Bastrop Radio › Knowledge base
How do I get an amateur radio licence?
The three licence classes, what each allows, and how testing works.
Amateur radio licensing in the United States is administered by the
FCC, with examinations run by volunteer examiners — ordinary licensed
operators, usually at a club.
The three classes
- Technician. The entry licence. Full privileges on VHF and UHF,
which covers essentially all local repeater operation, and limited HF. This
is the one that gets you talking to Bastrop County on a handheld.
- General. Adds substantial HF privileges — the bands that
carry beyond line of sight, and the reason people take the second exam.
- Amateur Extra. Full privileges.
No Morse code is required for any class. Question pools are public and
published in advance, which is unusual and genuinely helpful: the exact
questions you may be asked are available to study.
How testing works
Sessions are run by volunteer examiner teams, most often through a local
club, and you may attempt a higher class in the same sitting if you pass the
one below. The ARRL and the volunteer examiner coordinators publish current
session listings, fees and requirements — and since those change, they
are the source to check rather than this page.
Locally. Club activity in and around Bastrop County
shifts, and several club websites we checked were not responding. If you run
or know an active club, a net or a testing session in this county, send it to
wholetechtexas@gmail.com and it goes on the
events
page free.
Terms on this page
- Repeater
- A station that receives a signal and retransmits it at higher power from a better location, greatly extending handheld range.
- Net
- A scheduled on-air gathering, run to a format by a net control operator.
- VHF/UHF
- Very and ultra high frequency - the bands carrying most local repeater traffic, generally line-of-sight.
- HF
- High frequency - bands that refract off the ionosphere and can carry far beyond the horizon.
- Volunteer examiner
- A licensed operator accredited to administer amateur radio examinations.
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