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:
Greetings all!
HamStudy.org takes money to develop and run. Buy an awesomely lightweight and unbelievably durable (not to mention flexible) Signal Stuff SuperElastic Signal Stick and support yourselves and us! Signal Sticks are dual band 2m/70cm antennas for handheld transceivers which come with a lifetime guarantee and can be coiled up and stuck in your pocket.
From now until June 8, 2016 use the coupon code “2016fund” for 10% off and free shipping! (and did we mention the coupon applies to HamStudy.org t-shirts too?)
The new 2016 US Amateur Extra class license pool has been released and we’ve been working over the last week on processing it to link new questions with old so we know exactly what was added, removed, updated, or moved. This question pool will be used for all US Amateur Extra exams taken from July 1, 2016 to July 1, 2020.
UPDATE: On Jan 22, 2016 the 2016 extra class question pool document was officially withdrawn but it was then officially re-released on Feb 6, 2016. The changes between the two were relatively minor and the withdrawal seems to have been more to reduce the email volume for things they already knew about. This article is still valid, and the new pool has been updated on HamStudy.org.
————-
From my analysis, I expect most people will consider the new pool to be more difficult than the previous ones, so if you’re on the fence trying to finish up getting ready I’d recommend testing before the pool changes in July.
If you want to see exactly what has changed, check out the full graphical diff. If you just want the summary, read on!
Every day hundreds of people come to HamStudy.org and take practice tests. Others go to other websites and take practice tests. There are differences in the user experience between those two groups of people, but they both have one thing in common — they aren’t actually studying for their exam.
I’m going to repeat that. Taking a practice exam is not studying for an exam.
I’ll pause here while you think of ways to flame me on the comments section and I decide if I should turn it off or not.
tl;dr: For those too lazy to read the article, the conclusions are simple: Practice Exams are fabulous for benchmarking yourself to see how close you are, but when used to study result in a lot of wasted time and/or questions on your exam which you have never seen before. Reading through the questions and intelligent directed flash cards are by far the most effective study methods we have found. Whether you use our tools or not (and did you know HamStudy.org works in mobile Chrome and Safari?) make sure you are using something more than just practice exams for studying.
Read on for charts, justifications, pretense at math, and how we arrived at these conclusions.
Many of you have emailed us requesting that the answer order be randomized while studying; we’d just like to let you all know that your feedback has been heard and that feature has now been implemented =]
Carry on!
This post is a bit different; honestly, I should do more like it. Prove I actually do the radio part itself, not just write study software, eh? =] Anyway, I recently aquired a 2005 GMC Yukon XL; I’ve been working on a camp / communications trailer and I needed something to pull it with.
Anyway, about a year back I got an Icom ID-5100. Now, though Icom does sponsor HamStudy.org (which we sure appreciate!) I don’t actually have any direct incentive to advertise for their radios; in many cases they are actually a bit pricier than I’d like. That said:
Update 1/22/2018: About 2 1/2 years later, this install is still working great. I did have to get a different windshield mount for the control head, but otherwise it’s been great. Continue reading
There are easy answers to this and hard answers to this =] The main thing is to find what works for you and do it! Here are some overall suggestions, though:
Whatever method you choose, the most important thing is to not get discouraged and keep going!
May 21: The FCC has decided to drop the fee it currently charges for applying for (and renewing) a vanity call sign! In a recent notice the FCC explained that it is a simple question of economics: in short, it costs the FCC more to process the fees than the fees themselves bring in!
This is easier to understand when you consider that not only do they have to manage the fees, keep track of them, collect them, pay for processing, etc, they also have to refund fees for people who apply for a call sign and don’t get it.
The change will not go into effect until congressional notice is given, which will require at least 90 days.
For more information check out this in-depth coverage at arrl.org.
Edit: The ARRL has restored their previous page showing other study options! You can find it here: http://www.arrl.org/instruction-exam-practice-and-review
You may or may not know that HamStudy.org is more than just a website for studying; we are a small organization (official ham club with the call sign NT3ST) which is dedicated to improving and modernizing the state of Ham Radio exams and testing. We believe strongly that Ham Radio is a hobby (or sport, if you prefer) for all walks of life and all people.
We believe that all who have interest in the air waves for non-commercial interest should be welcome: HF code guys, HF voice rag chewers, 2m service buffs, preppers, RF aircraft hobbyists, appliance users, electronics hackers, and anyone else who wants to join. Ham Radio should be about cooperation, openness, and community.
This is why we were so disappointed this morning when we discovered that the ARRL has removed links to all other online systems for studying for an Amateur Radio license other than the one they released about a year ago which seems to be designed to help sell their books.
Update Nov 29, 2015: I just discovered that the ARRL does still have this information on their website, it’s just hidden on a page that not many people know about.
