Passed the exam & got my ham radio license

[lalligood]

I know there has been quite a bit of talk lately here on TRF about using radio locators in our rockets. In order to use them, you must have an amateur radio license.

I ordered the ARRL study guide (Now You're Talking!: All You Need to Get Your First Ham Radio License, $20 + shipping) from Amazon, read it, quizzed myself (thanks to the test questions in the back of the book), & took plenty of practice exams at hamtestonline.com. I spent maybe an hour a day for less than 4 weeks getting ready. I took the exam ($14) last Wednesday. It's 35 multiple choice questions. Got 32 right (only need 26 for a passing score) Looked on the FCC website when I got home tonight & my call sign was posted. I'm legal

I'm pretty stoked! Now I only need to buy a handheld transceiver & a BeeLine transmitter...

Great things about getting a ham radio license:
1) It cost $14 to take the exam but the license itself is free. The license is good for 10 years & is free to renew!
2) There are no age limits for getting a license. If you can understand the materials & take the test, you can get a license!
3) The BeeLine transmitter is small enough to fit in a 29mm tube (or BT-55) which means that it can go in a pretty small rocket! According to Big Red Bee, you can detect a signal for at least 1/2 mile (probably a lot more than that here in flat ol' Florida) when the rocket is on the ground!

I was pretty clueless before I started this process of getting a radio license. If anyone has any questions about the process, please post here, PM me, or email me!

 

[BlueNinja]

Congrats! I got mine back in November. I recommend you check out EchoLink, I'm occasionally on the network and I think of it as "DX Cheating", as you can talk anywhere with other hams.

 

[Austin]

Lance,

A BIG congrats to getting your licence!!! You will be surprised how often you will find it comes in handy and it sounds like you are putting it to good use already...glad to hear it. If you ever get the itch to do some DX, give us a holler. Heck, I am sure there are enough Ham Operators her at TRF alone to make up a good chat session on 40 or 20 meters.

It's perfect timing that you brought it up too...I have most of my HF equipment set back up and plan on getting on the air again very soon. Heck, I even brushed up on my code just for fun...that is something to mention too for all those procrastinators out there. The code test has been completely abolished...that's right, no code. That means it's now easier than ever to get a license.

Once again, congrats to you, keep us up on your projects and enjoy!

Carl
N8DWN
34 Years of Amateur Radio and still going...

 

[cls]

you can also put a "high power" (1 W) video camera transmitter - or two or three - on your rocket now. every wonder what things really look like up above 10,000'?

 

[lalligood]

Originally posted by CTulanko
Lance,

A BIG congrats to getting your licence!!!

*SNIP*

The code test has been completely abolished...that's right, no code. That means it's now easier than ever to get a license.

Thanks

And while there is no morse code requirement for a Technician's license, Morse code is required for the General license (think of it as a Level 2 certification for amateur radio!) The test requires that you can understand 5 words per minute, which shouldn't be too hard... If you figure the average word has 5 letters, that's 25 letters per minute...which translates into slightly more than 2 seconds per letter.

Even though Morse code has been around for over 100 years, it still has value in today's world. For all you that send text messages with your cell phones, there was a contest recently between a supposedly fast text message sender vs an experienced user of Morse code. It wasn't even close. The person using text messages used considerable amounts of abbreviations while the person using Morse code clicked every single character. Even doing it that way, Morse code won HANDILY. I need to see if I can find the URL for the article.

 

[lalligood]

I found the article about the text message vs Morse code contest: https://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/29/0550256&tid=215&tid=137

 

[Hobbyman]

Congrats! I have been a ham since 1977! If you want to study the code, Use the ARRL tapes-the only way to go. I started with them & learned the code fast. I use the code about 50% of the time. Its fun. I am at 25 wpm though in a contest can ratch it up a bit to over 30.
CTulanko, you still need 5 wpm code for the gen and extra!

lalligood; have fun
73
hobbyman

 

[Klint]

Did the book help you much? I have masterd the test at hamtestonline.com as a lot of it was high school physics and pretty simple at that. The only parts that I had to memorize were things like what zone the US and guam was, and a few FCC reg questions.

 

[lalligood]

Originally posted by Klint
Did the book help you much? I have masterd the test at hamtestonline.com as a lot of it was high school physics and pretty simple at that. The only parts that I had to memorize were things like what zone the US and guam was, and a few FCC reg questions.

I suppose it depends on how you as an individual learns... Since I didn't have a lot of radio experience (but I have my share of electronics & computer experience), I possibly could have skipped using the book too after finding most of the material online. However, I'm the kind of guy that likes to know the all-important question, "WHY?" So the book provided an easy-to-read way of providing all of the content in a logical order (& allowed me to study when I didn't have internet access while reading it). Aside from hamtestonline.com, which is definitely a great site for anyone preparing to take the exams, the question pool is available on the ARRL website too. The questions on the exam were pulled verbatim from the pool.

 

[scottrc]

Congrats, I too am looking at testing in the next 6 weeks. I have alsways wanted to do it but never had the time. Now that I am finished with school, I have the time.

I find the test is a lot like when I took my exam for Private Pilot. The questions about the science and physics are easy for me, it is the laws, rules, and regulations that I need to study.

Scott

 

[bigredbee]

For learning morse code, I thought NuMorse was a great program. THe problem is, as soon as I'd get profecient, I stop practicing before I get a chance to take the test. Perhaps I should invest in the ARRL tapes so I can listen in my car.

Greg (still a technician) K7RKT

 

[lalligood]

Originally posted by BigRedBee
For learning morse code, I thought NuMorse was a great program. THe problem is, as soon as I'd get profecient, I stop practicing before I get a chance to take the test. Perhaps I should invest in the ARRL tapes so I can listen in my car.

Greg (still a technician) K7RKT

FWIW, I tried the demo of NuMorse & found it to be clunky...but that could be because of it being a demo version. I found a free CW trainer called Morse Academy which can be downloaded here: https://www.speroni.com/AH0A.html It's DOS-based but I've got it running under Windows 2000 & XP with almost zero hassle. Not the prettiest program I've ever used but it works... I like that it offers several different methods of learning new characters while building on ones already learned. It's very customizable too!

If I were going to pay for a trainer though, I liked the CW module in ARRL's Ham University program. The CW trainer module is $20 although you can get all the modules (like ones to help with the Technician, General, & Extra exams) for $45.

 

[BlueNinja]

I use the G4FON morse software, it's highly recommended by the people on the QRZ forums, and a nice piece of software. I haven't used it for a while, but when I did I found it very nice.