Pass the ham radio license test - Technician Class

Tuna
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This is part of @judytuna’s ham radio quest line, which doesn’t exist anywhere but her head yet. It’ll develop here though!

  1. :thought_balloon: research classes and where to take the test
  • http://w6nbc.com/ is a one-day class that looks awesome but is too far away. See their links for good info on why they conduct the license test prep the way they do (rote only, no understanding).
  1. decide on a date and register
  2. actually go to it
  3. did i pass??? retry if necessary

Achievement points for bringing friends.

I will write up other quests later; as such, this particular quest does NOT include any of the following:

  • acquiring any radio
  • acquiring books beforehand
  • acquisition of any physical chaff at all really

I just wrote that down so I don’t get distracted. You meed a license before you can do hands-on learning anyway.

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I have long been fascinated by the whole ham-radio thing (though mostly because of the packet-radio BBS tie-in). Even sans radio this is super cool.

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want to join? actually if we both got licensed we could have a talkgroup talkgroup … omg

:white_check_mark: meta

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Not right now. Though it will get added to the giant parking lot of things I keep to circle back to.

With my summer schedule starting I want to finish groking scheme to an acceptable level (before my fall java classes start) and try to bite off a chunk of Esperanto. Im probably allready going to do only one and a half of those things. So I better focus.

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guess what? i passed the Technician Class exam today! i will get assigned a random call sign in a few weeks after processing.

attended ham cram at 9am
passed the test at 1!
did it with friends

next steps:

  • get a radio
  • learn its range
  • learn the nearest repeaters and their range
  • study for the higher two levels, General and Amateur Extra, because you need to be the highest in order to administer tests to others
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Congratulations! This is really awesome.

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Woohoo!

I don’t know much about HAM, what sort of callsign do you get? Is it random, but human-intelligible à la gfycat urls? Or is it just a string of letters and digits?

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=D you get assigned a callsign of the form [prefix, one or two letters][a number]XXX! it’s sequential based on geographic location of your mailing address.

i passed the technician class test, so mine will start with K or W, then a number (looks like 6 for california?), then three letters. anyone with any class license can request a vanity call sign. i’m probably not going to do that until i get Amateur Extra, when you can have a shorter call sign.

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I got my call sign! It’s KN6DCX!

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Woohoo!

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For reasons that will become apparent very soon, I’m setting a timer on this quest to close it, 24 hours after the last comment. The intent is to create any follow-ups, new threads, new quests, etc. :slight_smile:

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