page_title: Amateur radio in India
section_title: Examination
hierarchical_section_title: Amateur radio in India / Licence / Examination
caption_attribution_description: Amateur Radio antennas of Gopal VU2GMN in Chennai, India
context_page_description: Amateur radio or ham radio is practised by more than 38,000 licensed users in India. The first amateur radio operator was licensed in 1921, and by the mid-1930s, there were around 20 amateur radio operators in India. Amateur radio operators played an important part in the Indian independence movement with the establishment of illegal pro-independence radio stations in the 1940s. The three decades after India's independence saw only slow growth in the numbers of operators until the then Prime Minister of India and amateur radio operator, Rajiv Gandhi, waived the import duty on wireless equipment in 1984. Since then, numbers have picked up, and as of 2007, there were more than 16,000 operators in the country. Amateur radio operators have played a vital role during disasters and national emergencies such as earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, floods, and bomb blasts, by providing voluntary emergency communications in the affected areas.
  The Wireless and Planning and Coordination Wing —a division of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology—regulates amateur radio in India.
context_section_description: Amateur Station Operator's Certificate or ASOC is the examination that needs to be passed to receive an amateur radio licence in India. The exam is conducted by the Wireless and Planning and Coordination Wing (WPC) of the Ministry of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The examination is held monthly in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, every two months in Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Hyderabad, and every four months in some smaller cities. The licence may be awarded to an individual or a club station operated by a group of licensed amateur radio operators.
  The exam consists of two parts:
  Part I – Written Test
  Section I: Radio Theory and Practice
  Section 2 : Regulations
  Part II – Morse (Not required for Restricted Grade)
  Section 1 : Morse Receiving and Sending : (Speed: 5 words per minute)
  Section 2 : Morse Receiving and Sending : (Speed: 12 words per minute)
  The maximum number of marks that a candidate can secure is 100. To pass the examination, a candidate must score a minimum of 40 (50 for Grade I) in each written section, and 50 (55 for Grade I) in aggregate for a pass.
caption: Antennas at the location of ham operator VU2GMN in Chennai. Knowledge of propagation and antennas is needed to get the licence.
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