Licensing classes

If you learn better with a group of other students, you’ll find classes beneficial. You can find classes in several ways:

• Asking at your radio club: You can take classes sponsored by the club. If you don’t see the class you want, contact the club through its website or social media pages, and ask about classes. To find a club in your area, turn to Chapter 3.

• Looking for upcoming exams to be held in your area: The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) has a search engine devoted to upcoming exam sessions at www.arrl.org/exam_sessions/search, as do the W5YI VEC (www.w5yi.org) and Laurel VEC (www.laurelvec.com).

  Get in touch with the exam’s contact liaison and ask about licensing classes. Because exams are often given at the conclusion of class sessions, contact liaisons are frequently class instructors themselves.

• Asking at a ham radio or electronics store: If a ham radio store is in your vicinity (search YP.com under Electronic Equipment and Supplies or Radio Communication Equipment and Systems), the staffers there usually know where classes are being held.

  Businesses that sell electronics supplies or kits to individuals may also know about classes. In a pinch, you can do a web search for ham radio class or radio licensing class (or close variations) and your town or region.

Maker and robotics groups often include hams as members. Ask around and see if they can point you in the right direction.

• Community Colleges: It is increasing common for local colleges to offer ham radio classes as part of an adult education or hobby instruction program. Even if the classes aren’t being held right away, there will often be information to help you contact the previous instructor.

Other options for finding classes include local disaster-preparedness organizations such as CERT (Community Emergency Response Teams, sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA); the National Weather Service’s SKYWARN instructors; and public-safety agencies such as police and fire departments. By asking around, you can usually turn up a reference to someone who’s involved with ham radio licensing.

Occasionally, you see classes advertised that take you from interested party to successful exam-taker in a single weekend. The Technician exam is simple enough that a focused, concerted effort over a couple of days can cram enough material into your brain for you to pass. The good part about these sessions is that by committing a single weekend, you can pass your exam on Sunday and find your new call sign in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) database right away. For busy folks or those who are in a hurry, this time savings is a tremendous incentive.

Remember when you crammed for a final exam overnight and the minute after you took the exam forgot everything that was on it? The same phenomenon applies to a weekend course. A lot of information that you memorize in a short period will fade quickly. In two days, you can’t really absorb the material well enough to understand it. You’ll use everything you learn in your studies later in real life. If you have time to take a weekly course, that’s the better option.

Books and websites

You have a variety of options in this category. If you can, look at a few of the different resources to find one that seems right for your style. Here are a few of the more popular choices:

• Study Guides: The best-known guide for licensing studies is the ARRL’s Ham Radio License Manual. Aimed at the person studying for a Technician exam, it goes well beyond presenting just the questions from the question pool; it teaches the why and how of the material. The ARRL also provides Exam Review for Ham Radio, which generates practice exams online for each chapter to the book. A great companion to the manual is ARRL’s Tech Q&A. Both books are available in the ARRL Store (www.arrl.org) in the Licensing, Education & Training section and at numerous retail outlets.
  • Gordon West (WB6NOA) has also written a series of licensing guides and audio courses for all three license classes. These guides focus tightly on the question pool in question-and-answer format and are geared to students who want to pass the exam quickly without the more extensive background of the ARRL books. West’s books are available at www.masterpublishing.com/radio.html, www.w5yi.org, and various retail outlets.
  • Dan Romanchik (KB6NU) also writes a series of popular study guide books that present the material in a very focused format. Dan has also written a great guide to learning Morse code and blogs extensively on a variety of ham radio topics at www.kb6nu.com.
• Websites: Here are a few good choices:
  • HamTestOnline (www.hamradiolicenseexam.com/index.html) offers online tutoring and training material that you can access from a web browser.
  • Ham University (www.hamuniversity.com) offers both license exam preparation and Morse code training. An ever-changing selection of ham radio study apps for the iOS and Android operating systems is available as well.
  • Hamstudy (hamstudy.org) is an online practice guide in a flash-card format.

  • YouTube (www.youtube.com) hosts many ham radio tutorial videos. Search for ham radio technician class or ham radio technician study guide, and dozens of videos are yours for the clicking.

    After you get your license, YouTube videos on specific subjects are very useful as well.

Online practice exams

Online practice exams can be particularly useful. When tutoring students, I urge them to practice the online exams repeatedly; because the online exams use the actual questions, they’re almost like the real thing. Practicing with them reduces your nervousness and gets you used to the actual format.

The sites score your exams and let you know which of the study areas need more work. When you can pass the online exams by a comfortable margin every time, you’ll do well in the actual session.

You can find lots of online exams by doing an Internet search for online ham radio practice exams. Practice with exams from two or three different sites to get a little practice with more than one style of exam.

How do you know when it’s time to stop studying and take the actual exam? Take the practice exams until you consistently score 80 percent or higher. Also, make sure that you’re practicing with a random selection of questions; you shouldn’t see the same questions each time. Passing the practice exams with a little safety margin will give you the confidence to sign up for your exam session.