A Talent for Procrastination
I intended to get licensed a long time ago. Decades ago, in fact. But, as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Not helped by my being a world-class procrastinator; with a Masters in Procrastination from the “School of Hard Knocks” and, later, a PhD in same from the “University of Life”.
Spurts of motivation would get interrupted, sometimes by travel , sometimes by some other event … a new hobby, a new country, a new house or even a glass of Scotch and the opportunity for forty winks.
I’m not particularly proud of this … but reality is what it is.
The Scanner/Wideband Receiver Years
I had not lost my interest in radio, though. Just that the desire to transmit/be an active ham blossomed very slowly. Over the years, I’ve had, used and fully enjoyed a number of scanners and wide-band receivers.
Back in the UK I started with a Yupiteru MVT-7000, which got copious use, and in the US an AOR AR-8000. Much more recently I picked up first a Uniden BCD436HP, then their SDS-100, as well as an iCom IC-R30. These were especially entertaining when I was living on Alaskan Way in Seattle, right on the waterfront. So in addition to the greater Seattle area EMS traffic, SEATAC and all the marine traffic was easily accessible … even with handheld receivers and rubber-duck antennas.
And it was after a couple of years in Seattle, with so much traffic to listen in on, that I finally decided to commit to getting my license done, and joining in on the full experience …
O’Leary’s Law
Most people are familiar with Murphy’s Law. My timing on deciding to knuckle down and get license ran right into the somewhat lesser-known “O’Leary’s Law” – which, simply stated, says that “Murphy was an optimist.”
I bought the classic ARRL “Ham Radio License Manual” and began studying for my Technician’s license … right before the pandemic hit. By the time I was ready to take the test, just a couple of weeks later, everything was shut down. There was no in-person testing available anywhere near me, online testing hadn’t become “a thing” yet, and there was no indication as to how long things might remain in a sate of lockdown.
So, I put that on hold – thinking it would be for a month or two – and it turned out to be almost two years later, and post-having moved from Seattle to Miami, before I got back to it.
Getting Licensed
During that near two-year span when testing was unavailable I did read, on and off, my way through all three of the primary ARRL manuals, for Technician, General and Amateur Extra. And then I found that a) online testing was now possible and b) in-person testing had opened back up.
Notionally, I liked the idea of online testing. The reality was that the setup required was fiddly enough that, while I would have done it if it was the only option, it just seemed to be a lot less fannying around to just do it in person. And that would come with the benefit of getting to meet some of the members of a local amateur radio club.
As it happens, about this time, I found “HamTestOnline” and gave it a trial. I liked it enough to sign-up for all three of their courses. I followed their recommendations to set a test date prior to starting studying, and use that as a means to keep me on task. So that’s what I did …
I contacted my local amateur radio club, which is the “Everglades Amateur Radio Club” (W4SVI) out of Homestead, FL, and was met with a very friendly and welcoming response from the club secretary (KG2CS).
So that was set, 30 days out … now to study … with the intention of taking all three exams, assuming I passed the preceding ones.
I spent a total of 51 hours studying, with just 2 practice exams (mostly out of interest). I averaged just over an hour a day for 31 days, with the low-side being 30 minutes and the longest (on “exam week”) being 4 hours.
On test-day, I ran through the entire question pool, for all three exams.
Arriving at EARC, the welcome was warm and things were well organized. I got to meet a few of the regulars, including the club president (W1HQL), the secretary in person (KG2CS) and several other very friendly chaps (Bill, Milton, “Fox” … etc.), and then sat down to take the actual exams.
This went very well, as far as I’m concerned … I felt very well prepared (and I enjoy taking tests anyway … mental/knowledge based ones at least):
I passed Technician at 100%, General at 97% (missed one question) and Amateur Extra at 100%, in one sitting. The whole thing took less than an hour. And, overall, on that basis I’d say that the HamTestOnline software worked extremely well. I’ll post a proper review that at some point, and have already done a high-level on on www.eham.net.
My Amateur Extra license granted on 10/18/2021, and that’s when the fun really started …