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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Tonight was my license examination

Posted: 3/18/2021 9:54:47 PM EDT

So, I took the FCC license tests tonight (at Mansfield Fish & Game, which is a pretty nice gun club).

I took all three levels of license test: Technician, General, Amateur Extra, and passed all three.

The guy scoring at the table at the front of the room looks up at me and says "You got the hat trick!". They told me I am only the 4th person to have done that there.

This makes me happy. It will take me some time to get an antenna and everything all set up and operational, but at least now I can.

Frankly, I was surprised that I passed Extra, because I felt like I was out of my depth on a number of the questions.

Posted: 3/18/2021 10:11:22 PM EDT

[#1]

Well done!
73,
Rob

Posted: 3/18/2021 10:16:47 PM EDT

[#2]

Great job!

I got just 19 on extra but I hadn’t studied it.

I had to recover from an eye issue lately and just got the Extra training manual. Hopefully I can pass it in a month or two.

That was some good studying you must have done. Congrats!

Posted: 3/18/2021 10:20:39 PM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:
So, I took the FCC license tests tonight (at Mansfield Fish & Game, which is a pretty nice gun club).

I took all three levels of license test: Technician, General, Amateur Extra, and passed all three.

The guy scoring at the table at the front of the room looks up at me and says "You got the hat trick!". They told me I am only the 4th person to have done that there.

This makes me happy. It will take me some time to get an antenna and everything all set up and operational, but at least now I can.

Frankly, I was surprised that I passed Extra, because I felt like I was out of my depth on a number of the questions.

View Quote

Nice!

Posted: 3/18/2021 10:32:37 PM EDT

[#4]

Congratulations!

Posted: 3/18/2021 10:47:08 PM EDT

[#5]

Zero to Hero! Congrats!

Posted: 3/18/2021 11:00:33 PM EDT

[#6]

Good job!

Posted: 3/18/2021 11:15:53 PM EDT

[#7]

That's awesome!!

Posted: 3/18/2021 11:47:40 PM EDT

[#8]

Posted: 3/19/2021 4:39:31 AM EDT

[#9]

Great job man!

Posted: 3/19/2021 5:05:04 AM EDT

[#10]

Congratulations

Posted: 3/19/2021 5:59:09 AM EDT

[#11]

Posted: 3/19/2021 6:09:19 AM EDT

[#12]

Awesome! Congratulations!

Posted: 3/19/2021 6:34:04 AM EDT

[#13]

Thanks, guys!

I'm really excited about getting everything all set up and getting on the air. It will probably take me a few weeks to get my antenna and shack up and running. I tend to be cautious when starting new things, so it will be a slow incremental process.

Posted: 3/19/2021 6:56:53 AM EDT

[#14]

Nice Job!

Posted: 3/19/2021 8:30:46 AM EDT

[#15]

Congratulations!

Posted: 3/19/2021 11:05:51 AM EDT

[#16]

Outstanding!

Posted: 3/19/2021 5:38:20 PM EDT

[#17]

Congrats!

Posted: 3/19/2021 6:44:07 PM EDT

[#18]

Awesome

Posted: 3/19/2021 6:54:41 PM EDT

[#19]

Instant Extra

Posted: 3/19/2021 7:00:13 PM EDT

[#20]

Posted: 3/19/2021 7:16:49 PM EDT

[#21]

Nice work!

Posted: 4/10/2021 11:21:56 PM EDT

[#22]

Houston, we have ignition.

Posted: 4/10/2021 11:24:18 PM EDT

[#23]

Posted: 4/11/2021 2:39:20 AM EDT

[#24]

Quote History

Quoted:
Houston, we have ignition.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-pW3NW59/0/a2f82fcd/L/i-pW3NW59-L.jpg

View Quote

Nice! I dig the meter. What model is it and how do you like it?

Posted: 4/11/2021 6:20:00 AM EDT

[#25]

Quote History

Quoted:

Nice! I dig the meter. What model is it and how do you like it?

View Quote

It is an MFJ-849. I haven't seen it work yet. So far, I am only listening and not transmitting. It shows no readings as I receive. I thought it would be handy, but we'll see. Am taking baby steps trying to learn the radio features, and had a blast just listening. Last night on 40 meters I was picking up people in GA, AL, NC, TX, WI, OH, MI, and Italy.

Posted: 4/11/2021 8:17:28 AM EDT

[#26]

Excellent

Posted: 4/13/2021 10:29:02 PM EDT

[#27]

Quote History

Quoted:Last night on 40 meters I was picking up people in GA, AL, NC, TX, WI, OH, MI, and Italy.

