> Well, it's never too late to become a radio amateur! With the removal of the > morse code requirement for all license classes, it's really just a practical > engineering written test. A fairly simple one at that.
Yeah, I got licensed in 1999, when there was still a vestigial Morse code requirement. The electronic part of the exam was a cakewalk, as I've been dinking with electronics most of my life. I was trying for 20WPM, and had gotten up to 12. However, at that point 5WPM was all that was required, and it seemed like a crawl to me. I read up on the question pool and did several (free) online practice exams, so I was pretty sure I knew the stuff well enough to pass. You can miss a couple of questions and still pass. I passed the first try, no sweat. > Really, it is a little sad to say that a ham radio license doesn't imply the > same level of technical ability that it once did. You no longer need to > design oscillators as part of the test (or even identify them? I can't > remember if I had to identify one on the extra test). I don't remember either, but I can still identify a Hartley, Colpitts, or Pierce oscillator easily. Not so sure about a Clapp oscillator. I actually used that knowledge recently while building a vacuum tube visual theremin. I was lifting Bob Moog's version of Theremin's circuit, but didn't have the tapped inductors required, nor did I feel like winding them myself. It was a simple Hartley oscillator, so I rearranged it into a Colpitts configuration, which needs two capacitors instead of a tapped inductor. Better yet, I can easily make one or both of the capacitors variable, as this is a high-inductance, low-capacitance implementation. Worked a treat. > However, with that being said, I very much approve of the FCC's move to make > it easier to obtain a license for the casually interested engineer. They even > release the test questions (and answers!) ahead of time. At $10/10 years, I > maintain that amateur radio licensing is the current best deal available from > the US government. Agreed. I've had a lot of fun with my license, using it to do fun things like legally broadcast a colour TV signal from a balloon travelling to the edge of space. If I run out of range with my radio-controlled quadcopter, I can move it to the 6-meter band and have plenty of range. - John KG4L -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
