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Becoming a Ham - RF Cafe Forums
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Microstrip |
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Post subject: Becoming a Ham
Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 12:16 pm
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Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2006 8:21 am Posts: 6
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Hello Hams I am considering getting my license and will probably buy one of the
study guides from the ARRL. Two questions: 1) Do I have to join the ARRL to be
a Ham? 2) Can I get a recent taker of the Technician test to let me know what
to expect in terms of difficulty. I'm an engineer with a BSEE degree, so I'm
guessing it won't be too difficult. Thanks for any input.
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wb9jtk
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Post subject: Re: Becoming a Ham
Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 3:09 pm
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General |
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Joined: Tue Dec 26, 2006 5:39 pm Posts: 58
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You do not have to join any organization to get a ham license. The F.C.C. changes
the question pools ever few years. There will be a new set of questions starting July
1 of this year. Being an EE, all you are going to have to learn are frequencies
allowed (for the class license you are testing), some procedures, and a few regulations,
some abbreviations. Since RF, electricity, and physics do not change, then the
only questions an EE might need to learn are regarding FCC rules. Since there have been
no significant changes in many years, you would not need to be concerned that you have
the 'latest study guide'. There are some on-line practice tests. The ARRL publishes
some great study guides (reader is assumed to know nothing about electricity). The 'study
guides' and the online practice tests will give you a VERY accurate idea of what the
questions will be. Thirty years ago if you flunked, you had to wait five weeks
to try again. Today there is no strict limit. If you flunk, you can look up the answers
and try again immediately (until its time for the test givers to go home).
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Kirt Blattenberger |
Post subject: Re: Becoming a Ham
Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2010 11:38 am
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Site Admin |
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Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2003 2:02 pm Posts: 712
Location: Erie, PA |
Greetings Microstrip: Funny you should ask... I just took the Technician
test a couple weeks ago. Your electrical engineering theory background will be good
for about 5 or 6 of the 35 questions. The rest are related to FCC regulations and Ham
procedures and systems. The good news is that the complete question pool is available
for studying, which puts bounds on exactly which parts of the plethora of information
presented in the study manual needs to be memorized. I managed a 100% with no
problem at all, although I spent a lot of time studying the manual that ARRL sells.
For example, there are dozens of "Q" signals that Hams use, but only maybe three of
them appeared in the entire question pool, so you only need to memorize those three
for the test. One thing I noticed was that of all the questions that had an option
for "D. All the above," only one of them did not have D as the correct answer.
Interestingly, the ARRL reports that most people think the Ohms law questions are
the most difficult, but I (and likely you) did them in my head during the test. Even
the wavelength/frequency questions are easily calculated w/o paper and pencil.
As Alan pointed out, the question pool changes on July 1, 2010, so make sure you
get the study guide that has the new questions. I bought mine online from the ARRL site,
and the next day they announced the new version with new questions. I had no idea that
the questions were about to change in a couple months, so I had to make sure I got the
test out of the way prior to then. It worked out for the best, because it forced me
to get 'er done. Good luck to you.
_________________ - Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster
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wb9jtk
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Post subject: Re: Becoming a Ham
Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 12:49 pm
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General |
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Joined: Tue Dec 26, 2006 5:39 pm Posts: 58
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Welcome to "Amateur" Radio, Kirt !
Your callsign is ?
You are one of the few hams in electronic engineering that I know that was an EE
then a ham. Most of 'us' that I have ever met became an EE because we were a ham. That's
when we found out how interesting electronics is.
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Mike
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Post subject: Re: Becoming a Ham
Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 1:49 pm
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Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:54 am Posts: 1
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Go to the ARRL websiter and take a look at the question pool(s). All the questions (with
answers) are there. For better or worse, one can simply memorize them with a little
effort. Go to
https://www.arrl.org, click the "Licensing..." tab at the top, then at the left,
click "Licensing Preparation and Exams", then in the center click "Question Pools" or
directly:
https://www.arrl.org/question-poolsAlso, go to
https://www.eham.net and try their practice exams - the site generates a "typical"
exam (randomly) from the current question pool. Click "Ham exams" in their left menu
or directly:
https://www.eham.net/exams/
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Posted 11/12/2012
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