I am HAM
I am now an officially licensed HAM operator. I considered doing it for many years now. Since becoming an emergency preparedness coordinator I decided it was time to do it. The process was surprisingly easy.
There are three levels of HAM licenses: technician, general, and amateur extra. I took the technician exam and plan on at least taking the general exam later.
I met another HAM radio operator at a recent CERT emergency drill. He pointed me to hamstudy.org to study for the test. They also have iOS and Android apps. At the time of this writing they are $4, which was well spent. Disclaimer, I am not compensated for recommending HAM study. I just found it very useful. It uses a spaced-repetition system to study the test questions and their answers.
The technician exam consists of 35 questions randomly taken from a pool of 428 questions. The current technician question pool runs from 2018-2022. To pass, you must get 26 questions correct (74%). The questions cover the following topics:
Topic | Number of Questions |
---|---|
1. FCC rules, descriptions, and definitions | 6 |
2. Operating procedures | 3 |
3. Radio wave characteristics | 3 |
4. Amateur radio practices | 2 |
5. Electrical principles | 4 |
6. Electrical components | 4 |
7. Station equipment | 4 |
8. Modulation modes | 4 |
9. Antennas and feed lines | 2 |
10. Electrical safety | 3 |
Some questions involve basic math, particularly with the electrical principles. Simple calculators are allowed if you need one.
Not only does HAM study help in studying for the test but it also but it also helps in finding test sessions near you. Most test sessions have a small fee ($10-15).
After I passed the exam I had my call sign from the FCC two days later. I picked up an inexpensive, handheld radio and now I’m on the air.
—KJ7RPN.