Announcing HamStudy Mobile 2.0!

For longer than we care to admit, we’ve been working on a complete rewrite of the HamStudy.org mobile apps. The work has finally paid off, and we’re excited to announce new versions of the mobile app now available on the App Store and Google Play!

Knowing a number of our Android users have run into problems over the last couple years, we put a heavy focus on app stability, with overwhelmingly positive feedback so far. In addition to stability and general look-and-feel improvements, be on the look out for these additional features:

  • Understand your progress better and remove the mystery around the questions you’re asked by seeing your study history on each question while studying.
  • Multiple learners can now work on the same device, each with their own progress and HamStudy.org account syncing.
  • Zoom in on diagrams to view in full screen, or pinch to zoom in even further. No more squinting at tiny images on tiny screens.
  • Improved foreign language support means you can now study for your US amateur radio license in Spanish. Toggle for individual cards, or set Spanish as your default in account preferences.
  • Custom question filters are easier than ever, allowing you to quickly mix specific subelements and sections however you want to create a custom study experience tailored to only what you want to study.

One more major feature deserves to be highlighted. We know that HamStudy.org is just one of many tools people use when preparing to get licensed. People often approach us saying “I used your app while reading […],” and proceed to share success stories of how they used HamStudy and this or that book or video series together.

We’ve made this easier than ever in the new HamStudy.org mobile app.

Follow along with your license manual

Once you select a license class to study, you now have the option to select a book you’re studying with. Selecting a book rearranges how questions are organized throughout all parts of the application:

  • Inside the Read Questions area of the app, you’ll see a list of chapters instead of subelements.
  • When you’re Studying, maybe you just finished reading part of the book and want to drill yourself. Using the question filter, you can instantly choose to study just Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 instead of figuring out which questions to look at on your own.
  • After taking a Practice Exam, instead of being told your weak area is “Subelement T6,” you’ll instead be told to work on your understanding of Chapter 3.

This is all possible thanks to the collaboration and permission of our friends at Fast Track Ham, Ham Radio School, ARRL, and Gordon West. If you’re not yet sure which books to use as you study—whether you’re new to the hobby, or finally looking to get that next upgrade—check out what each of these great teams has to offer. You’re sure to find something you like!

73,

The HamStudy.org team

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Signal Stuff 2023 Black Friday sale!

The sale is over; it ran Nov 24, 2023 through Nov 28, 2023. You can still find great products that support HamStudy and ExamTools at https://signalstuff.com !

Thanks for your support!

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A Year in Review

With 2022 in the books, we thought it’d be nice to see the impact that ExamTools has had on the overall amateur radio community. While the ExamTools software has been around for well over a decade, its usage picked up strongly during the pandemic in 2020 with optimizations that were made to support different exam formats and, importantly, digital paperwork and signatures. In the first year of the pandemic, ExamTools was used for roughly 20% of all amateur radio licenses granted by the FCC in that time frame (see earlier blog post from 2021).

In 2022, ExamTools adoption continued to grow, with more VECs coming onboard and using the system for both in-person and fully-remote exams. Many teams that were on-hold during the pandemic are restarting in-person exam sessions and realizing how much ExamTools helps them administer exams. We now have 8 VECs using the software including W5YI, ARRL, GLAARG, Anchorage, Laurel, SANDARC, Jefferson, and W4VEC. These VECs realize the tremendous value of using ExamTools to not only streamline their exam administration, but also the submission process for their exam teams and the FCC database. Teams using ExamTools love how all the paperwork is now electronic, including application registration, notification, and signatures. Sessions that used to take hours to process can now be completed and fully submitted to the VEC in minutes. It’s truly a game changer for volunteer examiners, their VECs, and the applicants who all benefit from faster and more accurate processing of their exam sessions.

