UK Intermediate Amateur Radio Licence — Tutorial
You've done Foundation (or you're going Direct-to-Full and want the middle rung explained) — Intermediate builds directly on that. It's a genuine step up in depth, but nothing here is beyond you if Foundation made sense.
The basics of the exam
- Also run by the RSGB, syllabus currently version 1.6a (exams from 1 September 2024 onwards).
- ~45–46 multiple-choice questions, roughly 85 minutes, same four-option format as Foundation.
- Pass and you can operate at up to 100 watts PEP (up from Foundation's 25W PEP), with wider band access.
- Callsign becomes 2E0/2E1 (older style, region-coded) or the newer M8/M9 prefix — Ofcom introduced M8/M9 in October 2025 as an alternative, and existing 2E0 holders can optionally switch.
- There's also a practical/construction element in most courses — typically soldering/building a simple project — even though the written exam is the main hurdle.
The syllabus, building on Foundation
1. Licence conditions (deeper)
Same core rules as Foundation, but with more nuance:
- More detail on remote/internet-linked operation, repeaters, and gateways.
- EMF (electromagnetic field) exposure compliance — you now need to actively assess and document this, not just "be aware."
- Notices of Variation (NoVs) — when you need one and when licence terms already cover you.
2. Basic electronics (properly this time)
Foundation gave you Ohm's Law and component names. Intermediate expects you to actually use them:
- Series and parallel resistor/capacitor calculations.
- Reactance of capacitors and inductors, and how they behave differently at different frequencies.
- Basic semiconductor theory — diodes, transistors as switches/amplifiers (conceptually, not deep physics).
- Signal processing basics: what a mixer does, filtering, basic waveform concepts.
3. Transmitters and receivers (real circuit blocks)
- Block diagrams of a superhet receiver and a basic transmitter — know what each stage does (RF amp, mixer, IF stage, detector, etc.).
- Modulation in more depth — AM, FM, SSB — including bandwidth implications.
- Concepts like selectivity, sensitivity, and spurious emissions.
4. Feeders and antennas (more antenna types)
- Beyond the dipole: verticals, Yagis, loops — general behaviour and use cases.
- Antenna gain, feed impedance, and matching in more depth.
- Coax loss at different frequencies — why cable choice matters more as you move up in frequency/power.
5. Propagation
- More detail on ionospheric layers (E, F1, F2) and how they affect HF propagation by time of day/season.
- Meteor scatter, sporadic-E, tropo — brief awareness of "unusual" propagation modes.
6. EMC and safety
- Deeper troubleshooting of interference — source identification, filtering solutions.
- RF safety calculations — this ties into the EMF compliance requirement above.
7. Operating practices
- Digital modes get more attention (data, packet, etc. — awareness level).
- More nuanced band plan knowledge — what's allocated where, and why.
How to study, coming from Foundation
- Get the RSGB Intermediate Licence Manual (3rd edition, syllabus 1.6a) — mirrors this syllabus exactly and is what most courses are built around.
- Lean harder on the electronics chapter than you did for Foundation. This is where most people struggle — the calculations are a genuine step up, not just "more of the same."
- Do the practical/construction element early if your course offers it — it reinforces the transmitter/receiver theory far better than reading alone.
- Practice questions from the current 1.6a bank specifically — older question banks (pre-2024) won't match some of the newer content (EMF compliance, updated power limits).
- Revisit your Foundation notes for anything you've forgotten — Intermediate assumes that knowledge as a baseline rather than re-teaching it.
Exam technique
Same as Foundation — no negative marking, so answer everything. With more questions and more calculation-based ones, budget your time: don't get stuck on one tricky Ohm's Law question when there are 44 others waiting.