I did something stupid!

[thewayne]

I passed the test for my ham radio license (Technician Class) back in '93. I was working at the police department at the time, and most of the guys that I worked with were hams. There were flyers being put up for a ham meet weekend at Scottsdale Community College, and they were going to offer a weekend class to get your Technician Class license! So I signed up and bought a book.

It was easy. I was the first one to finish the test and I passed. A few weeks later I got my papers from the FCC and was officially a licensed amateur radio operator.

A license is good for ten years, and then it's just sending in paper and paying a fee to renew it.

Unless you forget.

My last renewal was due May of last year. Oops. I was trying to query the FCC database to see when I was due, but their database hasn't been working. So I jumped on the ARRL site (the Amateur Radio Relay League, arrl.org) and found myself in their copy of the FCC database. Oh, well.

As I recall, you have a one year grace period to renew, during which time you aren't allowed to operate your gear, but you don't have to re-test. Well, I'm slightly beyond that. I could have sworn that I had plugged a reminder into my calendar app, either I failed or something happened to wipe it out.

So I've got to re-test. The good part is that the test really isn't that hard, and the book isn't terribly expensive, $20-25 or so. We have a radio club in High Rolls, just above the tunnel which is the approximate mid-point going down the mountain, so I'll have to study up and go take the test again.

The good thing is that in the 30 years since I first tested, they've eliminated the Morse code requirement! You can get the Extra class (highest grade in the USA) through just testing and jump on the world bands right away without knowing it, before you had to test at various speeds, sending and receiving, depending on the class you were testing for. When I first tested, there were (IIRC) six levels: Novice, Technician, Technician Plus, General, Extra, and Advanced. Now there's just three: Technician, General, and Advanced/Extra. You still need to know Morse code to operate on certain specific frequency bands, but if that's not your thing, don't worry about it.

While the American amateur radio operators are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC for this purpose is operating under the aegis of the ITU (International Telecommunication Union), the world body that oversees all global radio bandwidth assignments and regulations. It was an ITU regulation that required the knowledge of Morse code to access the world bands, some time in the last 20 years or so they eliminated that requirement and eventually most of the countries, if not all, removed it from their licensing requirements.

* * * * *Edit: Just found out that my preferred study book by Gordon West isn't available right now! The pool of test questions (they pull 35 questions out of a pool of X) EXPIRES AT THE END OF JUNE! So the current book is still decent, but not as good as the next book. *sigh* The ARRL book is available at $33, I'll look into ordering it tomorrow. Gordon West is an excellent instructor, I'll probably end up with both.

* * * * *Edit the Second: I just exchanged emails with Gordon West, and I was wrong about the one year grace period - it's TWO years! So my license isn't cancelled yet. Still, I'd like to upgrade it, so I'll buy a book or two and go through the testing process anyway.

Comments

[disneydream06]

Sorry you missed your renewal time frame.

Do you have regular people that you communicate with?
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

Heh. Turns out that I didn't! I emailed Gordon West, and included my call sign, and he looked me up - the renewal time frame is TWO years! But I'm going to go ahead and buy the book(s?) for Extra and test for it.

No, I really don't talk to anyone. I was limited to the FM bands under my current license, which means no long-range. And I haven't really used it since I moved up here. That's one of the reasons why I'd like to upgrade, maybe eventually get what's known as a DX rig and get on the world bands!

One of my fondest memories as a kid was being in a guy's 'ham shack' and he was talking to someone on an island off of Australia! But that wasn't the cool part - his antenna was pointing NORTH - he was doing something called Long Path with the signal going the long way around the planet!

[disneydream06]

YAY for not being late. :)

So he was basically signaling almost all the way around the world? WOWZA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[thewayne]

Yep!  Beautiful voice signal.  The call signs indicate approximately where you are, mine starts with KB7 and that indicates the Rocky Mountain/Southwest region.  The ham that I was with, Ron, didn't recognize this guy's prefix, so he looked up his call sign in a book and found that it was a pretty darn rare location!  Hams sometimes exchange post cards called QSL cards that are sort of a receipt of transmission: you write down the call sign that you had contact with, date, time, signal strength, clarity of transmission, maybe duration of call?  You also log that in your personal log book.  And when you receive that card, it goes on your trophy wall or into your book.  And as soon as Ron signed off with this guy, a dozen people were jumping in, trying to contact him because of the rarity of the call sign!  Now, the funny thing was that this guy, thousands of miles away, knew another ham operator in Phoenix!  Ron called the guy to let him know his buddy was on the air and the band was 'open' since Ron was able to talk to him, unfortunately the guy had just taken his radio apart for maintenance!  But Ron had the gear to patch a telephone call into the radio, so he was able to let the two friends talk via phone and radio!  Amateur radio is pretty cool.

