I just got my Technician-class ham radio license!
After diving into study sessions, practice exams, and learning the ropes of amateur radio, I finally passed the test and earned my call sign.
I used hamradioprep.com and it made it super easy to study from my phone, or wherever I had internet and a few minutes to spare. In total, it took me about a weekend to study for the technician license, but it took a week to get scheduled and actually take the exam, so I was reviewing that whole time.
Getting into ham radio has been an exciting journey, all starting from simply wishing I had a radio when I was evacuated from fires and needed to communicated between cars, and FRS (bubble-wrap radios from wal-mart) didn’t even reach between us on straight flat roads. I knew I needed something more powerful, so I looked into how to do that and got introduced to GMRS!
With GMRS, I got 50W of power (instead of half a watt with FRS) and played with different antennas, all the way up to understanding radio waves and exploring different transceivers! I had my own repeater, and community going, and really enjoyed setting up nets and just making friends over the radio. Some of us even played games together like Flight Sim while using the radio like “real pilots”, haha!
Now, I moved to an area where GMRS isn’t active, as I’m in the bottom of a bowl as far as geography goes, so I needed something more useful than GMRS. Even my repeater is useless if I can’t get the antenna high enough. And where I’m at, no matter how tall a pole I have, my signal is spotty at best. I can’t even reach my repeater from a mile away in some spots, but can hear my school using FRS radios better than my repeater because they’re 20 ft higher in elevation than my house. Not very useful in a dead spot if I’m trying to have even remotely the community I had before.
So, I figured HAM would have something around, and they even have HF and LF bands that can bounce around the world!!! Wouldn’t matter how dead my particular spot is if I can just reach out of it, and there are a LOT of repeaters around me, and everywhere for that matter.
And now, I have my technician license! I can fully utilize VHF/UHF bands (similarly to GMRS, you need repeaters and/or a good line of sight to get much anywhere), and will need to study CW (Morse Code) to use anything in the HF bands, but that’s ok!!! All I wanted was to reach out on repeaters and talk locally, though, maybe not needing to invest more into transceivers like I did when learning on GMRS, so I can just use my trusty handheld Baofeng AR-5RM for $25 and do all the HAMing I like!
I know that’s not really the case, as I already bought new antennas to work the bands I now use before my license even came in…
And now I’m off to participate in clubs and events and spend money on a hobby that is entirely inappropriate for a socially anxious dude that doesn’t even like talking on the phone… Woo!
Why you should also get a HAM license
For anyone curious about joining the ham community—do it! The learning curve is fun, the people are incredibly welcoming, and the possibilities are endless. Whether it’s emergency communications, DXing, or just chatting with locals, there’s something for everyone in amateur radio.
For me, the most important part is simply learning. It’s utilizing a fundamental law of physics that is essential to all wireless technology! You learn so much just by tinkering, and immediately seeing the results, that it’s itched my nerd brain that was starting to get bored with the home-lab thing.
There are also important use-cases for HAM like relaying information when other communication topologies are down, like in Hurricane Helene or the fires in LA. Even less-emergency events like marathons and races utilize HAMs.
But, the best part is that HAM has a large population of other radio dorks that are always happy to chat, help, and expand your knowledge of radio communications that you just don’t get elsewhere.
I hope to continue making contacts and learning more from other people, and hopefully utilize the skill for something bigger than myself!
73!
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