There are 3 levels of Amateur Radio licenses in the USA, they are Technician, General, and Amateur Extra. There are grandfathered licenses, but I will not go into them here, if you are interested to see what those are, that information can be found at the FCC website fcc.gov under Amateur radio service.

Since I am talking to potential new amateur radio ops, I am just going to stick to the current license levels.

Tech privileges

The privileges of a Technician Class operator license include operating an amateur station that may transmit on channels in any of 17 frequency bands above 50 MHz with up to 1,500 watts of power. To pass the Technician Class examination, at least 26 questions from a 35-question written examination must be answered correctly. Technician Class licensees also have privileges in four amateur service bands in the HF range (3-30 MHz) 

General privileges

The General Class operator license authorizes privileges in all 29 amateur service bands. Upon accreditation by a Volunteer-Examiner Coordinator (VEC), an individual can help administer certain examinations. In addition to the written examination, the requirement for a General Class operator license includes a 35-question written examination for which 26 correctly answered questions is the minimum passing score

Technician and General require a passing score of 74%

Extra privileges

The privileges of an Amateur Extra Class operator license include additional spectrum in the HF bands. In addition to the two above written examinations, the requirement for an Amateur Extra Class operator license includes answering correctly at least 37 questions on a 50-question written examination.

Amateur Extra requires a Passing score of 74% as well

The cost for new licenses has gone up recently from $15 per exam session to $35. The licenses are good for 10 years, so it breaks down to $3.50 a year, it’s not so bad if you think about it that way. Per the ARRL:

The $35 application fee applies to new, renewal, rule waiver, and modification applications that request a new vanity call sign. The fee will be per application.

Administrative updates, such as a change of name, mailing or email address, and modification applications to upgrade an amateur radio licensee’s operator class or to request a sequentially issued call sign, are exempt from fees.

Where to find practice tests (ARRL, Hamstudy.org, QRZ.com)

HamRadio Prep

Free Ham Radio Practice Tests

Hamstudy.org

https://hamstudy.org/

The ARRL

http://arrlexamreview.appspot.com/ 

This requires a sign-up to use

Did you know that you can take the Amateur Radio exams one of two ways, either face to face in a group, or online with one of the groups that you can find linked at the ARRL’S website? These can be found at 

http://www.arrl.org/online-exam-session

Music suge

Amateur Radio Ops Love NOAA

A brief history of NOAA

NOAA was established by the President and Congress in 1970 under Reorganization Plan No.4. President Nixon sent the reorganization plan to Congress on July 9, 1970. NOAA was created to serve a national need “…for better protection of life and property from natural hazards…for a better understanding of the total environment…[and] for exploration and development leading to the intelligent use of our marine resources…” It became effective on October 3, 1970 under 5 U.S.C. 906.

The establishment of major parts of NOAA can be traced back to the 1800s, including a Fisheries Commission in 1871, the Weather Bureau in 1870,  and the Survey of the Coast office in 1807 by the visionary President Jefferson. As such, NOAA is the oldest scientific agency in the United States. The 200th Anniversary of NOAA was thus celebrated in 2007.

NOAA Frequencies

All NOAA Weather Radio stations broadcast on one of seven frequencies in the VHF Public Service band: 162.400 megahertz (MHz), 162.425 MHz, 162.450 MHz, 162.475 MHz, 162.500 MHz, 162.525 MHz, and 162.550 MHz,

Your Baofeng UV-5R or variant can be programmed with these frequencies in order to monitor any severe weather in your area. 

Why do Amateur radio ops like NOAA?

There are many Amateur Radio ops who become Weather Spotters, Storm Chasers, and the like, all for their own reason. Myself, I became a Spotter because I live in Tornado Alley in the Midwest. I wanted to be able to know when one, or two tornadoes were forming as was the case this past late winter/ early Spring, it  happened on March 5th, 2022 as noted by NOAA:

“The largest tornado moved across Madison, Warren, Polk, and Jasper counties for nearly 70 miles and at its peak produced winds of nearly 170 mph. This is the first EF-4 tornado in Iowa since October 4, 2013, which occurred in Woodbury and Cherokee Counties. “

While my home was not affected, other than losing power for a short time, others that I know had their house decimated by the funnel of doom.

While this was happening, I was on my 2-meter radio, passing local info along on a “Weather Net” set up for this storm, as is the case during all severe weather alerts. By a “gentlemen’s agreement” one of the local repeaters is left open to all amateur radio operators in the affected area in order to pass along any updates on health, safety and storm movement. Having the ability to receive information about a local situation, as well as get information out gives me peace of mind that I otherwise would not have were it not for the fact that I am an amateur radio op. 

The ARRL has been around since 4/6/1914 and it is the largest amateur radio association in the US. They represent the interests of all amateur radio operators in the US before congress and the FCC. The League does this by lobbying before those austere groups.

Besides providing technical assistance and supporting many educational programs, the League also supports emergency communications across the US, and this is why I decided to join, so I can learn how to handle radio traffic of health and welfare during times of communication disruption. I am glad to count myself among the 161,000 ARRL members in the US.

The League offers lot of services to its members, for instance, if you are all about long-distance comms, or DXing, the League operates outgoing and incoming QSL bureaus so you can send out and receive those cool QSL cards from your DX contacts. The Arrl/VEC (Volunteer Examiner Coordinator) sponsors the amateur radio license exams for all three classes of US amateur radio licenses. I became a VE so that I could help bring in new amateur radio ops via testing sessions.

If contesting is your thing, the Arrl sponsors many amateur radio contests throughout the year, the biggest being the November Sweepstakes and the International DX Contest. Information on these and many other contests can be found on the Arrl website.

I feel that membership in the ARRL is a positive step that any amateur radio operator to take, not just for the educational or technical aspects, but because they actually stand up for us in congress and to the Fcc, and that alone is worth membership in my humble opinion.