Many people don’t realize that using ExamTools doesn’t automatically mean giving exams on a computer or tablet. In fact, ExamTools supports a variety of exam formats including existing VEC’s paper exams, GradeCam paper exams, tablet/phone/laptop computer-based exams, and fully-remote exams using software like Zoom. GradeCam is a exam-grading technology that is incredibly powerful for exam teams and so easy to learn. It uses the camera in your laptop, cell phone, or tablet to quickly and accurately grade the applicants’ bubble answer sheet at your session. For many teams where using paper exams is the right choice for them, GradeCam offers a fantastic way to modernize and optimize their exam process, freeing up precious volunteer time to interact with the applicants and not waste time manually grading exams multiple times.

To celebrate the year, let’s take a look at some of the numbers from 2022 compared to 2021.

  • Total number of In-Person Exams administered using ExamTools
    • 2021: 2536 in-person exams
    • 2022: 4103 in-person exams
    • That’s a 62% increase for in-person exams!
  • Total number of Remote Exams administered using ExamTools
    • 2021: 11034 remote exams
    • 2022: 8542 remote exams
    • That’s a 23% decrease for remote exams
  • Total number of exams administered using ExamTools
    • 2021: 13570 exams
    • 2022: 12645 exams
    • That’s a 7% decrease in the total number of exams

And now for some fun VEC awards for the 2022 Honor Roll:

  • Most Overall Exams Award:
    • W5YI VEC with 3994 exams administered in 2022!
    • W5YI VEC also wins the award for Most In-Person Exams AND Most Remote Exams for 2022!
  • Biggest Overall Exam Growth Award:
    • SANDARC VEC for 169% year-over-year growth from 2021 to 2022. We’re glad to have you on the ExamTools team and look forward to more exams in 2023!
  • Biggest In-Person Exam Growth Award:
    • GLAARG VEC for 515% year-over-year growth from 2021 to 2022 for their in-person exams!

To look at the data yourself, feel free to check out the awesome Stats Page that Richard KD7BBC created!

It’s always a good time to remind folks that ExamTools is offered at no cost to VE Teams. In fact, ExamTools is funded entirely by donations and with proceeds from HamStudy.org and SignalStuff.com. Signal Stuff makes the Super Elastic Signal Stick antenna that is a popular high-gain antenna for handheld radios and has been breaking sales records again this past year. ExamTools is also supported by a number of illustrious volunteers that are online day and night to help provide tech support, approve accounts, and answer questions for any teams using ExamTools. These Experience Support Volunteers include: Nick N1CCK, Mitch N2YIC, Grant W4KEK, Jason WX2Q, and Marcel AI6MS. Additionally, there is an online Discord server with over 1000 verified volunteer examiners from across the globe engaging in discussions and helping each other out to deliver the best examination experiences for the new and upgrading hams we support.

Thank you to all the Volunteer Examiners that make amateur radio continue to grow every year! Here’s to celebrating a successful 2022 and for an even better 2023! 73!

Graphs of the overall ExamTools usage statistics for 2022
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Signal Stuff Sale!

SignalStuff is now running their “I can’t believe we missed Black Friday!” sale! Check out the details here! Begins Dec 2, 2022 and runs through Dec 6, 2022.

Sales on SignalStuff.com directly support all HamStudy and ExamTools development. Thanks for your support!

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Why should I use HamStudy’s Study Mode and not just take practice exams?

We get this question a lot. People often wonder why they can’t just take practice exams to learn the material. In theory, you can do this, but let’s take a look at the numbers! We ran 10,000 simulations of randomly-generated practice exams for each exam’s question pool, and then calculated the number of practice exams one would need to take to see every single question at least once. Note that is just to see every question, this doesn’t mean you’ve actually learned it. Here’s what we found:

For the 2022 Technician Question Pool:

  • Mean: 76.1073 exams
  • Median: 71 exams
  • Mode: 68 exams
  • Max: 184 exams
  • Min: 44 exams

For the 2019 General Question Pool:

  • Mean: 91.5207 exams
  • Median: 77 exams
  • Mode: 82 exams
  • Max: 246 exams
  • Min: 53 exam

For the 2020 Extra Question Pool:

  • Mean: 90.2247 exams
  • Median: 78 exams
  • Mode: 84 exams
  • Max: 210 exams
  • Min: 52 exams

As you can see, you’d need to take between 44 and 246 practice exams just to see each question at least once! Using a study method like the one we’ve designed in HamStudy’s Study Mode is a great way to get exposed to all the questions and get refreshed on questions you need to study more. Check out the HamStudy FAQ for more fun details on how the Flash Card method works and how your aptitude score is calculated: https://blog.hamstudy.org/faq/

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Field Day is this weekend! Time for an upgrade?

