Ham Radio Licensing
There are only 3 classes of ham licenses issued now:
- Technicial Class - Entry Level License
- General Class - Most Amateur Privileges
- Extra Class - Difficult testing but ultimate privileges.
Most hams in Nome have the Technician Class license, which
allows them to use the VHF (and up) spectrum. This includes
the entire SPARC repeater system. The exam is straightforward
and entails only reasonable studying and skills.
No More Morse Code!
Effective February 2007, no more Morse Code testing of
any kind is required of any class of ham radio license.
Q. Are there any other licenses?
A. The Novice and Advanced Licenses still exist; ie, those
having those licenses can keep and use them. They are no
longer issued.
Q. Can I operate short wave HF with a technician license?
A. A qualified yes; techs have very limited HF privileges.
The "old" novice bands, morse code only, are available, as is
some "phone" or voice, in parts of the 10-meter band. Please
read the rules in this regards.
Q. Morse only? I thought that was done away with!
A. Only the testing has been done away with. Morse code,
CW, in exclusive portions of the ham bands is very much alive
and well. If you want to operate there, it is up to you to
learn and master the morse code. But you will not be tested
on it.
The
ARRL has up-to-date
information on the current Amateur Frequency Bands as well as
exact license privileges.
Finding a Radio Ham
This is easily accomplished with the use of a "licensing database."
For instance, the ARRL Website has,
at the top, a place to enter a callsign you are looking for. Try me,
AL7X (upper or lower case). At the bottom of the results page you
will get more search options; instead of just searching by call sign,
you can search by Name, City, ZIP code, etc. If you search by ZIP
code, such as 99762, you will get over 200 listings, arranged
Alphabetically by Name. There are brief details on each person.
Look around this database and search engine and see if you like it.
A more terse, but more easily searched is the
QRZ.COM database.
As a rule, just go with the ZIP code and you will get a not very orderly
listing of hams. I have not figured out how they arrange their listing,
but it is very usable and only ONE ham per line. I suspect they are
listed in the order the FCC last handled the person.
There are others: In the ARRL callsign search page there is a link
at the top for other callsign servers.
AL7X
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