[tiniuclx]

I've been studying for my amateur radio license recently, and this article is a great introduction to the basics.

But really, if you want to get your hands dirty with some practical electronics, and also want to be able to communicate without relying much on nearby infrastructure, amateur radio is a great hobby.

[DrAwdeOccarim]

Do yourself a favor and study for both your technician and general at the same time (I’m assuming you live in the US). HF is exponentially more fun than just VHF/UHF.

[akerl_]

A random plug for https://hamstudy.org/

The US ham test question pools are fully public. Your test will be a mixture of questions from the pool. HamStudy basically lets you churn the question pool, and then will offer explainer text / references to back up each question and correct answer.

I went on a vacation and used their phone app any time I was standing in a line. You can set it to just keep spinning through the questions, with a bias towards ones you're getting wrong.

[tzs]

Take a look at Extra too. You may find that it actually isn't much harder than General.

The Extra exam is 50 multiple choice questions broken down by category as follows:

  6 Commission Rules
  5 Operating Procedures
  3 Radio Wave Propagation
  5 Amateur Practices
  4 Electrical Principles
  6 Circuit Components
  6 Practical Circuits
  3 Signals and Emissions
  8 Antennas and Transmission Lines
  4 Safety

You need to get 37+ correct to pass. Another way to think of that is you can get up to 13 wrong and still pass.

Within each category there are subcategories. "Antennas and Transmission Lines" for example has 8 subcategories. The 8 questions in "Antennas and Transmission Lines" are one from each of those subcategories. The question pools for these subcategories each have 10-14 questions.

If you compare to the closest corresponding categories/subcategories from the General and Technician exam you'll probably find that there are a few cases.

1. The Extra is just more of the same. It's not harder per se. "Commission Rules" for example.

2. The Extra goes goes deeper and also adds new material that is more advanced.

3. The Extra is in new territory.

If you get to the point where the Technician and General are going to no problem, then you will probably have no trouble getting to the point where case #1 is also no problem, and case #2 is also well in hand. It is #3 where you might have trouble.

But remember that you can get 13 wrong and still pass!

Pick say 10 subcategories that are in case #3 that look like they would be the hardest to get good at and just write them off.

For example in "Antennas and Transmission Lines" you might decide that the "Smith chart" subcategory, which has a pool of 14 questions, would take a lot of time to get good at. So skip it. That's 14 less potential questions you have to be prepared to answer, leaving more time to study for things in class #2 and the class #3 things that look most doable.

It doesn't cost extra to take the Extra test at the same session that you take the Technician and General tests, and there is no penalty for failing, so might as well go for it.

[jandrese]

As I understand it General gets you most everything and Extra is mostly useful for people who want to teach amateur radio classes.

[royskee]

Huh, I never heard that one. Extra gets you more frequency privileges (nice not having to worry so much about band edges) but IMO the real benefit is being able to enjoy reciprocal operating under CEPT when traveling abroad.

[akvadrako]

You can operate abroad with General in most countries.

[i_am_a_peasant]

it’s stuff like this that make me wish i lived in the US. i have to memorise a long questionnaire in german if i want to get my license

[GJim]

You can take your licence exam in any CEPT country and swap it (i.e. that countries licence) for a German one under reciprocal licencing agreements.

https://www.cept.org/ecc/topics/radio-amateurs

[ux266478]

Only the entry level license (Technician in the US, covering UHF/VHF) is substantially different from the German one, and it's also much more restricted. Germany in general is a much better country for radio, especially if you wanted to ever do high power broadcasting.

I think the one perk to the US is that the FCC has basically stopped caring about all but the most important frequencies. This makes HF particularly fun, since HF pirate radios are often the best listening stations in the entire RF spectrum. I have no idea what that's like in Germany, but I would imagine given the general ordnung culture and veneration of rules, German hams are much less tolerant of flagrantly unauthorized broadcast stations and your regulatory bodies are more proactive in shutting them down.

[hrimfaxi]

You have to memorize a long questionnaire in the US (though in English) to get it there, too.

[gwbennett]

Great advice!