Did you know that over 16 volunteer examiner teams are running sessions at the annual ARRL Field Day this weekend using ExamTools? If you’ve been studying using the HamStudy app and are ready to go, then it’s a great time to find a session to sign up with. You can find teams holding both in-person and remote exams using the handy session finder at: https://hamstudy.org/sessions/

And don’t forget, the current Technician Exam question pool expires on June 30, 2022, so if you take the exam after then, be sure to use the new question pool when you study.

If you’re not looking to test, but want to find a local field day event to participate at, then check out the Field Day Locator here: http://www.arrl.org/field-day

ARRL Field Day
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2021 Black Friday / Cyber Monday sale

For Black Friday this year we’re offering 25% off the regular price ($3.99 $2.99) for our app on both the Google and Apple app stores! This sale will start on Friday, November 26 2021 and run through Monday, November 29 2021.


Over the last year HamStudy and ExamTools have come a long ways! Did you know that 30% of all ham radio examinations in the US went through ExamTools? HamStudy and ExamTools development are supported primarily by SignalStuff.com.

SignalStuff will be holding a black friday sale over the same time period!

Check out the details here.

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A Year of Remote Exams

One year ago, on March 26th, 2020, the first-ever fully-remote amateur radio exam was held to demonstrate the capabilities of online exam methods (1). Just two months later, on May 26th, a new version of the ExamTools software was released, enabling dozens of Volunteer Examiner teams to come on board and expand both their online and in-person amateur radio exams. By the end of 2020, fully-remote amateur radio exams were the new norm, with teams throughout the US running exams every single day. In 2020 alone, over 10,000 exam elements have been administered through the ExamTools platform, which included 7,163 newly licensed operators! This means that fully-remote exams accounted for over 20% of the total number amateur radio licenses granted last year.

In the twelve months since that first exam was demonstrated to the W5YI Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (VEC), over 1,300 Volunteer Examiners (VEs) have been on-boarded to the ExamTools system. Together, these dedicated volunteers help run daily exams all around the United States, including Puerto Rico and Alaska! ExamTools is now used regularly by teams from W5YI, ARRL, Anchorage, Laurel, and GLAARG VECs.

Not everyone knows this, but ExamTools is offered at no cost to VE Teams. In fact, ExamTools is funded entirely by donations and by proceeds from HamStudy.org and SignalStuff.com. Signal Stuff makes the Super Elastic Signal Stick antenna that is a popular high-gain antenna for handheld radios and has been breaking sales records throughout the past year.

While online exams in the US are not a new thing, many hams and prospective operators aren’t aware how easy it is to get tested online. Please help to spread the news to your local club mailing list, online group, chat rooms, or on your local net (2). Simply send people to https://hamstudy.org/sessions/online to find exams being offered daily!

(1) https://blog.hamstudy.org/2020/04/fully-remote-amateur-radio-license-exam-administration/

(2) https://blog.hamstudy.org/2020/06/so-you-want-to-take-a-remote-exam/

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2020 Black Friday / Cyber Monday sale

2020 has been quite a ride for all of us, and we here at HamStudy/SignalStuff have had quite an interesting time as well. Though it’s come with a lot of hard times for a lot of people, a lot of good things have come this year.

For Black Friday this year we’re offering 25% off the regular price ($3.99 $2.99) for our app on both the Google and Apple app stores! This sale will start on Friday, November 27 2020 and run through Monday, November 30 2020.

Edit: We had some issues with setting up the sale on the Google Play store; it will still be happening, but will run from Nov 29, 2020 through Dec 2, 2020 and be $2.75. The Apple app store will still run according to the original plan.


Signal Stuff Black Friday Sale

Do you know how HamStudy is supported and funded? Though Icom’s sponsorship is valuable and appreciated, it mainly just helps defray most of (not all of) our hosting costs — HamStudy and ExamTools (which is used for administering exams by nearly all teams doing remote exams and many who do in-person exams) are supported by a lot of volunteers, but are done primarily by Richard Bateman, KD7BBC — and this year it has moved from being a side project to taking enough time to be a part-time job. The money which makes that possible — as well as many other projects we support — comes from Signal Stuff and sales of the antennas there. While we don’t want anyone buying things they don’t need, please keep them in mind for your next HT antenna, vehicle antenna, or portable base station antenna =] They (we) also have some excellent adapters with quality that is hard to beat for the price.

SignalStuff is running a Black Friday sale with 20% off of adapters, Signal Sticks, and Signal Stalks (NMO mount), 10% off of the OSJ. Read more here and spread the word!

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So you want to take a remote exam…

So you want to take a remote US Amateur Radio License Exam? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Since the lock-downs with COVID-19 started the world of Amateur Radio testing has nearly turned on its head, and the HamStudy.org team has been at the center of most of it! If you read our recent press release then you already know about the group that grew up to take on this new challenge and it has been our privilege to provide the software that nearly all of them use.

It has been an interesting challenge, but I think we can definitely say at this point that fully remote examinations are a well defined thing — and still following all of the same rules and regulations as in-person testing have followed for years. In the last few months there have been over 1200 fully remote exams administered through GLAARG, W5YI, and ARRL (in order of how many each has done) and in the last few weeks the number of teams able to administer them have really picked up.

In short, it’s finally a good time to start looking for a remote exam session!

So here is what you need to know, and please read this list carefully — you wouldn’t believe how many people don’t read and how much trouble it causes those working to make this happen!

What you need to have to test

  • First, you need to have a good internet connection capable of doing video conferencing. If you don’t then you might consider contacting the Anchorage ARC VEC who use an on-site proctor and thus have less stringent requirements for this.
  • Next you need to have a good webcam on your computer — you may be asked to use a cell phone or similar as a second camera. You’ll need to be able to prove your test area is “clean”
  • The specific video conferencing software used will depend on the VE team, but you’ll need to be able to install it.
  • You will need a “clean” environment to take the exam in — one with nothing around that could be hiding cheat methods and one where nobody will be entering the room unexpectedly (which would probably void the exam). Amusingly, many people have started using a bathroom / washroom for this — a little weird, but who are we to judge?

Finding a fully remote / online exam

To find an exam session, go to https://ham.study/sessions/online

  • Keep in mind that HamStudy.org *does not run these sessions*, so please don’t email us with questions =]
  • Please don’t register for an exam until you are ready to pass! If you aren’t sure, we know a great website where you can take practice exams for free and see how you are doing. If you aren’t passing consistently then leave a spot for others who are, keep studying, and then sign up when you are actually ready. Remember, these are volunteer examiners running these sessions for you and there are others who want to take an exam as well — let’s not take slots we aren’t ready for.
  • Please do not sign up for more than one exam session — scheduling these sessions is extremely tricky and if you register for more than one you are taking spots that others may need. There will be other slots available.
  • Make sure you register for an exam session which is marked as “online“! The listing shows both if it’s online and how many slots are available if there is a limit — if it says the session is full just find another session. At the time of this writing I see at least 50 slots open in the next few weeks, so there are slots available and there will be more coming up.
  • Always read the session notes carefully! Some sessions have special requirements or instructions for registering, usually to weed out people who don’t follow directions and reduce the impact. In short, if you don’t read the instructions there is a good chance you won’t be testing.
  • Check your spam folder; most teams will require you to pay your exam fee before the exam day and may even remove your registration if they don’t hear back from you in a timely manner.

Finally, keep in mind throughout the entire process just how much time and effort your exam team has put in to make this possible! Be patient with them if some things don’t go quite to plan =] They want you to pass and will do everything that the rules allow to help you succeed!

73 and good luck!

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