Welcome to Day 1 of learning Ham radio! After a little bit of searching I discovered the first thing I actually should do is to create an account with the FCC and get a “Registration Number” (FRN). This was surprisingly easy, something I rarely say about government websites.
To get your FRN (as a US Citizen) you need to register using the FCC CORES system. All it takes is create an account using an email address, then verify the address, then you will “Register a new FRN”. I registered as an individual (not a company) and after entering a bunch of personal data - including my SSN…sigh - I got my FRN pretty much immediately. It is a 10 digit number that I then saved in my password manager.
With this administrative work complete, I moved on to the fun stuff - learning!
How to prep for the Ham Technician License
Within about five minutes, I decided to use hamstudy.org and their associated free, online, book: hambook.org. They even provide a cheap ($3.99) app for practice flash cards and practice tests on your phone without an internet connection.
My plan was to read a chapter a day then do the flash cards associated with that chapter. I accidentally made it through the first three chapters of the book! Since I got my degree in electrical engineering much of the first couple chapters was review. The book is written in a very approchable manner and they do a great job of highlighting the important items that you will need to know for the test.
As I completed each chapter, I updated the filter on the hamstudy app to include questions from that chapter’s material. This way I keep seeing the earlier questions as well for continued reinforcement.
What’s next?
I anticipate that I will move at about a chapter each day now that the book is moving into territory I am more unfamiliar with (antennas is next!). Once I have completed all the content (Jan 8) I will begin taking practice tests on the hamstudy app. They recommend that you consistently get 85% on the practice tests before you take the real test.
There is an in-person test near me on Jan 11 and there are remote tests pretty much everyday, so we will see where things stand in a week!