The Bottom Line:
• You may listen to ham radio communications right now, without having an FCC license.
• If you want to transmit and have two-way conversations over the ham band airwaves, you will need to pass a test to obtain a ham radio license.
• The basic Amateur Radio Technician exam and license cost about $45. The license covers a ten-year period.
• Knowledge of Morse Code is NO longer required to obtain a license.
• Exam sessions are offered, in person, locally, on a weekly basis. Pre-registration is required, to ensure that you have all of the required documentation prior to taking the exam, and seating is limited.
• The question pool from which exam questions are selected is published and available for your review.
• In order to pass the basic Technician class exam, you need to get 26 answers correct (74%) out of the 35 questions on the exam.
The different classes of Amateur Radio licenses and their privileges:
You may have heard long time ham radio operators say that they have a Novice or Advanced license. These categories have been eliminated over the years and the three used today are Technician, General, and Extra Class.
All three exams cover the same topics — regulations, operating practices, electronics, propagation, antennas, and safety — but to increasing levels of complexity:
| Exam | Difficulty | Number of questions in the exam |
| Technician | Relatively simple | 35 from a pool of about 400 questions |
| General | Moderately difficult | 35 from a pool of about 500 questions |
| Extra | Most difficult | 50 from a pool of about 700 questions |
The entry level amateur radio license is called Technician, or Tech. This license allows you to transmit on the 2 meter VHF radio band and the 70 centimeter (aka 440) UHF band. 2 Meter and 440 radios utilize repeaters for communication and have about a 50 mile radius of communications. There are limited privileges for hams with a Tech class license on the 10 meter HF (High Frequency) band. Some digital modes of radio communication allow hams with a Tech license to connect with fellow hams around the world.
The intermediate class of ham radio license is the General Class. This class allows you to transmit extensively on the HF bands, as well as the VHF, UHF bands.
The highest class of amateur radio license is the Extra Class, sometimes referred to as Amateur Extra. Having an Extra class license allows you to operate on a slightly greater bandwidth on HF than the General class can, and it also includes VHF and UHF privileges. It also is preferred that hams who serve as volunteer examiners for license testing sessions have an Extra Class license.
Note: If you have decided that you want to get a General Class license, you still have to take and pass the Technician exam first. More than one class of license exam may be taken during a single session, and there is no additional fee to take more than one class of exam. It is often suggested by the volunteer examiners to take the exam for next higher license class after successfully completing a lower class exam, even if you haven’t studied for the higher class exam. It allows you to see the types of questions that will be asked for that license. You may hold only one active license at a time. If you pass both the technician and general class license exams, you would be awarded the higher class license.
If you do not pass the Technician exam the first time you take it, you may re-take the test during the same session, for an additional $10 fee. There are about a dozen versions of the Technician exam, so you would be given a different version of the exam with different questions on it.
Study materials for the exam
There are a number of books and programs to help you prepare to take your license exams. This is not an exhaustive list, but will give you some resources to explore to find a fit for you.
The ARRL (http://www.arrl.org/) is an organization that advocates for ham radio in North America. They sell books to study for each license exam. Here are links to purchase materials for the Technician license exam:
https://home.arrl.org/action/Store/Product-Details/productId/2003373064
https://home.arrl.org/action/Store/Product-Details/productId/2003373076
www.hamstudy.org has a list of the questions in the pool from which the exam questions are selected. You may also take practice exams on this site. Pros: It’s free. Cons: It just lists the questions and practice exams. No material is taught to you.
https://www.hamradiolicenseexam.com/ is an online study method. Pros: you may try the system for free to see if you like it before you purchase a 6-month subscription to access their site for $25.99. You may take practice tests on this site. The license material is presented to you in small increments and then you take a few quiz questions. The program keeps track of questions that you miss and submits them to you again periodically until you learn them. If you follow their study guidelines and do not pass your license exam, they will refund your money. Cons: may be challenging for people who are not comfortable using computers. You can’t always access a specific section within a category of study, in the same way that you can return to the exact section that you want in a book.
https://hamradioprep.com/ is another online study method. Cost: $35 for lifetime access to the Technician license study materials. Offers videos as well as text material. Pros: Lifetime access to their materials. Cons: may be challenging for people who are not comfortable using computers.
YouTube videos. WCARS aka West CARS, the Western Carolina Amateur Radio Society, did a series of videos to help people prepare to take their Tech License Exam. Here is the link for their spring 2022 class:
Note: WCARS did this class before the questions for the Technician class were changed in 2022. There is still a lot of useful information in this series of classes.
YouTube has many videos about ham radio in general and individual brands and models of radios in particular. You can also find other Tech Class license exam preparation materials on YouTube.
It can be challenging and sometimes overwhelming to prepare to take the license exam. You may not fully understand the material that you are studying. You might not have an aptitude for math. (Note: You can have incorrect answers on all of the math questions on the Tech exam and still pass the test.) Feel free to ask questions of club members about the material. It will start to make sense to you after you get your license and start operating. After you get your license, the real learning takes place.
What you need to take the test:
Before you can take the license test, you must obtain an FRN number from the FCC website. The FRN serves as your identification number with the FCC. Ham licenses are listed in an FCC database, which can be accessed by anyone (you may use a post office box as your address instead of a street address if you prefer). Using an FRN instead of your social security number helps protect you from identity theft. There is no fee to obtain this number. This is the link to obtain your FRN number: https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/support/universal-licensing-system-uls-resources/getting-fcc-registration-number-frn
Bring your FRN number, a photo ID, and $10 to the test session. Some of the exam questions may require mathematical calculations. You may bring a calculator to the exam with you, but you may not use the calculator on a cell phone or a laptop computer, as they can access the internet. You are also not allowed to bring any reference materials with you to the exam. If you bring blank paper with you, you may write notes on it when you begin the exam to help you remember key concepts and formulae. You may also write on the back of your answer sheet. There is no maximum time limit when you take any of the license exams.
Locations and contact persons:
The WCARS Volunteer Examiner Coordinator sponsors testing sessions in our community on a regular basis at the following locations:
Every Friday at 10:00am except holidays: testing in the café section of Ingles Supermarket, 863 Brevard Road, Asheville, NC 28806 (across from the Asheville Outlet Mall)
Contact: Randy Harris, rtsp71@aol.com or 828-298-6685
Reservations are required for this site, as space is limited.
The 3rd Saturday of each month at 9:00am except holidays: testing in the café section at Ingles Supermarket, 625 Spartanburg Highway, Hendersonville, NC 28792 (Across from McDonald’s and the Harris Teeter Supermarket)
Contact: Debbie Hicks, debbie@willstech.com or text 828-243-0875 for reservations.
Note: These exam sites can get noisy, as they occur during informal meetings of WCARS and the Blue Ridge Amateur Radio Club(BRARC), so other hams may be socializing nearby and the sites are located in grocery stores. If you are distracted by noise, consider bringing ear plugs and/or noise reduction headphones with you to the test site.
After you pass the Tech exam, your license status will be logged into the FCC database. The FCC will then ask you to pay a $35 fee to them within one week of passing your exam. After they receive your payment, they will issue your call sign to you. When you operate on the air, you will use your call sign to identify yourself. Custom vanity call signs may also be obtained for a fee after you receive your FCC issued call sign.
Good luck! You can do it!