N5RD - How To Get Your License

Amateur Radio Licensing

Amateur Radio is regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under the Communications Act of 1934. It is also subject to numerous international agreements. All Amateur Radio operators must be licensed. In the U.S. there are three license classes. License exams are given by volunteer groups operating under organizations called Volunteer Examiner Coordinators whose volunteers administer and grade tests and report results to the FCC.

This page includes:

FRN - obtaining a Federal Registration Number
Downloading your official amateur radio license copy
Renewing your license

FRN & EMAIL ADDRESS REQUIREMENT

Before testing the applicant is now required to obtain an FRN (Federal Registration Number) as well as an EMAIL ADDRESS. Below are instructions and information on obtaining an FRN number.

FRN

(Federal Registration Number)

An FRN number is required on the FCC application Form 605, so applicants should register with the FCC CORES (COmission REgistration System) and receive their FRN number if this is an initial license. Present holders of amateur radio licenses have the FRN printed on their license.

This may be done on the FCC website:

You will be providing adress, Social Security Number or Tax ID Number, and a password you will use, as well as a security question and answer. The password requirements are: 1) 12 to 15 characters long and 2) meets all the following criteria: at least 1 lower case letter, 1 upper case letter, 1 number, and 1 punctuation mark/special character
CORES will present you with a confirmation page containing the assigned FRN. We recommend printing this page for your records. You will need to use your FRN and password to apply for and manage licenses within ULS.
Direct link to FRN registration - https://apps.fcc.gov/cores/publicHome.do

FCC $35 Amateur Application Fee

Amateur radio application fees, including those associated with Form 605 application filings, became effective April 19, 2022.

The $35 FCC 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.

VECs and Volunteer Examiner (VE) teams do not collect the $35 fee at exam sessions. New applicants will pay the $35 application fee directly to the FCC.

Requirements for Testing

1. You are required to provide your FRN (see above regarding FRN) as well as a valid email address during registration.

2. A legal photo ID:

Government issued Driver's License
Government issued Identification Card
US Passport
Military/Law enforcement ID
Student school photo ID

If no photo ID is available, two forms of identification must be presented:

Non-photo ID/Drivers license
Birth Certificate
Utility bill or Bank statement showing the person's current address as it appears on Form 605.
Students/Minors without a photo ID need to bring only one of the above items if a legal guardian presents their photo ID; otherwise two non-photo IDs are required.

3. A basic calculator with memory erased is allowed.

4. Pencil and scratch paper will be provided.

5. Exam fee $14.00 cash.

What Amateur Radio licenses are available?

Technician Class License You can get an entry level Amateur Radio Technician license by passing a 35-question multiple-choice examination. No Morse code test is required. The exam covers basic regulations, operating practices, and electronics theory, with a focus on VHF and UHF applications.

Technician Class operators are authorized to use all amateur VHF and UHF frequencies (all frequencies above 50 MHz). Technicians also may operate on the 80, 40, and 15 meter HF bands using Morse code, and on the 10 meter band using Morse code, voice, and digital modes. No Morse code test is required.

General Class License The General Class license offers a giant step up in operating privileges. The high-power HF privileges granted to General licensees allow for cross-country and worldwide communication.

Technicians may upgrade to General by passing a 35-question multiple-choice examination. The written exam covers intermediate regulations, operating practices, and electronics theory, with a focus on HF applications. You must successfully pass the Technician exam to be eligible to sit for the General class exam. No Morse code test is required.

In addition to the Technician privileges, General Class operators are authorized to operate on any frequency in the 160, 30, 17, 12, and 10 meter bands. They may also use significant segments of the 80, 40, 20, and 15 meter bands.

Amateur Extra Class License The HF bands can be awfully crowded, particularly at the top of the solar cycle. Once you earn HF privileges, you may quickly yearn for more room. The Extra Class license is the answer. Extra Class licensees are authorized to operate on all frequencies allocated to the Amateur Service.

General licensees may upgrade to Extra Class by passing a 50-question multiple-choice examination. No Morse code test is required. In addition to some of the more obscure regulations, the test covers specialized operating practices, advanced electronics theory, and radio equipment design.

How do I prepare for the license exam?

Many publishers, including the ARRL, offer books, courses and computer software to facilitate self-study for the Amateur Radio licenses.

Members of our local ham clubs in town often offer courses to prepare for amateur licenses.

The type of material may depend upon how you best learn. ARRL (under Licensing, Education and Training) offers manuals which are excellent study guides, taking each section of study separately with follow-up questions from the actual question pool for that section. In addition the complete question pool is included in each manual. For Technician the book is entitled, "Ham Radio License Manual". They also offer courses with included CDs for use with your computer. Gordon West also produces a set of very good study guides for each license.

In addition there are several practice tests on the internet in which questions from each section are chosen randomly. These are best used as practice for the exam after studying the material from separate textbooks. Also, this writer adds that it is best to use more than one of these sites in your practice. The sites include:

Online license courses (commercial site):

Provided below are links to the question pools currently used for each exam in pdf format.

Technician:
2022 Tech Questions
2022 Tech Diagrams

General: (for use on July 1, 2023 and thereafter)
2023 General Questions
2023 General Diagrams

Extra:
2020 Extra Questions
2020 Extra Diagrams

Downloading an Official Copy of your License

Once you are issued your initial amateur radio license or upgrade examination results have been turned in to the FCC, you may download an official copy of your license. (This also applies to non-amateur radio licenses.) The FCC is not regularly mailing paper copies any longer.

Go to the ULS section of the FCC website -
Direct link for the ULS section - http://www.fcc.gov/uls
The Universal Licensing System page has a section, Filing, and under that word is the link, Obtain Official ULS Authorization.
Clicking on that link will give you a page with Instructions for Downloading Official Authorizations in ULS.
Follow the instructions. You will be logging in with your FRN and password, so have those handy. Later you will be choosing which, if more than one license, downloads you want.
This will enable you to download the pdf and print it out. The pdf will have the word Official printed diagonally behind the text of the document.

For more information on the local Amateur Radio License test schedule, contact the K5TFH Testing Team

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