Having studied electronics in college and having always have had an interest in the magic that is RF – acquiring a HAM radio license was an achievement I would one day check off, and that day has finally come!
Study Time
After downloading the HAMStudy.org app for Android and trying my hand at some of the technician pool questions, I quickly realized that a large majority of the question pool was knowledge I had already acquired through years of experience, however some of the nice questions proved there was still more to learn. After some brief research I came across a local HAM club offering monthly classes for anyone wishing to acquire their license, a class that turned out to be an excellent resource.
Having been toying around in the HAMStudy question pool I was fairly confident I would be able to pass the Technician level test with ease, thus I decided to sign up for the General level class with the idea being I would take both Technician and General level tests at the same time.
The following week I would be joining Zoom calls after work to prepare me for the test. Hosted by a local Makerspace and HAM club, the class ran from 8:30 to 11:30pm in a quick Monday to Thursday session, absolutely loaded with information. By the conclusion of class on Thursday I felt I would be able to ace the test, but was also itching to get outside. As my first real (online) class, the students of COVID who have been forced to attend classes online have a new appreciation – that was pretty miserable.
The Test
The following Tuesday after the class was the actual test – now at the MakerSpace I had been attending the virtual classes through. Although I had taken a number of practice tests and knew that I would pass, I was somewhat nervous having not taken a written test since college!
Our tests were queued up in a web-browser and everyone in the room was expected to start the test at the same time. Answering the questions was as simple as pressing the A/B/C/D keys on the keyboard while the examiners roamed the room looking for cheaters.
Consisting of only about 30 questions from the larger pool, the test itself was actually fairly easy, I was able to complete both test levels (Technician and General) within only about 30 minutes. A small achievement, but seeing each of the green PASS icons allowed me a sigh of relief.
Licensed
After passing the exam, there are still a few more steps before your license is actually granted, and just 3 days later I got an email from the FCC looking for their payment!