[disneydream06]

I would say it's pretty amazing. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[murakozi]

For a few years, I'd randomly get QSL cards in the mail from folks I'd never talked to. I dunno why they sent them or why they bothered to look up my call sign (maybe because it's a fun vanity call sign). Back then, I pretty much just talked to some friends up in Maryland via a repeater.

[murakozi]

I've thought about upgrading my license now and then, but honestly, I've pretty much just listened to goings-on on my HT without talking to anyone for years. Ever since some nearby ham friends moved away.

I, too, let my license expire, but was only a few months late in renewing, which I did last year. I dunno that I'd pass a higher level exam nowadays. The antenna stuff was always kind of a pain for me to get through.

[thewayne]

We'll see how I do with the new material. I breezed through the Tech test, but that was 30 years ago and I haven't studied the technical side since then. It's hard to beat the Gordon West books, IMO, so I expect I'll do fine once I get to it. I'm undecided if I should renew before I go to upgrade or what.

One thing that I found interesting is that you can now test via Zoom! Greatly simplifies things since you can schedule according to what's convenient to you, not (for me) some remote club.

Most of the time I was just nattering with locals via repeaters. A friend of mine gave me a really nice Yaesu 2m/440 HT a couple of years ago and I was thinking it'd be a smart thing to have with me when traveling or hiking at White Sands. Though I need to get another charger as I've somehow managed to misplace the original. *sigh*

[warriorsavant]

I had been wondering if there were any ham operators anymore. I think the younger generation who has that sort of Tom Swift mentality goes for computers today?

I do recall when I was active duty military, stationed in Okinawa c. 1982-83 (so pre-internet days), there was something called MARS: Military Affiliated Radio Service, which was basically ham operators around the US. The ham station on our base on Okinawa (don't recall who actually operated it), would contact a ham operator near whoever you wanted to talk to (g.f at that time), who in turn would patch a phone call thru to them. Rather miraculous-feeling at the time.

[thewayne]

Still plenty of hams, and newer signaling tech to advance the field, and lots of ways to connect your PC to your radios now.  Yeah, a lot more silent keys as we age out, but there are younger hams.  I was looking at what the new radios can do, and it's pretty crazy.  Built-in antenna tuners, digital waterfall displays, touch screens, etc.  It's pretty nuts.  And they've come down in price.  You can get quality hand-held FM radios for $200 and under, and world-band rigs for a grand or so.  Not counting antennas, etc.

[silveradept]

Good that you'll get the opportunity to test up and keep your license continuous.

If you get your rigs up and running, maybe I'll pass along Pops' call, just in case you've ever said hi.

[kaishin108]

How great you're not expired after all. You ham you. :)

[acelightning73]

I got a First Class Radiotelephone Operator's License in the early 1970s. There was no code requirement for it, but there was for the higher classes of HAM licenses. I had wanted to get a ham ticket when I was around 12 years old, but my family couldn't afford the equipment. So I never got the ham license. BUt I forgot to renew the commercial license after I lost my last job in radio. I once phoned the FCC in Washington and asked if I could get it renewed or replaced, but the process involved finding my old display copy and mailing it back to them, and I have no idea where it wound up.

I had an electronics textbook I studied from to take the test, but it apparently got destroyed by Superstorm Sandy. I was going to ask you if i should send it to you, but I can't find it either.

[pondhopper]

That's all pretty cool stuff. I had an uncle that was a ham radio guy when I was a kid and it was fun just seeing and hearing him operate. It's good you weren't expired after all.

[starwatcher]

My dad did ham radio for a bunch of years, on equipment that he built himself from kits. He did have to learn Morse code; I helped him study, but I didn't retain any of it.

What do they call those postcards with call-signs and locations that the ham operators trade? He had a stack, from all over the US and some other countries, and his cards were in demand because it was so iffy to get a good signal to/from NM. I remember once, he (in Clovis) was in a 3-way conversation with a couple of guys in Illinois and Portales. Illinois could hear both Clovis and Portales. Both Clovis and Portales could hear Illinois. But Clovis and Portales couldn't hear each other. Do you have the same iffy connections, or does being on a mountain give you better signals?

Regardless, good luck on your recertification.

[thewayne]

QSL cards.  I don't have that sort of a radio setup here, though once I pass my test, I'd like to try it.  I just don't know if we'll be up here long enough for me to set one up.