The following details were correct at the time of writing (9th Sept 2003):

Since 1st July 2003 the former British 'Class-B' and 'Class-A' licences have been merged into the single category 'Full Licence'. The Class-A test required a Morse test (see below). Although such a test is no longer required, many 'Full' licencess will still wish to learn Morse and the old test conditions provide a firm foundation.

• The UK Class A Morse Test was an "on-air QSO-type" format. From 1/1/97 'M' callsigns have been used as well as the old 'G' callsigns.
• There will be of an announcement, a practice run, a further announcement then the test proper. A final voice announcement signals the end of the test.
• All tests use an ordinary, manual, so-called "straight" up-down key. All the tests will be in the form of a typical exchange between radio amateurs.
• All callsigns, procedures and Q-codes will be used in the proper context, with the callsigns correct for the locations sent. They will be chosen from typical countries heard daily on the HF bands. Note that name, QTH and signal reports will NOT be repeated, although the callsign will be repeated at the end of the 'over'. Figures and procedure signals will be classed as two letters for timing purposes. Your test will have been carefully designed last almost exactly the correct length of time and, in the receiving test, to include at least one occurrence of every letter.
• The receiving test: You will be required to receive a minimum of 120 letters and 7 figures. The duration of the test will be about 2.5 minutes with a maximum of 6 uncorrected errors. The first callsign sent will be a UK Class "A" call such as G, GM, GW, GD, etc.
• The sending test: You will be given a card on which is written a text to send consisting of not less than 75 letters and 5 figures. The test will last approximately 1 minute 30 seconds. There must be NO uncorrected errors, with a maximum of FOUR corrected errors.
• You need not send the commence traffic signal (ct), but if you do send it then it will not be counted as part of the test.

The test will include any of the following commonly-used abbreviations, Q-codes or procedural characters:

• ABT  AGN  ANT  BK   CPI  CPY  CQ  CUL  CW   DE  DR   EL   ES  FB   FER  GA  GD  GE  GM   HPE   HR  HVE  HW  K  MNI  MSG  NW  OC  OM   OP  PSE   PWR   R  RPRT  RST  RX  SIG  SRI  TEMP  TKS   TNX   TU  TX  TXR  UR  VERT   VY   WID  WX  XYL  YL   73   88
• QRA  QRG  QRK  QRL  QRM  QRN  QRO   QRP  QRQ  QRS  QRT  QRV  QRX  QSA  QSB   QSL  QSY  QTH
• ar  ct  bt  kn  va  imi (?),  /, = or bt (break),  hh (erase).

There will be no commas nor full stops (periods).

The lower case ones are procedural  so-called "barred" characters which sound like the two letters being sent one after the other without the usual space. In addition to the list of Q-codes and abbreviations it will help you greatly if you are familiar with typical equipment brands such as Yeasu, Kenwood, Icom, Ten Tec, and antennae phrases such as vert, loop, beam, trap, Yagi, Zepp and G5RV etc. ÿ It is worth noting that, like me, the examiner will often have difficulty in including infrequently-used letters such as J, X and Z in the text of the tests, so they might tend to occur more frequently in the callsigns.

Procedures etc: Only bt and ? should occur in the middle of a test; ct, ar, va can only occur once each in obvious places. The / could occur as /P etc in the body text as well as in callsigns.

In addition to straightforward callsigns you should expect to have to deal with commonplace occurrences such as /P,  /M,  /MM and with reciprocal callsigns such as F/G4UXD/P or EA8/G4XWL.

The erase signal will not be introduced deliberately in the receiving test, but occasionally the examiner makes a mistake; then it will be sent. Try not to loose concentration; rather look upon it as a bonus since it wastes time! NB: Several of the QSO-tests in this program contain the error signal for practise.

Final comment:
Many of the tests in this program are harder than real tests and some are much harder, so if you can cope with them your own actual test will be an absolute breeze! Also all of my tests contain at least one occurrence of every number as well as every letter to help in the learning process. Try not to use them until you can send and receive properly!!!

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