Do you know the atomic weight of Sulfur or the spin direction of electrons? Do you know how many shift register a binary multiplication uses in assembler? Of course no! I don't know exactly how many watts I'm allow to use when transmitting at 14175 AM or USB mode, that's why I learning. So no, the test is not easy a cake for someone that is no a HF fan or never was involved in radio transmitters.
I really tired of people comments about "even my dog can pass the test" or "in my time we were supercalifragilistic radio hams".You were radio amateurs for how long? 20 or 30 years, or even more? for you is easy, you are breathing this every day of your life, but I can say too that my dog can pass a quantum mechanics examination, so if you say that you don't know the electron spin direction I may imply that you are less smart than my dog. (I don have a dog , by the way). That stupid attitude is not helping at all to bring newcomers to the radio hobby. Of course saying. thing like someone said here that the test is not so hard if you take care of preparing yourself a little helps and is most welcome comment.
By the way my background is Electronics Engineer, Semiconductors engineering, quantum mechanics fan, worked for Intel and right now IT Manager at a small company. So its not that I'm lacking knowledge, but you can't never know everything in this life, and I open to learn new things. Ah, and I had a Extra Radio license back on my teens, and back then the examinations where even harder, with full CW knowledge, than today, but since more than 30 year has passed since then and I never used my learned skills again, it went to the drain and now I need to re-learn everything, almost...
To all the good people trying to help a newcomer, thanks.!
kekinash, It sounds like we have similar histories. I too obtained an electronics engineering degree but my career moved in a bit of a different direction so I didn't always have an opportunity to put my skills to use. I've forgotten much of what I learned. Before I took my tech and general tests (yes, both on the same day) I studied for a few weeks to refresh my memory. I was surprised how much of the information came back to me. I just needed to blow the dust off of it. Some of the questions on the test won't have much relevance if you aren't a radio person but hey, you don't need a perfect score to pass. Also, for the most part, it's a multiple choice test. Do some studying to refresh your memory. Take some of the online practice tests until you're comfortable with your success rate. I think you'll be up to speed in little time at all.
Last edited: