Amateur Radio Technician

About This Test

Technician is the first of the three United States amateur radio licenses and the one nearly everybody starts with. There is no age limit, no citizenship requirement and no Morse code test — children and complete beginners pass it every week. The exam is 35 questions drawn from the published pool, and 26 correct answers pass.

It covers the rules you must follow, safe and courteous operating, and enough electrical theory to understand what your radio is doing. The license it earns gives you all amateur privileges above 30 MHz — the VHF and UHF bands where local repeaters, emergency nets and satellite work live — plus limited privileges on some HF bands.

If you have never held a license, start here.

Amateur exams are not given by the FCC. They are run by Volunteer Examiner teams — licensed amateurs accredited by a Volunteer Examiner Coordinator — and there is no exam season. Sessions run all year, in clubrooms, libraries and hamfests, and a great many are held over video link, so you can usually find one within a week or two wherever you live.

Find a session through ARRL's exam session search, the HamStudy session list which is mostly remote sessions, or a coordinator such as Laurel VEC, whose teams charge no exam fee.

**Before the exam** get an FCC Registration Number from FCC CORES. You cannot be licensed without one, and getting it at the door wastes everybody's time. Bring photo identification.

**Costs.** Most teams charge a modest exam fee, and some charge nothing. Separately the FCC charges an application fee when the license is granted; the current amount is on the FCC fee schedule.

**After you pass** the team files the result, and the FCC issues your call sign — usually within a few days. You may not transmit until it appears in the FCC license database.

The question pool this course drills is the official pool published by the NCVEC, and it is valid through 2030-06-30. Pools are replaced on a four-year cycle, and this course follows them.