How I got my ARRL/FCC Extra license
Spoiler: easily and remotely 🙂
First, I came across a possibility to get the FCC ham license purely accidentally: I read about a guy who promoted his remote QTH – and I do love remote operations – and he mentioned that you can get the FCC ham license even if you are not a US resident, which couldn’t not to attract my attention. I do love freedom of this sort. I kind of didn’t need the license, but in a world with so many unnecessary restrictions, an opportunity to gain more freedom is highly appealing.
The next time, the idea came to me by late December 2025 because I recalled a joke: a man’s life consists of several stages: when you believe in Santa, when you don’t believe in Santa, when you are a Santa 🙂
I am clearly at the Santa stage. So, why not have Santa bring a nice present to me – an Extra license from the US! It is a nice present! But who could do that if not Santa! But Santa, I am 🙂
No so fast, babe! The US was in just another shutdown or something. So, I had to postpone.
However, a few days ago, I realized it is the beginning of April around, and I still don’t have my Christmas present for 2025. That must be fixed. Since it is very difficult for me to wait for anything. That must be fixed now. Right now. So, that was a clear plan right away
Studying & preparation
The last time I enjoyed examination nearly three years ago, when I decided to get my Finnish license… When you a “professor” and mostly give tasks and receive the “exams”, it is a weird and forgotten feeling – to take an exam… – yes, you are “professor”, but some basics may be so basics that you forgot them completely. However, nobody cares and you won’t pass the exam if you haven’t prepared. So, I did and got my extra-level license in Finland about 3 years ago. I couldn’t aim for less in the US case.
There many ways/resources. I used:
- https://www.radioqth.net/exams – reviewed each and every question. Some of them are US-specific – not only because of FCC but because of protocols, etc., that nobody uses or cares. So, I had to have at least some ideas what they are even talking about. To whiten the US exam questions, in the Finnish exam, there were questions about tetrodes and pentodes … – where did they get them? … – 1960s?! … My auto-spelling has no clue about these words at all 🙂
- https://www.qrz.com/hamtest – for test practicing
When I started hitting reasonable score for the Extra exams, I thought that I am ready for the exam. But I was cautious and double-checked whether I needed a Technician and General exams … – well, yes 🙂 I couldn’t jump to the university. I had to graduate from a school and college first 🙂
So, another 24 hours and I checked through 410+410 or so questions 🙂
If I am not mistaking, there were 610+410+410 questions altogether or around that number. It was a true fun. The list is somewhat different from the Finnish list. In quite many ways, actually. For example, here, there was no questions about the callsigns at all. In the Finnish exam, there could be: “Is OK prefix: a) Poland, b) Australia, c) USA, d) none of them?” something like that. Nothing even similar. But there were other question about safety, about protocols, about Line A – whatever – lower than the US-Canada border … – so, some peculiarities.
Taking the exam
The exam was yesterday – on Saturday. The night before, I went to bed well after 2 am – some radio monitoring but mostly browsing through the exam questions. It was really exciting, indeed. But woke up around 8 – too early for me, i.e., I was too sleepy the whole day. But I wanted to catch our local radio club meeting, so I didn’t jump back to dreaming.
After the ham club meeting, I drove to QTH to check whether my latest love, the 4-ele full-size OWA Yagi, is still there and to see how much remained to fix the grounded 12m and 17m Yagi. But I was too sleepy, slow, and lazy. And all my thoughts were about the exam.
So, I clearly felt that I couldn’t postpone or wait because the waiting would block all my other activities. I needed to take the exam right away. Now. Now, indeed.
- https://www.arrl.org/online-exam-session – the key link
- https://www.arrl.org/ – basics about the licensing process in general
I browsed all available online exam options and found several possibilities to apply for the exam right away, at the same time. It was amazing. I sent a message to kq4dx12@gmail.com and prepared myself for no response or for waiting until Monday or a week. But! I got a response in minutes!
So, we scheduled a session for the same day in a few hours. Saturday! 11 am NY time and 8 pm (but I thought 9 pm) my time. It was super-exciting. I love speed and freedom!
… I was 30 minutes late for the session, which is a shame, because I was still driving from the QTH when I received the Zoom link. But Google lied to me about the time zones …
So, when I jumped to the Zoom session:
- Everything was very-very well-organized. Very efficient and very professional
- I had to close all browsers, ChatGPTs, and disconnect other monitors
- I installed my phone so that it showed my desk and my laptop’s screen
- Prior to that, I turned the phone 360 degrees to prove there was no one helping, etc.
- So, everything was very well organized, and we did all the preparation in 2-3 minutes very efficiently
- And then, I was shared the screen via Zoom and the sessions started. I also had to take my headphones off – presumably, not to receive any audio help. Everything was good
- So, I did the Technician exam first. 35 questions. I passed it. It was a pleasant, though, of course, an expected result. However, the exam is an exam. You can be over-confident and fail. The exam questions differed from the pool questions. Which I suspected may be the case, but it is not clear why. I thought that if I go through the whole pool of questions, which I have done, and that is supposed to be valid till 2028 or so, I would have zero surprises. I may have a bad memory for something, but for sure, not for radio questions 🙂 So, I am absolutely positive that there were quite a few questions in the exam that were not in the pool. Which is OK, because to pass, you need to get 74% right, which is rather relaxed. So, I was consciously allocating some percentages of failed answers to strange and locally-specific-and-nobody-cares questions and to some nasty surprises or new questions – not from the pool. So, that was the case
- More encouraged but even more focused, I passed the General exam
- And moved to the Extra exam. There was less than a minute between the exams. Simply, not 35 questions and you go, but 35 questions, then another 35 questions, and then the final 50 questions
- I passed that as well. Which was a nice relief. It’s always nice to pass. But it also unblocked my other activities – work, AI, antennas, trips, and many other aspects of life. Otherwise, the urge to pass the exam would be unbearable
The exam was 1h10m of pleasure. Thank you, Justin (KQ4DX), very much! Thank you, guys! You did it perfectly! I very hope more hams, particularly, from outside of the US, will follow my path, since it is a real fun and freedom!
The next steps are:
- FCC will assign a callsign tomorrow – Monday (hopefully)
- I plan to chase a nice vanity call: https://www.radioqth.net/vanity. But it is another quest 🙂
P.S. Yes, you need a formal physical address in the US for registration. I asked my friends. It is a pure formality since everything is emailed. But old rules, old requirements. So, get it somehow. There are forwarding services – quite a few options. Friends & family are the easiest, of course, if available.