Happy thanksgiving and good studies to all! This year the HamStudy.org mobile app will be on sale for $1.99 (50% off) on the iOS, Mac, and Android app stores from midnight GMT Nov 29, 2019 through midnight GMT Dec 2, 2019. Try it out today!
Also our parent company Signal Stuff is having a 20% off sale on all Super-Elastic Signal Sticks. All sales support hamstudy.org, so check it out!
(Guest post by Mitch Stern, W1SJ)
Are you going to be at 2019 Dayton HamVention? Do you have a Tech license and looking to upgrade?
Hamvention will feature a General Upgrade Course right on site! The class
will run on Saturday, May 18th, 9AM-4PM, with exams at the conclusion of
the class. Spend Friday buying new stuff, Saturday upgrading and Sunday
celebrating!
Students MUST pre-enroll prior to class. No walk-ins will be permitted. As
part of the course, students will get login information to access the
On-Line General Course, which they will use to prepare for the full day
class. This preparation is essential. We will also offer a video pre-class
session the week before Hamvention.
Everything has been put in place to assure your success in this course. But
you need to sign up early. Go to:
http://www.hamclass.net/hamvgen.html
for course details and enrollment information, or call instructor Mitch
W1SJ at 800-639-1766.
Worldwide communications on all of the HF bands awaits you!
HamStudy.org supports all efforts to help users get licensed! If you will be going to Dayton HamVention there is also a One-Day Technician class by Dan, KB6NU.
While you’re there, stop by and say hello to the HamStudy.org team at booth 1901 in building 1!
From Black Friday, Nov 23 through Cyber Monday, Nov 27, 2018 HamStudy.org will be holding its first official sale! (That’s largely because previously we haven’t had anything to sell, but let’s not talk about that!)
Along with some major updates to the app — including google and facebook login support, study sessions (which let you “start over” without losing all your data), a new “dark mode” for night-time studying, and configurable font size — we will be selling the mobile app for 50% off! That’s $1.99 — guaranteed you won’t find a better deal for ham radio study materials on the net than that.
In addition, our sponsor Signal Stuff will be holding its annual sale (on the same days) with 25% off of all Super-Elastic Signal Stick antennas! All antenna sales support development and advertising of HamStudy.org. Order one here.
More information:
This just in — Signal Stuff has released improved Signal Sticks which are 36% thicker and less floppy! The old ones work great, though, and they are clearing out the old stock of SMA-F antennas for $15 each. Get ’em now! (choose “dual band”, “SMA-F”, and “1st Gen” to get the $15 clearance version).
All orders going forward will get the new and improved thicker wire antennas!
Thanks, Signal Stuff!
Signal Stuff is the owner and operator of HamStudy.org. All antenna sales support HamStudy.org
It’s been a long road, but after almost two and a half long years of work, the next generation of HamStudy.org is finally here! That’s right, we just released the new mobile apps that so many people have been asking for — and they don’t require an internet connection!
Now, first the bad news: some of you will be disappointed to hear that these apps are not free. They are, in fact, $3.99. That’s a one-time cost — it’s not a subscription, you don’t have to pay that for each question pool, and yes you can let your whole family use it if you all share a mobile store account, but it does have a cost.
Let’s put it simply: If you want to study without being connected to the internet then you will need to buy the $3.99 mobile app. If you *don’t* need that, and you don’t want to buy the mobile app, then you will always be able to use https://hamstudy.org for free — and yes, it works just fine in your mobile web browser.
One more time: The mobile app costs, but using the mobile website (still on mobile, but with an internet connection!) will always be free.
This was a hard decision, but it comes down to needing to justify spending the time on this project that it deserves — we all have wives and children who put up with our little crusade. At the same time, both HamStudy.org and our parent company Signal Stuff were founded on the obsession goal of changing and improving the way that people in the US study for and take amateur radio license exams; we don’t accomplish that by gouging all of our customers.
Thus, a compromise was born; what we have always offered for free we will continue to offer for free! The only thing you have to pay for is if you want to use it offline — and believe us, that was a lot more work than you might think =]
The best part for all of us (users and developers) is that more funding for the project means more flexibility in what we can do! We have a ton of exciting ideas and this will make it possible for us to get them in. Look for exciting things coming up!
For now we have iOS and Android apps; eventually we will be releasing desktop versions as well, but we might have to catch up on some chores around home first. We will also be updating the website with all of the features (for free!) that we have in the apps. You can always find the latest versions at https://hamstudy.org/appstore.
(for US exam sessions only!)
We’ve long had the capability, but we haven’t made a big deal about it: Did you know that you can list your ham radio license exam session on hamstudy.org?
Find the list here: https://hamstudy.org/sessions
You can search by zip code or “find near me”. With more VE teams asking us about it recently, I thought I’d answer a few questions here.
If you want to list your exam session, first you need a hamstudy.org login — register for an account and make sure that the call sign on your user account is the one you want your exam session listed under.
Then, once you have a username, submit a request on our ExamTools support portal. Make sure you provide your username, we’ll try to get you access within 24 hours.
