THR is, as the name suggests, a registered radio amateur club, with the callsign SKØBU.

If you hold a CEPT radio amateur license, you are more than welcome to operate from our location, whether you are a KTH student, an alumni, or just a friendly operator, bringing our callsign around the world!

Sounds interesting, but you don’t know what you are reading? Jump here.

Equipment #

The most recognizable feature of our club is the big Yagi antenna on the roof, which allows operations in the 20, 15, and 10-meter bands. On top, there are also antennas for VHF and UHF operations. All of the antennas are on the same rotator, whether we want to aim for the most exotic DX country, or just to greet our friends around the country.

The main radio for HF operations is a Kenwood TS-870S, which can be operated both on voice and telegraphy with a paddle key. We also have an ICOM IC-702MKII that we use for VHF and UHF activities, and digital modes on all bands.

QSL cards #

We are a member of SSA, and as such we can receive and send QSLs via the international QSL Bureau. Answer times may be long, but if you send one QSL you’ll get one back!

Direct QSL cards can be sent to:

TEKNISKA HOGSKOLANS RADIOKLUBB
Fack
STOCKHOLM 10044
Sweden

Please include a SAE, Green Stamps much appreciated! Note: Postnord does not accept IRCs anymore, so please don’t include one.

We don’t do eQSL or QSL via email, sorry. We regularly update LoTW.

A primer on Amateur Radio #

by Massimo SAØMSM - CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Amateur radio (often called “ham radio”) is a hobby and service in which licensed individuals use radio frequencies for experimentation, communication, and public service.

Unlike commercial radio or broadcasting, amateur radio is noncommercial and technically oriented—you aren’t “on air” to make money, play music, or run advertisements; instead, you explore, tinker, learn, and connect.

The many ways of doing Amateur Radio #

Amateur radio is often thought of as “chatting with people”, and as a hobby for retired nostalgic people who “never got the memo about the Internet”. But amateur radio is not just about chatting with people: while contacts (QSOs) are fun and a way to validate your setup, the deeper appeal lies in exploration, pushing technical limits, and contributing to resilience and innovation.

There’s no single “right” way to do amateur radio. The only rule is: do it, have fun, and learn something along the journey. Well, there are also some other rules.

Some hams love minimalist, low-power setups, e.g. making telegraphy contacts with a pocket-sized radio and a wire in a tree (QRP). Others go all-in with massive backyard antennas or deep-dive into cutting-edge experiments with satellite links, digital modes, or even Terahertz circuits. And some like to bounce waves on the moon (EME). But you can also send nice pictures (SSTV), send IP packets (AMPRNet), or just try to make contacts as far as you can (DXing). We also have competitions: there are weekly contests, where you try scoring the highest number of points, e.g., by contacting the highest number of countries in a few hours.

So whether you’re a coder, builder, tinkerer, or just curious—amateur radio has a spot for you. Start by coming to one of our Open Houses!

Amateur radio is like fishing: You can do it quietly in a mountain lake, off the back of a 50m yacht, or, uh, Simpson-style with electricity. And no matter how you do it, someone will swear that is the best way.

How Amateur Radio shaped today’s technologies #

At the beginning of the 20th century, we didn’t know how radiowaves worked.

Many smart people just tried things, burned many components, received electric shocks, and some achieved success. And from these successes many theories, technologies, and engineering fields arose, eventually bringing us many of the technologies we are using today.

Theodore Rappaport covers a wide range of these discoveries in his article series “Crucible of Communications”:

• Part 1: The Birth and Breadth of the Ham Radio Hobby
• Part 2: Hams bring real-time Communications to the world

Amateur Radio for the Community #

Sure we have smartphones today. 1Gbps Internet at home. Self-driving cars.

But what happens when things go bad? What happens when the infrastructure is broken?

Preparedness, and in general knowing how radio communications work is a key skill in today’s continuously changing world: a radio does not require infrastructure, nor a repeater or an IP address. Nor does it need to be powered by the grid.

Our AMPRNet friends go even further: building a non-profit, resilient, wireless internet service provider, using both license-free and amateur radio bands. SKØBU is one of the key nodes in the Stockholm region, and Amprnet is always looking for geeks eager to apply their knowledge to evolve the infrastructure. Get in touch with if interested.

The rules in Amateur Radio #

To operate on Amateur Radio, you need to hold a license. This license ensures that you know what you are doing and will make good use of the radio spectrum that has been allocated for the Amateur Radio Service.

Amateur Radio is regulated by the ITU (the International Telecommunication Union), and rules are more or less similar around the world, guaranteeing that operators in different countries follow the same rules and can use the same frequencies, allowing them to contact operators all around the globe (and above).

Amateur radio operators need to identify themselves on the radio waves with their callsign: these work like cars’ license plates, allowing one to know 1) with whom is talking and 2) where the other operator is from. Callsigns are assigned by a national association (e.g. SSA in Sweden), and follow a standard structure:

• A prefix (e.g. SM,SA,SK for Sweden)
• A call area (e.g. 0 for Stockholm)
• A unique suffix

In the case of our club SKØBU, SK tells us we are a club from Sweden, and 0 that we are located in Stockholm. We usually use a standard spelling alphabet (the so-called NATO Phonetic Alphabet): this avoids misunderstanding, and adds clarity especially when the bands are noisy or signals are weak. For example, you’ll hear us saying Sierra Kilo Zero Bravo Uniform.

You are always allowed to operate under supervision of a licensed radio amateur, even if you don’t hold a license. What better reason to visit us?

Cool, but how do I get this license? #

In Sweden, licenses and callsigns are administered by SSA, the national association of Amateur Radio operators.

Exams can be taken both in Swedish and English, and cover a wide set of topics like safety rules, basic electronics, radio circuits, and operating rules. But don’t worry, you don’t need to be an expert to take the exam! You’ll learn a lot of cool things, and you will learn even more once you get the license!

More information on examination, dates, and study material can be found on SSA exam website (note: you need to register to see the material). There is also a summary (in Swedish). Given that many countries follow a standardized examination (so-called HAREC), you can probably find online material in your preferred language and format, and later try to see if it covers the Swedish certificate exam.