September 2017 Issue of the Ham Arundel News

Here is the September 2017 Issue of the Ham Arundel News

Comments

Hello,

My brother is interested in becoming a ham.

Can he take the technician and general test at the same time?

You are allowed to take all three exams at one session. However you must pass the lower exams first. ie; Pass technician before getting general. Preregistration is prefered, and it would be nice to have your FRN prior to exam day.

Steve Kelly always said you could take them in any order. Have the rules changed, or was Steve wrong?

All, unless things have changed further than I remember, you can take any test at any time. You are not required to take the Tech test before General or Extra, but it is encouraged. That being said call signs are only issued for people passing the Tech exam. Ham radio licensing is graduated so you must pass Tech to have any on-air privileges, however passing a higher exam without tech will get you a CSCE exempting you from taking that exam again for 1 year. There are a few exceptions for previously licensed Hams who's operators licenses expire.

A few scenarios:

1) Pass General, not Tech or Extra. -> Receive a CSCE for the General exam. It will expire in 1 year. Applicant will need to pass Tech within that time to be a General. There are no ham band transmission privileges until Tech is passed. This is the most common exception case.

2A) Pass Extra not General or Tech. -> Receive a CSCE for the Extra exam. It will expire in 1 year. Applicant will need to pass Tech and General within that time to be Extra. Applicant needs to at least pass tech to have ham band transmission privileges.

2B) Pass Extra not General or Tech. -> Receive a CSCE for the Extra exam. It will expire in 1 year. If applicant later takes tech and passes he or she will only have tech privileges until general is passed, assuming it is done before the CSCE expires.

3) Pass General and Extra but not Tech. -> Receive a CSCE for the General and Extra exam. It will expire in 1 year. Applicant will need to pass Tech within that time to be Extra. Otherwise Applicant has no call sign or ham band transmission privileges.

4) Pass Tech and Extra but not General. -> Receive Tech Privileges and a CSCE for the Extra Exam. CSCE will expire in 1 year. Applicant can transmit on Tech bands upon receipt of call sign.

5) Pass Tech and General but not Extra. -> Recieve General Privileges. Applicant can transmit on Tech and General Bands upon receipt of call sign.

Hope this demystifies the graduated licenses system. If you think you can pass General before Tech go for it.