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Become a Ham! Amateur (ham) radio is the ultimate geek hobby. It's also the typical means of communication for hanglider and paraglider pilots in the U.S. and around the world. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licenses ham radio operators. You must have a license before you can legally transmit on your radio. To qualify for a ham radio license in the U.S., you must pass a written test. Unfortunately, almost all of the information covered on the test is irrelevant to foot-launched pilots. Fortunately, the test is not too tough to pass. Trust me, if I can pass it, anyone can. There are three license levels (known as classes), but the only one we really need to be concerned about is the Technician Class. This is the entry-level license. With this license, you can legally transmit on all amateur frequencies above 30 megahertz (MHz), which includes the 2-meter band that we use. We really should be legal, if we want to be respected members of our community. Although unlikely, you could risk having your radio confiscated if you operate it without a license. Making the decision to become legal is the hardest part. Once you’ve made the decision, there are three ways to study for the test: 1.
Go to a Radio Shack, a Ham Radio Outlet or on the Internet and buy one of
the following books: Now You're
Talking! All You Need For Your First Amateur Radio License, ARRL's Tech
Q&A or The No Code Technician Kit.
You can either read the book (optional) or just keep taking the practice
tests in the back until you memorize the correct answers.
Unless you’re a techie, or incredibly curious, don’t worry about
learning this stuff. Just memorize
the answers so you can pass the test. Go
through the practice test, highlight the correct answer to each question and
memorize it. Keep doing this over
and over until you’ve got it down. Then
go to a test center and take the test before you forget it all.
After taking the test, feel free to forget the material, because very
little of the information that is necessary to pass the test is relevant to us.
What you really want to know is stuff that’s not covered in these
books, like “how do I set the key lock on my radio” or “how do I find a
repeater frequency.” (You can also purchase audio and video courses.) 2. Study on-line, by logging onto http://www.qrz.com/testing.html. Memorize the questions in the question pool. Thirty-five of the questions in the pool will be on the test. 3. Take a class.
This is what I did, because I was totally undisciplined about self-study.
The class takes place on the day of the test.
You sit in a room with a bunch of geeks and other unfortunate pilot-types
like yourself. You memorize the
questions, on your own, for a several hours before taking the test.
It is a good idea to schedule this during the winter.
I took the class on a rainy day and didn’t miss any flying! When you're ready to take the
test, find the nearest license exam location.
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) website http://www.arrl.org/arrlvec/examsearch.phtml)
provides a searchable index, where you can find the test session nearest you.
The Fremont Amateur Radio Transmitter Society (FARTS - I’m not kidding)
gives tests in Fremont on the second Monday of every month at 7:00 P.M.
The test fee is $8 and no appointment is needed.
For more information, check out their website at http://home.att.net/~bazerkly/FARTS/. It only takes a half hour or so to take the actual test. Once you’ve taken the test, it takes about two weeks for your license to arrive in the mail. You can even apply for your own vanity call sign (http://www.qrz.com/vanity.html). So quit procrastinating, bite the bullet and become a ham. |
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