Tech and General Test both completed!!

[kaba1776]

To be fair I had the advantage of a 30 week Basic E and radar repair school courtesy of the US Army 42 years ago. I was surprised how much of that information was still available to me.

But the FCC Regs; antenna theory, and nomenclature peculiar to Amateur Radio were all new to me. I used both QRZ and HamTest to disclose areas were I needed extra study and researched online to resolve those shortcomings.

I began study on 8/2/2010 and completed my test last night, (8/12/2010). The examiners didn't disclose my numeric score but said that I had done "very, very good". In retrospect I think I missed one question on the Tech test and probably aced the General. Altogether the process was completed in just under 40 minutes and processing the required paperwork consumed a majority of that time.

Today I'm doing what most new Hams do I imagine; researching available equipment and drooling over the prospects of a new toy and going live.

 

[D00D]

Congrats and welcome to the club!

I don't know why they wouldn't tell you your score. We can do that. We just can't tell you which ones you missed.

 

[KD0LWU]

That is great! Congratulations! Now get a rig and antenna up and start talking!

 

[kaba1776]

Congrats and welcome to the club!

I don't know why they wouldn't tell you your score. We can do that. We just can't tell you which ones you missed.

I was actually a little curious about that also. Other posters here and elsewhere were reporting scores of XX on this test and XXX on that test. I assumed there wasn't a prohibition for telling me. But I wasn't going to press the issue. After all they had my certificate in their hands and I was confident that I'd done really well on both.

KD0LWU,
I bought a used Yaesu VX-8R posted on a different forum tonight. The gentleman I bought it from sent me pictures. It has several options including the programming software, HD lithium batteries, GPS, and other goodies.

Question for any reader: How often did you check the ULS before your name appeared?

 

[KD0LWU]

I tested Saturday, Monday was Labor Day and Tuesday night it was up! I've heard it's not normally that fast, but two to three days is what people have told me.
I hope the VX-8R works well for you! I have the VX-7R and it doesn't work that well in a rural area.

 

[kaba1776]

That was a quick turnaround on your ticket. The examiners told me to expect mine in 7 to 10 days. I suppose it depends on how the results are sent. Or perhaps on the desk of which "guvmint" worker your paperwork lands on.

Have you tried a different antenna with the 7R? I live in a relatively rural area of the Florida Panhandle but have been told there are at least two good repeaters nearby.

Did you get a case for the 7R? One of the repeated complaints I've read in reviews was that the 7R and 8R could overheat when transmitting. I'd like to get a case but that would probably only aggrevate the overheating problem.

 

[KD0LWU]

I got my letter with my license in 7 days!
I've tried a few antenna's, a homemade copper J-pole, a 2m mag mount and a Comet GP-3. The Comet is the ticket! I went from hitting three repeaters to seven between that and the J-pole.
The Larson Mag mount works well also, problem is, 220 doesn't exist, 440 is dead, and out of the seven repeaters I can hit, only two really carry any traffic daily. The one that does is having problems with the new repeater and they are switching back and forth with old and new. I can hit the new one with my rubber duck, I can't hit the old one with the Comet! I have to get in my truck and use the 10 watts my 706 puts out on the mobile antenna to hit it then.
I don't have a case, and they do get rather warm. They also don't give much if any warning on the battery status! I was rag chewing with some guys on simplex one night, BAM, nothing! Battery was dead!

 

[kaba1776]

I will get involved in the local club and perhaps some of the members will have antennas to experiment with so I can get some idea what will be workable.

Checked the FCC License database this morning. They had issued 20 new license by 8:30 and I thought perhaps mine might get listed before day's end. However, when I checked again at 1:30 local they'd only listed 4 more new license. It looks as though the new license they are issuing for Region 4 are mostly something like KJ4WW*. Think I'm going to consider going with a Vanity Call Sign.

 

[kg4icg]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (webOS/1.4.5; U; en-US) AppleWebKit/532.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/1.0 Safari/532.2 Pre/1.0)

well after a couple of month's, you will probably start seeing AES and Ham Radio Outlet catalogs in the mail.

 

[kg4icg]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (webOS/1.4.5; U; en-US) AppleWebKit/532.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/1.0 Safari/532.2 Pre/1.0)

well after a couple of month's, you will probably start seeing AES and Ham Radio Outlet catalogs in the mail.