Introduction
Welcome to my site documenting my journey to become and then being a licensed amateur radio (Ham) operator. As you can see below in the Obtaining My License section I began this journey in January of 2021 and am still traveling this amateur radio journey. I am now in the process of building a complete portable system.
These pages are meant for someone who is looking to go from no knowledge to becoming a licensed amateur radio operator. It will cover some of the stumbles I had as I traveled on this journey. I am by no means an expert and by no means the only resource. However, if you are starting out on your own and feeling like there is a lot to know, maybe this site will help you out. I have found while some of the sites contain great technical information they make some assumptions about the knowledge of the person visiting their pages. I am trying to not make these same assumptions and make this very basic and detailed. This may not be right for some people but I hope it will be helpful for others.
I am always looking for helpful feedback and constructive criticism. If you have ideas about how to make this site better please use the form at the bottom of this page to send me you ideas: what you like and feel I should keep, what was confusing and over complicated and maybe can be dropped, what is missing from my explanations or information (what did I assume someone already knew).
This site is definitely a work in progress.
I have completed the Obtaining My License section (though is anything ever truly complete).
I am currently working on the My Portable Radio System. I will be updating this as I receive my equipment and figure out how to connect it all and make it actually work.
Other sections I am thinking about:
Handheld Radios: The first radios I bought for myself and my family were Baofeng UV-5RMK4. For me these were good, inexpensive starter radios. I have become comfortable using them. I have learned to program them using Chirp. This page will contain some information I have learned about using the radios and what I learned about programming in Chirp.
Helpful Sites: This page will contain a lot of links to sites and other resources that have been a big help to me. I will give the sites and how I used them.
Other Pages: The possibilities are limitless and hopefully some of you can give me some ideas on topics.
Obtaining My License
I began my journey to become licensed on January 21, 2021 (or 12121 - a coincidence - I didn’t plan it this way, honest). I ended this part of my journey on March 20, 2021 when I passed my Amateur Extra Exam.
Testing Milestones:
Technician Exam: Passed January 30, 2021 - 35 out of 35 - Assigned Call Sign KI5NKS
General Exam: Passed March 2, 2021 - 35 out of 35 - No new Call Sign given for upgrading to General
Amateur Extra: Passed March 20, 2021 - 50 out of 50 - Assigned Call Sign AI5CU
Study:
I studied for all three modules at Ham Test Online. I highly recommend this site. In addition to practice exams they go through each section and teach you the information you need to know in order to answer the questions. Additionally, they have links to other resources if you want to go into greater detail on a topic. There are lots of other sites available out there and feel free to look around. However, if you want to take my word for it try this site.
My study method for each module was:
First, I went through and studied the entire course. This will take a few hours.
Then I would begin taking practice exams. A few times a day I would take a set of exams for a “simulated” exam, exams to “Focus on my weak areas” and exams to “Focus on my unseen items”.
I would also use the “Choose Topics” option to see where my weak areas were after taking a set of exams. I would choose one topic at a time from my weak areas and re-study it. I would do two or three topics a day.
When I was consistently getting 90s on the practice exams I would schedule to take the real exam.
I will be honest up front - there are some things you will just have to memorize. I am a math geek so all the math parts I would learn the formulas and then I would be able to do the math on a piece of paper. But things like Commission Rules, you just need to memorize it. The course does give you the reasoning behind these types of topics but there is no way to calculate these answers.
While not always a full proof method, when I was taking practice exams and just did not know the answer I would pick the longest answer. This works in a majority of cases BUT IT DOES NOT ALWAYS WORK
FRN Number:
Before you take your first exam and even before you register to take your first exam you must obtain your FCC Registration Number (FRN) by registering at the FCC CORES (COmmission REgistration System) site. Full information about the FRN can be found Here.
Exams:
I took all my exams virtually through The Aurora Amateur Radio Group out of Alaska (but they have members from everywhere). They are a great Team. Communicate exceptionally well. Manage everything in a very timely manner. The link brings you to a page that explains how their remote testing works. One of the things they offer is a practice set up session where you can work with them to figure out how to make the two devices you will need to take the exam virtually work. The 3rd exam I took had a person there who had not done this. I was in the exam meeting for almost an extra 30 minutes because this person was struggling to get the technical set up working. The Team was much more patient than I was.