hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr3661.txt

Episode: 3661
Title: HPR3661: Ham Radio testing
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr3661/hpr3661.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-25 02:59:20

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3661 from Monday the 15th of August 2022.
Today's show is entitled, Ham Radio Testing.
It is part of the series Ham Radio.
It is hosted by Archers 72 and is about 6 minutes long.
It carries a clean flag.
The summary is.
Study and Testing for the ARR-L-HAM license.
Good morning.
This is Archers 72 and in this episode this is the morning of my Ham Radio Test.
I am going originally it was just the technician but I'm going for the general and I am studying
about 30 days on hamstudy.org.
Besides the website the only other source of study was the associated app that you could
buy first 399 and that would sync between the online test and your phone.
There is an app for both Android and Applephone.
I found the testing location on the ARR-L website which in the United States is the American Radio Relay League.
I used the website to take a technician and general practice test both Thursday and Friday and got 35 out of 35 100% on both times.
This is my first time around so I don't know what to expect when I get to the Masonic Lodge.
That is where it is located.
The person administering the test is a volunteer examiner coordinator or VEC.
I took the test, passed the technician test.
They asked me if I wanted to take the general and took that.
I passed that one too and then tried out the disabled to see the extra tests.
I did answer all the questions but I didn't do that well.
I think I only got 19 questions out of 50, right?
Half of those were guesses.
Before it was at the Freemasons Lodge and people were really friendly there and made it easy to go through all the tests.
They were even rooting for me when I was going to take the third test.
I didn't quite make it but it was all together, a good experience.
I recommend even using the Camp Study.org I would recommend.
Even if you're not going to take the test, just study up on that website.
See what that kind of knowledge you can gain.
It was a fun experience for me too.
I've been out of technical school for over 20 years now.
It was really going to get me a refresher on some of the things I should have known.
Not as much of the math but there are some math involved.
I don't know if I'll ever take the extra but I have to go online and go through the study course for that.
I think I could learn a lot from that too.
I think my first project after this, I have a Raspberry Pi that's close to the window.
It's an ideal place to put up an antenna.
I want to set up a software to find it in the radio and access my laptop.
Oh yeah, when I was studying my test, I got to general some of the schematics were really tiny.
So I came back in the fire to do an op-bat on them so I could see what the numbers for components were.
So I get it to identify them.
I just had to wait for the FCC, which is the Federal Communications Commission in the United States.
It only took two days before I got to notice that they had another 10 days to pay their new fee which started April 19th of 2022.
For $35.
Within about 24 hours, I got a PDF in my email that had both a printable.
I don't know if that I could put on my paper that I could put on my station or also one for my wallet.
My call sign is KAD9VMW, as in Kilo Delta 9R, Victor Mike Whiskey.
That's all I have for now.
Thank you for listening.
Bye.
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