{"id":21,"date":"2020-10-10T05:57:36","date_gmt":"2020-10-10T05:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/straightkey.com\/?p=21"},"modified":"2020-10-10T05:57:38","modified_gmt":"2020-10-10T05:57:38","slug":"taking-the-technician-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/straightkey.com\/?p=21","title":{"rendered":"Taking the Technician test"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Once I made the decision to pursue relicensing, I started watching YouTube videos and taking practice tests on the ARRL website<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a LOT of resources online for getting back into amateur radio. I guess it’s kind of a catch 22 situation: computers pulled a lot of people away from the hobby but now, hams are using their computers to draw people in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I watched a technician training video from KB9OKB on youtube <\/a>about 30 times. In between, I would take a few practice exams using the ARRL Exam Review for Ham Radio™<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the pandemic and social distancing issues, I wanted to take my exam online. It is 2020 after all, and the thought of sitting in a room or in my car to take a paper test just seemed as archaic as the Morse code I loved so much. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spent a little time googling and watching YouTube videos about the growing demand and availability of 100% online testing. I finally came across this site: hamstudy.org<\/a>. An invaluable resource for many would-be hams, I’m sure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found availability with “CRC Remote online testing<\/a>” through VEC W5YI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I highly recommend this service. I requested a testing session for on a Wednesday for the next available slot on Sunday, Sept 27. I used paypal to secure my slot ($14) and kept on taking practice exams and watching youtube videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are some unique requirements for testing remotely. First, you have to be isolated in a room where no one can walk in… then you need to have at least on webcam that can pan around a room so the exam proctors can verify that you are alone and that you don’t have the answers on a white board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have to be arms length away from your silenced mobile phone and you can’t turn off your camera during the exam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, and *obviously* you really need to ensure you have a stable internet connection and a computer in good working order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I decided to go into the office and use one of our little two person ‘huddle rooms’. These are generally used for making private calls (doing phone interviews), or for having a 1-on-1 meeting with your boss when you get in trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had a little snag with the quality of my external webcam – it wasn’t showing the text on my ID very clearly. I was able to switch to the onboard camera in my laptop and then we moved on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a short delay between my scheduled time and when the test actually began – they do forewarn you about possible delays. I really didn’t mind as the convenience of doing the online test from a location I got to pick outweighed the inconvenience of a short 30-minute delay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long story short, I passed my test. I didn’t do nearly as well as I did on the practice exams but I passed just the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite taking at least 30 practice exams over the preceding 2 weeks, I came across a few questions on the real test that I hadn’t seen once in practice. Of course, there is a pool of x questions and you only get 35 at a time. The ARRL site didn’t seem quite as random as I thought it might be, I kept seeing the same questions repeatedly. it might be beneficial to do practice exams on different websites, just to see if you can get a better range of questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All my paperwork was filed that day, a Sunday. I’d read online (Reddit) that it was taking 12-14 days to get a callsign issued so imagine my surprise when my callsign appeared in the FCC ULS database by 2 pm the very next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No longer do you have to wait for a paper license to arrive by mail (it took probably 2 months to get my paper license when I lived in Japan). As soon as your show up in the database, you are golden to get on the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had also heard that I was qualified to be grandfathered back into a General license after successfully passing the tech exam. This process wasn’t quite as quick though and it would be another week before I saw “General” show up in the ULS database.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once I made the decision to pursue relicensing, I started watching YouTube videos and taking practice tests on the ARRL website. There are a LOT of resources online for getting …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","anons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/straightkey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/straightkey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/straightkey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/straightkey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/straightkey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/straightkey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22,"href":"http:\/\/straightkey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions\/22"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/straightkey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/straightkey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/straightkey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}