Ham Study

Life sucks these days. I know, terrible attitude but it is reality. That said, I am trying to find the positive.  I’ve always wanted my Ham Radio Operator license so, to keep my mind busy, I have started that process.

The more technical term is “Amateur Radio” – a license from the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is required and then a whole slew of functionality is available.  Most people think of radio operators sitting in their basement talking to someone else sitting in their basement on the other side of the planet. However; from a sailing perspective, there is far more to it!  The most basic is the ability to operate an SSB transmitter. With this ability, things like APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System), SailMail (email over HF SSB radios), SailDocs (text based weather data via SailMail), and the ability to communicate via voice all become available (plus plenty of others).  Of course, the starting point is the FCC Technician Class Operator license.

There are gobs of online references for the FCC testing as well as study and prep tests.  I elected to use the HamRadioLicenseExam website and study the test question pool. These questions can be downloaded from several places, I used the ones at the NCVEC website.  While name dropping, a few other excellent sites are: National Association for Amateur Radio (ARRL), HamUniverse, and the W5YI group.

So, I have immersed myself in study and taking practice tests.  I plan to take the actual test on November 19, 2011.  Less than a month away – wish me luck….