I took all three from the local radio club this evening. I missed Extra by two. I expected it to be really close and dependent on the form, so I'm not surprised I didn't get it.

They had an old Tech question booklet floating around and it naturally found its way to me, so I took the Tech twice.

I have a Kenwood triband HT and a Diamond triband antenna on the way.

Congrats!  

Congratulations!

Congrats!  I just passed the Extra exam and mostly what I did was to take the practice Extra tests that are on QRZ.com.

Over and over and over and over and.......well you get the picture!  



Vulcan94

Way to Fo!

Nice shootin', w12x40!  Congrats!  

Congrats!
Now you have HF bands open for you. HF is where the fun is.

Congratulations! Since you barely missed Extra, go ahead and bone up on it some more while you're in study mode. The Extra segments of the HF bands are where most of the good stuff hangs out.

Incidentally, don't base your opinion of ham radio on what happens on the repeaters. It's entirely different on HF.

Congrats. I'm not sure if it's "allowed" but a guy when I took my extra flunked his general and they allowed him to take the test again if he paid the fee. They really were't on the ball so I'm not sure on the rules. However, if allowed if I was that close I would be tempted to take it again assuming you get a new test.



You wouldn't happen to be in the structural steel business would you?

It's allowed. There are numerous tests for each class. They'd just make sure he got a different one the second time around.

Then I would really think about it if anyone else runs into that situation. The extra I took was probably the easiest I could have gotten based on all the simulated test I took.



 

Hey, be an optimist. It could have been one of the hardest.

Structural Engineer. Mostly temporary structures, renovations and demolition

I'd have taken the AE again if I hadn't had to take the Tech twice. I have a month to study for the AE and part of the point is to learn the material, not just pass the test.

As an engineer, I'm reference-driven. I don't memorize stuff, I look it up in a book. I'm kinda confused by the emphasis on memorizing the band plans for the exam. I have a concise chart from the ARRL, so why remember that 50.0-50.1 is CW only when it is a matter of seconds to look?

What's a cheap way to get 6m and 10m? I gotta buy dance leotards, Scout uniforms, soccer shoes and beer.

I'm memory driven even tho a fair amount of the time I have to look it up. I can't carry around books, laptops, or sometimes even cell phones in a lot of places where I have to design.





User name was the big give away.





Everything I do is temporary, nothing last in our industry lol. Chemical plants and refineries will rot away in a matter of years. The good news is you can charge them for the same drawings every time they replace it. I still submit drawings for approval that my dad did in the late 60's and early 70's all over again once I go thru them and update them to the new steel sizes.



No idea on 6m cheaply as my HF rig only goes down to 10m.

AND money loss





But worth it!





Congrats OP. Get your wallet lubed, it will get exercise.





 

Congrats!  I had my tech for two years before I got my general, and I wasn't much impressed with the 2m/70cm repeaters in my area. I didn't really enjoy ham radio until I got my general.  And everyone else is right about the money; every time I think I'm done buying stuff something new catches my eye.  

I started with a 857d, a G5RV, a N9TAX 2m/440 slim Jim, and a MFJ-945E tuner.  It was about a perfect way to get started.  It allowed me to try out every band with a minimal cost and ok performance.  Given the opportunity to start over, I would probably buy the MFJ 949E tuner, and replace the g5rv with a 80m full wave horizontal loop fed with ladder line.  

Eventually I built a homebrew interface for digital, which worked well enough to get me on the air.  After I realized I enjoyed digital I bought a signalink.  Same for CW, I started with a homebrew paddle made of a hacksaw blade and a couple of L brackets on a 2x4, then later bought something better.  

That's been my thought process on all my hobbies.  I spend the least amount of money possible that will let me get a taste of what the hobby has to offer and see if I enjoy it.  If I like it, then I buy better gear and come up with excuses to tell my wife.  

I devote a significant fraction of my creative output to this. I'm currently looking spin for the plate carrier and plates I bought recently.

It seems like HF is where the interesting effects happen. I really want to try meteor scatter.

I'm trying not to visualize you in leotards. A tu-tu maybe, but definitely not leotards.

Shop around for a used IC-746, non-pro version. When you're ready for the lower bands, all you have to do is throw up some appropriate wire and press the button for the band you want.

Congrats!  

Congrats!

Congrats!

Well done.

It occurs to me that we may soon run out of channels with all these new hams.

Congrats!

Just go to the CW portion of the band, you won't find those no-codes down there.

That's actually really funny that you'd say that. Two brothers and I took Technician this summer. One brother and I are in health sciences and we do a lot of tests with large amounts of memorization. I got 35/35 and he got 31/35.