrical concepts
• Decibels, RMS, PEP
• Resistors, capacitors, inductors
• Series and parallel circuits
• Transformers and vacuum tubes
• Reactance, impedance, resonance
• Diodes, transistors, ICs, microprocessors
• Basic test equip

Chapter 5: Radio Signals and Radio Equip

• Basic signal concepts
• Oscillators
• Mixers, multipliers, modulators
• TX and amplifier fundamentals
• RX fundamentals
• Installing HF station

Chapter 6: Digital Modes

• Digital data definitions
• Digital codes and protocols
• Rules for digital modes
• Digital operating procedures
• Receiving and transmitting digital signals

Chapter 7: Antennas

• Antenna basics
• Dipoles and ground-planes
• Effects of antenna height and polarization
• How Yagis work
• Loop antennas
• Antennas with special characteristics
• Feed line basics
• SWR and impedance matching

Chapter 8: Propagation

• Structure of ionosphere
• Reflection and absorption
• Sky-wave and ground-wave signals
• Sunspots and sun cycles
• Assessing propagation
• Solar phenomena
• Scatter propagation

Chapter 9: Electrical and RF Safety

• Basic electrical safety principles
• Electrical shock hazards
• Safety grounding and protective components
• RF exposure fundamentals
• Evaluating RF exposure
• Antenna installation practices
• Towers and masts