View Quote

What did you go with for your antenna?

Posted: 4/14/2021 6:06:07 AM EDT

[#28]

Quote History

Quoted:
What did you go with for your antenna?

View Quote

I went with an MFJ-2012 OCFD: https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-2012 Although people told me to just make my own antenna, as a total newbie I decided that buying one would be smarter at this time, since that would eliminate the chance of me introducing some kind of error.

Last night, I was on the Arfcom Net and made contact with Gyprat down in SC from here in SE MA. So, that was pretty cool. I am running an Icom 7300 without any additional amplification or external tuner.

At the time of choosing my antenna, I just kind of picked one that looked like it did a few bands, without really knowing what I needed or wanted. In retrospect, I wish I had got one that also does 80m. The MFJ-2012 I got does 40, 20, 10 and 6 Meters, but the SWR numbers at 80 are huge, so I can't do that at the moment.

Posted: 4/14/2021 9:45:18 PM EDT

[#29]

Quote History

Quoted:

I went with an MFJ-2012 OCFD... At the time of choosing my antenna, I just kind of picked one that looked like it did a few bands, without really knowing what I needed or wanted. In retrospect, I wish I had got one that also does 80m. The MFJ-2012 I got does 40, 20, 10 and 6 Meters, but the SWR numbers at 80 are huge, so I can't do that at the moment.

View Quote

Thanks for that update. I'm in the same boat, I fully plan to play around with homebrew antennas, especially for portable/field applications (NVIS) but for now I just want to get on the damn air. My FT-891 is still on backorder. My situation favors a EFHW and I was this close to going with a 40/10/15 for the reduced hassle instead of a 80/40/etc but am reconsidering based on your experience. I have a tuner that may help on 80m.

Posted: 4/14/2021 10:32:27 PM EDT

[#30]

Good job on that!!! One Shot....One Kill.....get it done.

I did my General and Extra in one sitting after 3 weeks of study. General was my goal but studied a bit extra for Extra as I had to wait for the exam date. Only missed one or two questions per exam I think....but the VEs can't tell you. Both were rather easy exams.....but I had been sitting on my Tech for 20 years at the time.

Welcome to yet another expensive way to spend time!

Posted: 4/15/2021 6:51:31 AM EDT

[#31]

Quoted:

Thanks for that update. I'm in the same boat, I fully plan to play around with homebrew antennas, especially for portable/field applications (NVIS) but for now I just want to get on the damn air. My FT-891 is still on backorder. My situation favors a EFHW and I was this close to going with a 40/10/15 for the reduced hassle instead of a 80/40/etc but am reconsidering based on your experience. I have a tuner that may help on 80m.

View Quote

Yes, I read your thread. At this point, I am thinking that my current antenna will not be the only or last one I ever buy or make, so I will use/enjoy what it offers and maybe sometime in the future add another one for something else or replace it. Right now I have ropes and pulleys in 3 trees spaced pretty far apart, and I can raise and lower my OCFD pretty easily. It would not be very difficult to swap out my MFJ-2012 with some other antenna of similar configuration.

For me, I think this is like any hobby, where I develop interests and preferences as I gain experience. The MFJ antenna gives me nice low SWR readings on 40 and 20, and ok ones on the other bands they claim.

Quoted:
Good job on that!!! One Shot....One Kill.....get it done.

I did my General and Extra in one sitting after 3 weeks of study. General was my goal but studied a bit extra for Extra as I had to wait for the exam date. Only missed one or two questions per exam I think....but the VEs can't tell you. Both were rather easy exams.....but I had been sitting on my Tech for 20 years at the time.

Welcome to yet another expensive way to spend time!

View Quote

HAHA! Thanks. Yes, like I really needed another drain on my modest resources.

Posted: 4/15/2021 3:05:15 PM EDT

[#32]

Dang, are you a wizard?

Nice work. Welcome to the extra club! Anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Moderation is for pussies.

Posted: 4/15/2021 3:33:12 PM EDT

[#33]

Quote History

Quoted:
Dang, are you a wizard?

Nice work. Welcome to the extra club! Anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Moderation is for pussies.

View Quote

Not even close to being one.

I simply spent a LOT of time on Hamstudy.org hitting the questions. I hit that for an hour or so every morning before work and again every night after work for another hour or more, and even more time on weekends, for like 5+ weeks. Seems like I have seen a lot of posts over the past few months of people getting the hat trick, so it isn't that uncommon.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Tonight was my license examination

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