UTAT has been one of the few ways for UofT students to take part in organized study and testing for amateur radio licensure in recent years, and one of the few clubs at UofT that works with RF communications technology. RF members are initially trained in basic amateur radio licensing content, followed by the advanced radio licensing content in order to ease into the RF design process with more technical knowledge. Through this onboarding process, RF members are capable of operating our amateur ground station and contributing to satellite RF design.

The live operations of the satellite will be an opportunity for more people to be exposed to amateur radio in practice. Many members will learn from and are already participating in our operations team, controlling our ground station for satellite communications. Each satellite pass will be an incredibly unique amateur radio learning opportunity for us as students.

If you are an amateur operator outside the UofT community you can access information about our mission, including satellite design files and processes, online via Github and this Confluence site. You will be able to transmit and receive data requests to HERON (if you are in a country for which HERON can communicate with amateur service stations).

When HERON launches, we will run a competition with the international amateur radio community to see who will be the first to establish communications with HERON!

How to Get an Amateur License

Currently, licensing exams are held online via video call. We have an examiner contact who we are communicating with to get our members licensed. If you'd like to schedule an exam as part of the team or take one yourself, sign up at the upcoming window or message @Prachi Sukhnani on Slack.

Getting amateur licensed is a great way to learn RF communications, prepare yourself for work on UTAT, and have a fun fact to share with people!

Learn more here about the process from the Government of Canada

Amateur Radio Information

As our ground station matures, we'll have more information to share for radio amateurs around the world to know how to communicate with HERON.