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This page gets a lot of hits so we will try and keep it fresh. First, many thanks to Mel Toye (K5KEY) and Leo Salas (N5JEP) who have taken the roll of instructors for many local classes in the past. When you see numbers and letters behind a person’s name like that, it is their call sign. Second, MORSE code is NO LONGER required to pass any of the licensing exams. Third, the FCC has consolidated the licenses. Whereas there used to be five (Novice, Technician, General, Advanced and Extra), there are now only three issued (Technician, General and Extra). There are still people that hold the other licenses, but they are no longer newly issued.
To get licensed you simply study up for a multiple choice test, take some practice exams and then go take the test from some ham radio operators with a special certification called “Volunteer Examiners” that gather and conduct testing. You take a written multiple choice exam and you are done. It has never been easier. Tip: Especially with the written guides, make sure and look for the date. The “exam pool” questions for each license is updated every four years. Make sure you are not buying an out of date study guide.
There are a number of ways to study for the testing these days: traditional classroom, printed study guides, Zoom type and online or YouTube, to list just a few. Once you have studied for a while, then you can take practice exams via websites or smartphone/tablet apps. The Paris area has a small enough demographic base that there are only enough people who sign up for a Technician class perhaps once a year, so that leaves the other methods as your quickest way to get going. Here are some particulars on them:
Study Guides: There are two “biggies”, one by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), kind of the National Rifle Association (NRA) of ham radio. The other is Gordon West (WB6NOA). Each entity has their own way of teaching the material, but they are otherwise very similar. The ARRL focuses a bit more on theory and Gordon West focuses more on teaching the test. Here is the link to the ARRL web page where their study guides are located. Here is the link to the Gordon West offering of his study guides. Can you buy them elsewhere? Sure, we just provide the links as a convenience. We do not make anything off of you clicking and buying from the links we provide here.
Live class: Finding a live online course is going to be challenging. We suggest you use the search engine of your choice and search for (fill in the name with Technician, General or Extra) “technician live ham radio class online” (without the quotes) and look over the result. There are a lot of dead ends out there, places should do a better job updating their website offerings, so this will take you awhile.
Online training: There are growing numbers of outfits claiming to have great success with online training courses. These two, Ham Radio Prep and OUTDOORCORE HAM CRAM, get good reviews.
YouTube: Many of our members have had good success with going to the W4EEY YouTube channel. This requires a time commitment because they have videoed classes and you watch the video as though sitting in the classroom. If you are more of a visual learner, this might be for you. Just click here to go to the W4EEY YouTube Channel.
Once you have been through the material start taking practice tests. With a laptop desktop computer you can take them at Ham Exam or the eHam exam page. If you want to put a practice app on your smartphone or tablet, many of our members have had really good success with Ham Radio Exam, available for both iOS (click here) or Android (click here) devices.
If you have any questions, need advice, want to discuss the options, please click this link and drop us an email. Someone will get back with you right away. If that person cannot answer your question we will find someone that can!
RRVARC
Updated 12/15/2023