Ham Radio Basics

About ham radio and how to get your license

Professor Miki Lustig often teaches a Ham Radio decal, along with his class EE123: Digital Signal Processing. You can check https://decal.berkeley.edu/courses for information.

About Ham Radio

Ever think about building your own radio? To talk to your friends across the county, the country, or around the globe? How about some astronauts on the ISS? Do you like the idea of bouncing radio waves off meteors or even the moon? Think you have what it takes to learn CW ("Morse code")? Amateur radio operators ("hams") do all this and more. By getting licensed with the FCC, you can join the ranks of 8 million radio amateurs in the U.S. Getting licensed allows you to:

• Build and operate your own radio equipment

• Transmit on radio frequencies (not channels) exclusive to radio amateurs

• Transmit up to 1500W*

• Experiment with new communication schemes

Getting your license

If you are enrolled in the decal, all of the following information should be provided to you in class or on piazza. There are three levels: technician, general, and extra. The steps for registering for a technician ham radio exam are as follows:

1. Register on the FCC website to get an FRN (FCC Registration Number). You will need this for all future ham exams. Click here, then click "Register and receive your FRN."

2. After selecting "individual" and "yes" to the first two questions, fill out all your information and submit.

3. While you wait to get your FRN, you can search for exams in your area by clicking here. Note that there will probably be one in Berkeley at least once a semester. Here is what you should bring.

4. There are many resources on the ARRL website to study for the exam, such as the technician exam question pool. However, HamExam seems to be the best place to do (many) practice exams.

5. Note that you will get your call sign after you have passed your exam.