{"id":2145,"date":"2009-09-11T08:53:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-11T15:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/?p=2145"},"modified":"2022-12-28T13:30:51","modified_gmt":"2022-12-28T21:30:51","slug":"ham-radio-studying-for-the-general-class-exam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/ham-radio-studying-for-the-general-class-exam\/","title":{"rendered":"Ham Radio – Studying for the General Class Exam"},"content":{"rendered":"

When my renewal notice came in the mail, I was surprised to learn that I’ve had my ham radio license for just over ten years.<\/p>\n

I received my Technician class license in college shortly after my classmate Tony<\/a> introduced me to the world of amateur radio<\/a>.\u00a0 I started out playing with TNC<\/a>‘s and packet radio<\/a>. \u00a0 Later, with Tony’s help, I built various microwave radios so I could participate in the very active San Diego Microwave Group<\/a>.\u00a0 Some of my projects included a 10GHz transverter<\/a> and a simple 24GHz wideband radio<\/a> that used a surplus gunnplexer<\/a> as an RF source, the same kind as found in police radar guns and many automatic door openers.\u00a0 (Please excuse my ancient webpages, they were cool ten years ago, ok?)<\/p>\n

Here I am with my 10GHz transverter in the summer of 2000 during the ARRL 10GHz and Up Contest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"10GHz
Sun, sand, and microwaves in Santa Barbara.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I also used to be somewhat active on 2m\/440 and still have the Kenwood TH-79A radio<\/a> my Dad bought me after I got my license.\u00a0 I still use it today, but not for voice communications.\u00a0 It has a new life now as part of my APRS Tracker<\/a> project.<\/p>\n

After seeing how many hams there were at NOTACON<\/a> earlier this year, I finally decided it was time to upgrade my license to General class.\u00a0 This will give me more operating privileges on the HF<\/a> bands, the traditional low frequency \/ long distance communication bands that are most commonly associated with amateur radio.\u00a0 My goal is to set up an HF station at home and maybe start playing with a Software Defined Radio<\/a> system such as GNU Radio<\/a> with custom homebrew hardware.<\/p>\n

Before my trip to HAR<\/a> I picked up a copy of the ARRL General Class License Manual<\/a>\"\" and printed out a list of VE sessions<\/a> in the Bay Area over the next couple of months.\u00a0 Now that I’m back, it’s time to start studying!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When my renewal notice came in the mail, I was surprised to learn that I’ve had my ham radio license for just over ten years. I received my Technician class license in college shortly after my classmate Tony introduced me to the world of amateur radio.\u00a0 I started out playing with TNC‘s and packet radio. … Continue reading Ham Radio – Studying for the General Class Exam<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[56],"tags":[263,214],"class_list":["post-2145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amateur-radio","tag-arrl","tag-ham-radio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pioCd-yB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2644,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/12\/upcoming-san-francisco-ham-radio-exams\/","url_meta":{"origin":2145,"position":0},"title":"Upcoming San Francisco Ham Radio Exams","author":"Jeff","date":"December 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and are interested in getting your amateur radio license, there are a couple testing sessions coming up in 2010 that may be of interest: The Bay Area Educational Amateur Radio Society (BAERS) is hosting a Ham Cram on Saturday, January 9th\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Amateur Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Amateur Radio","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/amateur-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"BAERS","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/BAERS-500x52.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1810,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/chuck-houghton-wb6igp\/","url_meta":{"origin":2145,"position":1},"title":"Chuck Houghton – WB6IGP","author":"Tony","date":"April 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Ed. note: This is a guest post by a good friend of mine, Tony Long, KC6QHP.\u00a0 Hopefully Tony will be contributing more to the blog in the future and we'll get to see some of the interesting things he's working on in his lab in SoCal.\u00a0 Let's all welcome Tony\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Chuck WB6IGP operating his lasercom system","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/oyj_6.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4446,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/new-call-sign-rip-kf6pbp\/","url_meta":{"origin":2145,"position":2},"title":"New call sign, RIP KF6PBP","author":"Jeff","date":"December 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I got my amateur radio license on December 31st, 1997. I was an undergraduate at the time. My friend and classmate Tony (KC6QHP) had been trying to convince me to get my ham license for months. I finally decided to go for it over winter break.\u00a0I picked up a copy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Amateur Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Amateur Radio","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/amateur-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=mightyohm-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0872598810","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1785,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/aprs-tracker\/","url_meta":{"origin":2145,"position":3},"title":"APRS Tracker","author":"Jeff","date":"May 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This week, my brother is relocating from the San Francico Bay Area to Texarkana, Texas.\u00a0 I'm helping him move, so for the next two weeks we'll be on a road trip through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and maybe a little bit of Oklahoma.\u00a0 We're planning to see the Very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Amateur Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Amateur Radio","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/amateur-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"APRS Tracker","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/3482910237_624bbb3bb5.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8883,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/the-mike-and-key-amateur-radio-club-swap-meet-is-next-weekend-in-puyallup-wa\/","url_meta":{"origin":2145,"position":4},"title":"The Mike and Key Amateur Radio Club Swap Meet is next weekend in Puyallup, WA","author":"Jeff","date":"March 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The 36th annual\u00a0Mike and Key Amateur Radio Club Electronics Show and Fleamarket will be held next Saturday, March 11th at the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup, WA. This is one of the best amateur radio events in Washington state and one that I look forward to every year. A couple\u00a0years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Amateur Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Amateur Radio","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/amateur-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IMG_7075-500x375.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9564,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/mike-and-key-arc-flea-market-sat-mar-10-puyallup-wa\/","url_meta":{"origin":2145,"position":5},"title":"Mike and Key ARC Flea Market, Sat. Mar 10, Puyallup, WA","author":"Jeff","date":"February 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The 37th annual Mike and Key ARC Electronics Show and Flea Market is just under two weeks away. I have no affiliation with Mike and Key, but in my opinion this is the best electronics swap meet in the greater Seattle area. I go every year. (If you know of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2145"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15872,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145\/revisions\/15872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}