A Ham license is free. Some clubs, like ARRL charge for the exam. Not all of them charge the fee. I’m with Laurel VEC as well and none of the affiliated clubs charge an exam fee.
Last edited:
Radio
- Thread starter Lewis86
- Start date
ptgarcia
Rank III
Enthusiast III
When you guys say HAM, to what frequency range are you referring?
I originally set up my truck to chase for off road racing so I mounted a modded Icom ic-v8000 2m (VHF I think?) radio. Recently I picked up (3) BaoFeng BF-F8HP handhelds for out-of-truck communications. The BaoFeng are dual band (VHF and UHF) and a real bargain at $60 or so from BaoFeng Tech.
I originally set up my truck to chase for off road racing so I mounted a modded Icom ic-v8000 2m (VHF I think?) radio. Recently I picked up (3) BaoFeng BF-F8HP handhelds for out-of-truck communications. The BaoFeng are dual band (VHF and UHF) and a real bargain at $60 or so from BaoFeng Tech.
Advocate III
- 5,584
- First Name
- Michael
- Last Name
- Rose
- Member #
-
20990
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- W7FSB
- Service Branch
- US ARMY Retired
Correct some clubs charge a fee... actually all ARRL sanctioned clubs charge a fee because the ARRL requires the fee.. I’m an ARRL VE.
I am an ARRL VE as well. Now please stop telling people that a Ham license costs $15. It does not. A ham license is free. Some clubs (but not all) charge a fee for the exam.
Advocate III
- 5,584
- First Name
- Michael
- Last Name
- Rose
- Member #
-
20990
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- W7FSB
- Service Branch
- US ARMY Retired
Yes correct the FCC doesn’t collect money (yet), but most clubs do charge money to administer the exam... the 2 clubs I VE for charge $15.00 and neither club keeps any of the monies collected for exams; all monies are sent to the ARRL along with the all the testing documents. I know one of the two clubs I am a member of is switching its sanctions away from the ARRL and then will be increasing its fees from $15.00 to $25.00 to cover the costs of new testing equipment. The second club I am affiliated with is considering stopping its VE sessions until the ARRL can submit the documents to the fcc in a timely manor and grant call signs quicker... (we had a guy test at the beginning of November still waiting for his call sign).
Bu the way, how do you wind a Toroid?
Please stop telling people that a ham license costs $15. They do not. They are free. SOME (but not all) clubs charge a fee to administer the exam. I offered a link showing free exams across the country but you persist in pointing to the ARRL. ARRL is just another club. They have zero regulatory authority.
Advocate III
- 5,584
- First Name
- Michael
- Last Name
- Rose
- Member #
-
20990
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- W7FSB
- Service Branch
- US ARMY Retired
My point through all of this... free or $15, or even 25 is still lest than $65.00 I use money in my statement for worst case scenario... so no I will not be using the national average of $15.00/ exam session... which is still way cheaper than the rest of the world... for instance Netherlands is charging $84 US/ Year, and they have to pay close to that to operate on CB frequencies, and they don’t have a GMRS band at all... so... like I said... I’ll stick to using the national average when comparing the cost of ham exam to GMRS.
ARRL fees are not the national average. GLAARG has tested more people than ARRL this year and they only charge $10 for the online exam. W5YI charges $14 for the online exam. There are a lot of clubs that do the exam completely free. I'm sorry you have been given such bad data and even more sorry that you constantly repeat it.
Please stop quoting bad information. It hurts the hobby.
I'm out. Peace.
Advocate III
- 5,584
- First Name
- Michael
- Last Name
- Rose
- Member #
-
20990
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- W7FSB
- Service Branch
- US ARMY Retired
When I say ham I’m speaking 2m/70cm... I don’t expect people to dive in as deep as I dive into the hobby. The official OB ham frequency is 146.460. The national calling frequency is 146.52 on 2m and 446.00 on 70cm.
Advocate III
- 5,584
- First Name
- Michael
- Last Name
- Rose
- Member #
-
20990
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- W7FSB
- Service Branch
- US ARMY Retired
Today, 12/21/2020 there is are 2 free exams nationwide out of 60 to finish off the month of December... out of the 59 exams scheduled, there are 12 exams for $14, and 5 for $10.00. So take all the numbers do the tricky math and you come up with $13.86, round to the nearest $5.00 and you get $15... so I still stand by my national average of $15.00/ exam.
HamStudy.org: Find an Exam Session
Prepare for your ham radio test for free with stats-driven flash cards, question lists, explanations, and practice tests.
hamstudy.org
Member III
- 2,827
- First Name
- Joshua
- Last Name
- Downs
- Member #
-
20468
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- KK6RBI / WQYH678
- Service Branch
- USMC 03-16, FIRE/EMS
VHF/UHF 2m/70cm specifically, technicians have access to other spectrum but you'll find the 2m/7cm bands to be the mostly commonly used. You can google up a band plan.
Off-Road Ranger III
- 13,288
- First Name
- Bjoern
- Last Name
- Eldracher
- Member #
-
20111
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- DO3BE
This is an interesting topic. For HAM, in Germany, we have to pay between 80 and 110 Euro exam fee plus 70 Euro for the admission to participation in the amateur radio service/ allocation of the callsign. In addition there is a yearly fee charged by the federal network agency. There are several preparation courses (online and presence) which are for free or cost little money (for example to support the organizing club). CB and PMR446 (a citizens radio service using UHF frequencies 446,000–446,200 MHz) require no payment of fees here.
Member III
- 2,827
- First Name
- Joshua
- Last Name
- Downs
- Member #
-
20468
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- KK6RBI / WQYH678
- Service Branch
- USMC 03-16, FIRE/EMS
Off-Road Ranger III
- 13,288
- First Name
- Bjoern
- Last Name
- Eldracher
- Member #
-
20111
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- DO3BE
I did not inform me in detail about it and do not use PMR446, but I know that there are some Gateways in use here (basically working like Echolink in HAM via the internet). PMR 446 is restricted to 0,5 Watts here and the radios are mainly handhelds, so not really interesting for me. I guess its comparable with the FRS in the US, right?!
Member III
- 2,827
- First Name
- Joshua
- Last Name
- Downs
- Member #
-
20468
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- KK6RBI / WQYH678
- Service Branch
- USMC 03-16, FIRE/EMS
Probably very similar usage.
I had to re look it up but it was Aussie UHF CB not PMR that has repeaters. They have a pretty impressive CB service. 80 Channels, about 30ish of them are repeater inputs/outputs. Max power 5 watts.
Member III
Guess the newly implemented $35 fee for ham license (renewals, vanity call application, etc) nullifies this argument, unfortunately.
Advocate III
- 5,584
- First Name
- Michael
- Last Name
- Rose
- Member #
-
20990
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- W7FSB
- Service Branch
- US ARMY Retired
Member III
$35 Amateur/GMRS radio fees
New license, Renewals, and vanity call sign application will carry a $35 fee effective in the very near future. Upon further review it appears GMRS is also included in this which means the license fee will actually come down from $70 to $35. https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-20-184A1.pdf
Advocate III
- 5,584
- First Name
- Michael
- Last Name
- Rose
- Member #
-
20990
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- W7FSB
- Service Branch
- US ARMY Retired
Well, looks like I’m done in 9 years, and never making Extra Class...$35 Amateur/GMRS radio fees
New license, Renewals, and vanity call sign application will carry a $35 fee effective in the very near future. Upon further review it appears GMRS is also included in this which means the license fee will actually come down from $70 to $35. https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-20-184A1.pdfwww.overlandbound.com
