Started studying 1 week ago and passed Tech today.  
Now she is on to studying for General and Extra. I guess I may need to pick up a couple of mobiles now that I will actually have someone local to talk to and we are always trying to coordinate when we are in our vehicles.

That is very cool!

That's awesome.  Mine supports / encourages the hobby but glazes over if I start taking "radio" to her.

Tell her congrats.

Lucky! Wish mine would do that!

Congratz!  I'm trying to get mine to get licensed.

You've done it now!  Get used to hearing, "Mine! Mine! Mine!"

Congrats to her.

Serious question.

How did it happen that she became interested enough to study and take the test?

She had been saying that she was interested in it ever since I got on the air. She was genuinely excited when I told her about my first QSO. I sent her a few of the free study links and it didn't really fit her learning style so I signed her up for HamTestOnline and she started last Sunday and took the test today so I consider it money well spent. She is now signed up for General on the same site.

She had originally planned to go to a test session here in early February and do a Zero to Extra, but she had more time this week to put into her tech study than she thought so we loaded up the car with 4 kids and drove and hour-and-a-half to the test center. She hadn't studied for General at all and only missed it by two, so I dont think she will have much trouble with it. She has a very strong math and science background so I have no worries about her going for general and extra in one. She is a lot smarter than I am... Besides, if I can pass Extra than anyone can.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words! I'm proud of her! SOTA will be a lot more fun with her able to operate the radio too!

Congrats!

Cool!  Mine got hers several years ago as well.

My is wife licensed, but sadly my daughter is not interested.

My wife operates a government MARS HF station and was encouraged to get licensed by her agency.

Congrats!
My wife got her Tech ticket last year. I never thought she had any interest but I bought a Tech study book by Gordon West and quietly put it on the magazine table. One day I saw her reading the book. She passed the test a week later.
She was walking our Siberian Husky several month ago and the dog got bit by a snake. They were about a mile from the house. The dog was crying and could not walk. The wife tried calling me on the phone but she was in a low spot and could not get  the call to go through.  She panicked but remembered she had a 2m HT and called me on the radio. I was there minutes later to pick them up. We took the dog to a vet right away. The dog was in a lot of pain and could not walk for a few days. The dog recovered quickly though. Now my wife knows how valuable a radio can be.

It does come in handy, my wife is a Tech and we have used it on trips.

Wow! Glad she had it and glad your dog came out OK!

My wife did get a bit of a worried look on her face when I told her that I was going to drill a hole in the roof of her car.


I'm hoping to get my kids into it. They come along when we do SOTA hikes and are very interested at that point...unfortunately, it wanes by the time we get home. One of them really wants to learn Morse as well. We've started on that so I guess we'll see where it goes. It's fun to have the family involved in your hobbies that's for sure.

Great ham radio story!

Found out that she got her call yesterday (only two business days so it was a bit of a surprise).

I got a few spare minutes this afternoon to search the thin slice of 10m she is allowed to transmit SSB on and managed to help her make her two first QSOs. Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. Now she is saying how she needs to get on the ball about studying for general and extra so she has more privileges.

I was thinking of writing to ARRL to suggest having a page in QST similar to "Armed Citizen" in American Rifle magazine. People could share stories about using HAM Radio in emergency situations, when other means of communication failed. What do you think, y'all?

Will you still be able to occasionally use HER station to chase DX when she's not busy using it?  

I think that sounds like a stupendous idea!


We can only hope.

Big congrats. My wife doesn't give a rats ass about amateur radio.

I can't get her off the radio.

I never knew you could do so much with 200kHz of 10m.

At least the radio becomes mine again when the sun goes down.

3-4 yeas ago I was teaching a Tech class at a local private school and in prep for the classes I'd have several books, charts, drawings etc spread all over the kitchen table. I had been away for the morning & when I came in Ms FN is sitting there reading & looking all the stuff over so I sez... Why don't ya come set thru the class tonight.. it's free.. So it went.. two weeks later she had her Tech and about a month after that she nailed the General. Can't seem to persuade her to go for the Extra
We both have mobiles in our vehicles as well as at home & a couple HT's for hiking. She's a regular on a couple YL nets & loves the hobby.

Excellent! I may have asked you this before since I ask everyone I see from my home state, but where in ME?