I took my #hamradio Technician exam this morning and should hopefully have a callsign issued midweek.
Now the real fun begins, sorting through hundreds of articles and videos with titles like:
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I plan to upgrade to General soon so I'll need to keep that in mind. All free advice gladly accepted (but potentially ignored 😉).
See you on the airwaves.
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@bitsplusatoms Awesome!
If my experience is any judge, you're well set up for a barrage of kind but contradictory advice. 😀
Not advice, only experience: I finally went for my license only because morse code is no longer required. I was happy to be a code-free AE. I wanted to do voice and data modes. And... then I kept hearing repeaters identify themselves in code, and now I'm learning, and CW on HF sounds more and more interesting.
So... optional advice? If you decide that you want to study CW, ignore people who tell you that some particular character speed will avoid the trap of counting dits and dahs. Instead, play with character speed until you find it hard to count dits and dahs, and use that character speed while studying to hear patterns/rhythm rather than counting in your head. I spent so much time "counting out" rhythms in music as a kid that for me practicing at 40WPM character speed (but far, far slower effective speed!) is how I'm finally starting to break away from that... ☺
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@mcdanlj Very cool. I don't know whether I'll end up learning CW, but I will definitely keep this in mind if I do.
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@bitsplusatoms
1st of all YAY! Congrats!
The length of time for license issue is dependent on the efficiency of the Volunteer Examiner Coordinator that accredited your team. In any case, the machines don't crank up until about 0500 or 0600 ET (it really seems to vary) Monday.
As soon as they send u ur "file #" (not your FRN), follow the directions to pay your fee so that the FCC will issue you a license.
AND THEN THE FUN BEGINS!
Please remember that Technician includes 10m & 10 is hot!
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@VE2UWY Thank you!
The team I took the test from reminded me that Monday is a Holiday so nothing will happen then. They expected, but of course had no way to guarantee, that it would get processed on Tuesday and I should expect an email with payment directions by Wednesday.
Looking forward to the fun!
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@bitsplusatoms
Right - Inauguration. The FCC's ULS has a "application search" feature and you can search that with your FRN. You may be able to find your File Number before the VEC sends it to you by manically hitting refresh on Tuesday morning (assuming ET - if you are PT you may need to get up silly-early). 😃
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@bitsplusatoms Hey - was your exam team from the Laurel VEC? If so, chances are that they uploaded the session data before you got home. It will sit in the Electronic Batch Filing System at FCC until the crank up ULS Tuesday morning. I don't know a way of checking EBFS but as I noted, once it moves to ULS, you can see your application and get your File Number, pay your fee, and get your license issued. Same day, if all that happens early enough.
Also, did I mention 10 m? Very hot now! 😄
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@VE2UWY I took the exam remotely with the folks at WM7X.net. They were super-nice, very organized, and very efficient. I will go back to them for my General when the time is right.
Yes, I’m excited to go live on 10m. I need to hook up with my local club.
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@bitsplusatoms
Yes, please do. .... Oh ... Nixie tubes >followed<
Anyway, yes, find a good club home. Fewer of the #CHOWG persuasion (I am one) may make you happier.
I was lucky that the club I was in in Oklahoma was EXTREMELY active (even if it was oversubscribed on the #CHOWG front).
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@VE2UWY CHOWG is a new one on me, but I looked it up. I’m sure I'll be learning a lot of new terminology in the coming weeks.
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@bitsplusatoms Cis Het Old White Guy. Most of my kind yearn for a yesterday that never happened.
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@bitsplusatoms saw your profile mention you like to combine hardware and software. If you're a dabbler, this is a fun radio project that lets you play in both those spaces, and has the benefit of being not expensive at all:
https://www.kv4p.com/
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@N3VEM Thank you! I'll check it out.
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@bitsplusatoms
Probably not as relevant today, but one of my neighbours used to be a HAM. One of the first things he did was go around to all our houses and hand over some free aerial shields to improve/protect our TV signal. Which was a fantastic way to buy our good will for when things went awry.
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