Oops, I meant exam, not class.

Took my test tonight down in Olympia from www.olyham.org/

Very friendly examiners plus I was invited to stay for their monthly club meeting.  They talked about a unique antenna problem that for once made me not feel like the geekiest guy in the room cause 90% of what they said could have been in foreign language for as much as I understood it. 

Oh did I mention I passed the Technician exam, 100% baby!   They let you keep on taking tests until you fail one so I took the General even though I didn't study a lick for it and only failed by 3 questions.   I'm happy to be a Technician though it would have been funny to pull a General out of the eeny, meeny, miney, moe hat.

For the most part I used the test on this site  www.eham.net/ under Ham Exams, Technician.  I just kept running through the exam until I was getting a consistent score, which to me, meant I had seen a majority of the questions then I started getting serious by doing two or three in a row as fast as I could go through and kept that up until I got three 100% in a row.  Then it was just a matter of doing a test a day until my exam date.

The day before the exam I went to the ARRL site and downloaded the entire question pool and read through them once just to make sure there weren't any surprise questions left out of the online exam.  Pools for all 3 exams : www.arrl.org/arrlvec/pools.html

Like Craig said, don't study then pick a date; pick a date and then study.  Even if you fail, for another $15 you can take it again immediately plus who knows maybe lady luck will smile on you and you'll make it all the way to Extra class!

Just do it!

WooHoo! Congrats!  I was just getting rady to ask who is still studying and who is about to take their test.

For the rest of you... How many people need to post that it was "easier than I thought" before it will sink in that it really is easy? Pick a date and make it happen. You have to commit to a date/time or you'll procrastinate forever.

Hey now, don't be giving me crap. I'm just trying to be the swift kick in the shorts everyone needs to get licensed. As someone who's already licensed, you'll be pretty happy about the fact that you get to use HAM instead of FRS the next time you are on the trail.

I think you're right though.  I will add it.  You should too.

I think you took it my comments the wrong way. A few years ago it seemed like every post I made about studying for the exams, I recommended hamtestonline.com. It got to the point where it was annoying to type the address, and I imagined that you are at the same point now.

Trust me, I love the fact that everyone is getting licensed.  FRS and CB radios are terrible once you've used a HAM radio.  Did you see that Yaesu is coming out with a dual bander with APRS?  It looks like it's pretty similar to the Kenwood.

Yaesu FTM-350R

Hopefully I will get back into studying soon.

Just been way to busy to study and complete my installation.
What is holding me back on the installation is connecting the coax ends up front for the antenna, and for the connector to the radio.
I SUCK at coax work.
Regular wiring I do fine with, but coax I do not have any experience with.
And I have seen the YouTube vids on how to solder the ends too.

No need to look it up Dale. I listed all WA/OR test dates for December on the previous page.

For future exams NWOS members can just go to http://www.arrl.org/arrlvec/examsearch.phtml where they can search for test dates near their location.

 

Bump for another word of encouragement. Sometimes the hardest part of accomplishing any goal is taking the first step. I encourage everyone who is even *considering* getting their Amateur Radio license to do these two steps (Total time for both is 5 minutes):

- Go to HamTestOnline.com and try the free trial.
- Go to http://www.arrl.org/arrlvec/examsearch.phtml and just look and see when/where there are tests near you.

 

I'm taken the HAM test tomorrow at 10:00 AM if I'm not snowed or iced in.

Good for you, Mark!

Jerry, K7PNW