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Obtaining an Amateur Radio
License
Licenses: There are only three classes of
licenses now being issued, Technician, General and Extra. Although the Novice and Advanced
licenses still exist, no new Novice or Advanced licenses are being issued.
There is no Morse code
requirement for any class of license. The ARRL web site http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/allocate.html
identifies the privileges and operating frequencies for each class of
license.
Study Materials:
If you are interested in obtaining an Amateur Radio License, there is
much you can do on your own. The
ARRL offers various study materials for sale at http://www.arrl.org/catalog/lm/ . Study materials can also be purchased
at HRO and at other ham radio stores. However, you may not need to purchase
anything, if you are able to learn by studying the amateur radio question
pools. The amateur radio question
pools can be downloaded free of charge at http://www.arrl.org/arrlvec/pools.html. QRZ offers practice exams, which you
can take via the Internet at http://www.qrz.com/p/testing.pl.
Exams: The KY1N Memorial List of Amateur Radio
Volunteer Exams can be found at http://www.ky1n.net/ky1n.html. The bottom of the web page tells you
the exam fee, and what to bring to the exam. The Technician license is the amateur
radio entry level license. You
need to pass the Technician exam, before you take the General exam, and you
need to pass the General exam, before you take the Extra exam. You need to correctly answer 26 out of
35 questions to pass the Technician and General exams, and 37 out of 50
questions to pass the Extra exam.
One fee allows you to take all three exams in one test session,
providing you passed your previous exam(s). Therefore, it is possible to go from
no license to Extra in one day. Often, individuals will study for the
Technician exam and pass it, but do not study for the General exam, which is
the next level up. Nevertheless,
after an individual has passed the Technician exam, the person will often
take the General exam, at no extra charge, just to get a feel of what the
General exam is all about. The
same is true when going from General to Extra. If you fail an exam, you may be
allowed to take another exam, with a different set of questions, during the
same test session, but you will have to register and pay again. The Volunteer Exam Team Chief will
often allow you to do this, if the Volunteer Examiners have time to
administer another exam, if you only failed by only a few questions, and if
you think that you could pass another exam with a different set of
questions.