Edit: Please do not send us a list of sessions to add; we don’t have time to maintain the list ourselves. Instead, follow the instructions above and we’ll give you access so you can keep your schedule up to date yourself!
Simply put, you log into examtools.org, go to the “sessions” tab, and add your session! Once you have the first one entered you can duplicate it for the next ones to save yourself time; make sure that the address autocompletes correctly and displays the map.
Since it’s easier to show than to explain, I made a short youtube video explaining the process:
Keeping track of exam schedules is a difficult thing, and it’s a problem that has been solved on a local level over and over again; we are hoping to provide an online database that can replace all of those. To that end, this is not intended to be only usable on our website. Assuming there is interest, we intend to create both AJAX endpoints and embeddable widgets that you can use to query for upcoming exam sessions in your area and embed it into your existing website.
For those who don’t know, HamStudy.org is owned and funded by Signal Stuff. We would also be remiss if we did not acknowledge the support and sponsorship of Icom America.
Specifically, most of our funding comes from the sales of the Signal Stuff Super-Elastic Signal Sticks (believe it or not). If you like what we’re doing, consider trying one out the next time you need a good whip antenna for your handheld transceiver!
The more of you list your exam sessions on HamStudy.org the more helpful and successful this will be!
Tell us what you think in the comments!
It’s that time again! The new Element 2 question pool has been released by the NCVEC as of Jan 8 and the first errata was posted this morning, Jan 12, 2018. From past experience it’s likely that there will be additional revisions, but it’s uncommon to have major changes at this point.
So, let’s take a quick look at some of the high points of what has changed! For those who want to follow along at home, HamStudy.org has a full graphical diff that you can look at!
As you can see, the pool size hasn’t changed much; there are two fewer questions in the new pool compared to the old. One thing that the numbers don’t show is that a number of the “removed” and “new” questions are direct replacements which served to check the same knowledge as the previous question but were just different enough to not be considered the same question (for example the old T1D11 and new T1D06; nonetheless, there are some definite updates intended to help “modernize” the questions in the pool.
Most of the shape of the pool has stayed pretty consistent, but there are a few notable changes. Let’s look at them by subelement:
Subelement T1 in the new pool is a bit smaller; 27 questions were removed with only 13 added. Here are some of the changes:
Subelement T2 stayed pretty much the same size; 10 questions were removed and 11 added.
Subelement T3 stayed almost the same. 3 questions were removed and 4 added, all of them related to how specific frequencies are used.
Subelement T4 changed only slightly more than T3 with 5 questions removed and 6 added.
Subelement T5 received a bit more love this time around; only 1 question was removed (and it was really replaced with a differently worded question) and 8 were added.
Subelement T6 was nearly untouched with 3 questions removed and 2 added.
Subelement T7 had 4 questions removed, 3 questions added.
Subelement T8 shows some concerted efforts focused on acknowledging the ongoing changes to digital modes. 8 questions have been removed, the subelement summary now has “and digital” tacked on, and all but one of the 11 new questions are directly related to some type of digital mode — and that one is about electronic keyers.
Subelement T9 has the distinction of being the only subelement with no new questions added — though granted in the previous pool there were only 25 questions in T9. The old T9A02 and T9A13 questions were removed.
Subelement T0 contains the only change in the pool which I really question the wisdom of; it has only a single question removed (and two added), but that question was T0A09: What kind of hazard is presented by a conventional 12-volt storage battery?
Given the way I’ve seen some 12V systems — particularly with solar installs — put in place, I’d have preferred to see this question either stay or updated with a better but similarly-themed question. It does make me wonder why the question was removed — the question which replaced it does not seem to be all that different nor is the section already overloaded (there are only 11 questions in the section, which is about average for the pool).
The other new question in T0 relates to tension guy line tunbuckle safety.
So there you have it! We may still see some changes, but this is probably about what we’ll be going with starting July 1, 2018. On the whole, I like the changes — they seem aimed at being more relevant, more current, and in some cases more geared towards helping new hams be aware of what is possible with the higher license classes.
Tell us in the comments what you think of the changes!
Edit: also, while we won’t put a link on the main hamstudy.org page to the new pool until May 1, you can start studying it now if you really want =]
From Friday, Nov 24 through Monday, Nov 27, 2017 our parent company Signal Stuff will be running a Black Friday sale with all antennas 25% off!
All antenna sales support development and advertising of HamStudy.org. Order one here.
More information:
In honor of this day our sponsor, Signal Stuff, is offering free shipping on all orders to anywhere from today (April 18) through Friday, April 21, 2017.
This free shipping is valid for both HamStudy.org T-Shirts and Antennas.
73 to all and good studies!
HamStudy.org is funded by SignalStuff.com. SignalStuff.com sells excellent superelastic flexible handheld antennas for $20 each with lifetime warranty. From Thursday, Nov 24 2016 through Monday, Nov 28 2016 those antennas will be 20% off.
All antenna sales support development and advertising of HamStudy.org. Support our site! Buy antennas! You know you want to!
Okay, okay. But seriously, they are great antennas and hand made by the HamStudy.org team and friends.
More information:
