June 16, 2019
The Marshall County (Kansas) Amateur Radio Club sponsors W5YI-VEC amateur radio operator license examinations periodically through the year upon request after our monthly dinner meetings on the third Tuesday of each month. The exam session will typically begin at 7:45 to 8:15 PM as the dinner meetings start at 6:30 PM (unless other arrangements are made that the VE team agrees to). Pre-registration by contacting N0NB for the session is required to be certain we have enough exam materials available.
Obtaining an amateur radio operator's license requires successfully passing the written elements required for a given license class as shown in the table below.
Be sure you have a current study guide!
| License | Element |
|---|---|
| Technician | 2 |
| General | 2, 3 |
| Extra | 2, 3, 4 |
The next exam session will take place upon request after a regularly scheduled monthly dinner meeting of the MCARC--third Tuesday of each month. The session will begin no earlier than 7:45 to 8:15 PM (after the MCARC dinner meeting which begins at 6:30 PM, unless other arrangments are made agreed to by the VE team). Notification is required at least 4 days before the meeting so we can schedule the session and be certain of availability of examiners and exam materials.
Note that the dates are tentative and do sometimes get changed!
| 15 Jan | 19 Feb |
| 19 Mar | 16 Apr |
| 21 May | 18 Jun |
| 16 Jul | 20 Aug |
| 17 Sep | 15 Oct |
| 19 Nov | 17 Dec |
The exam session will be held at Landoll Lanes, 2005 Center St, Marysville, KS. The building is located on the south side of US 36 at the 20th Street intersection. Please take a look at the Marysville Map page link below for a link to a map and driving directions from your location. This facility is handicap accessible.
A map showing the approximate location is on my Marysville Map page.
CSCEs dated more than 365 days prior to the exam session will not be accepted for exam credit. If unsure of your CSCEs validity, please contact N0NB as listed below.
Note! This may not apply if you are using an older CSCE for proof of Element 3 credit toward General. Check the exam credit page for details.
Note! As of 21 Jul 2014 the FCC authorized partial exam credit for expired General, Advanced, and Extra class license holders. ARRL has complete details on these rules changes including the forms of documentation that are acceptable.
Pre-registration is required for a session. You may pre-register one of several ways:
With any method of pre-registration you choose please provide the following:
Within a week prior to the exam session your pre-registration will be confirmed with an email sent to the email address you provide or by letter sent to your mailing address. In the letter is information regarding how the exams are conducted, what items you should bring, what items we will provide, and driving directions to the exam site.
Registration assures that we will have enough exam materials on hand and that we will hold a session! Please be aware that sessions will be held only upon request from now on.
The exam fee for 2019 is $14 (mandated by W5YI-VEC). The fee is payable at the session before you take any exam elements. Please pay by cash (exact change preferred).
We only use the NCVEC form 605 for new license applications and upgrades through W5YI-VEC. Note that this form can only be used at a VE session and cannot be used to change your call or mailing address nor renew your license. We will have these forms available at the session.
We will conduct exams as requested. Most likely after a dinner meeting of
the Marshall County Amateur Radio Club which meets the third Tuesday of each
month at the address above. The usual exam session start time is 7:45 to 8:15
PM (unless other arrangements have been made and are agreed to by the VE
team).
It is necessary to contact us beforehand to be sure a session will
be held!
Beginning in 1984, the Federal Communications Commission, FCC, turned over the administration of Amateur Radio Operator license examinations to the amateur radio community. Known as the VE, Volunteer Examiner, system, radio amateurs in the U.S.A. could once again take exams in their home towns, and at many hamfests around the country. Gone was the restriction of exams only being held in FCC field offices and then only a few times per year.
While the FCC retains enforcement oversight and issues the actual license document, the day-to-day burden of coordinating volunteer examiner teams fell to several organizations who entered into contract with the FCC to be VECs, Volunteer Exam Coordinators. Most exams across the country are handled by two VECs, ARRL/VEC and W5YI-VEC. The VECs provide the materials needed by the VE teams to administer consistent exams across the country regardless of the team's VEC affiliation. The VECs also verify the paperwork submitted by the VE team and then file the applications with the FCC who then assign licenses to qualified applicants.
Amateur Radio Operator license exams consist of three written exams covering basic electronics and radio theory, radio wave propagation, Amateur Radio Service Rules (Part 97), amateur practice, and RF safety. Let's look at these.
There are currently three written elements, one for each license class. Each element is intended to be progressively more difficult than the previous and cover topics appropriate to the given operator class. The questions on each exam are drawn from a "pool" of questions plus answers for that exam. There are approximately ten to twelve times as many questions in each pool as appear on each exam element. The exam must be made up using both the question and its answers verbatim as they exist in the pool. VE teams are not permitted to make up their own questions, correct answer to each question, nor the detractor answers for each question. VE teams often generate their own exams using software provided by the VEC for such a purpose or they can manually create their own exams following the requirements of the Question Pool Committee that has agreed on how many questions of each sub-element (topic) must appear on each exam. The table below shows each element, its total number of questions, and the number of correct answers needed to pass:
| Element | Questions | Passing |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 35 | 26 |
| 3 | 35 | 26 |
| 4 | 50 | 37 |
The question pools are maintained by an entity called the Question Pool Committee, QPC, made up of one representative of each of the VECs. The QPC meets periodically to revise existing questions and answers and to consider new questions and answers for the pools on a rotating schedule. The pools are updated in rotation with each pool remaining "stable" for four years.
The first order of business at an exam session is filling out forms. NCVEC Form 605 is a simplified paper version of the "Quick Form 605" introduced in 1999 when the FCC transitioned the Amateur Radio Service into the Universal Licensing System, ULS. NCVEC Form 605 can only be used at a VE session for applying for a new or upgraded operator's license.
Concurrent with ULS the FCC now requires applicants to provide their Social Security Number, SSN, with each application for a new license, to upgrade a license, or to renew a license beginning August 16, 1999. If an applicant wishes not to disclose their SSN to a VE team, they must pre-register with ULS and obtain a Federal Registration Number, FRN, a ten digit number to be used in lieu of an SSN to identify oneself to ULS. Beginning August 16, 1999, VE teams are required to have applicants write in their SSN or FRN on NCVEC Form 605. To learn more about ULS as it applies to amateur radio, check out the ARRL W1AW bulletin of July 29, 1999.
Part 97 requires VE teams to verify the identity of exam applicants. This can be accomplished by providing the VE team with one form of photo ID or two other documents as ID.
The current exam fee is $14.00 and is good for as many elements as you can pass. A failing score on an exam requires payment of another exam fee to take that element again. If an element is taken a second time at a given session, the same exam will not be administered. At the MCARC sessions an applicant will be allowed to take a given element twice in one session.
Once the application form has been completed and the fee has been paid, you will be able to sit for your exam element(s). After you have completed a written exam, the test booklet, answer sheet, and any scratch paper you used must be surrendered to the VE team.
After the exams have been graded, you will be informed of your score, and whether you passed or failed, however, the VE team cannot divulge any specific questions you might have missed, nor can you review the exam.
If you successfully pass one or more elements at the session you will be given a Certificate of Successful Completion of Examination, CSCE. The CSCE states what elements you passed at this exam session. CSCEs are valid for 365 days from the date of issuance and valid original CSCEs issued by a VE team of any VEC must be accepted by a VE team of any other VEC. A CSCE is not a license document, but you may operate using new privileges if you qualified to upgrade a current license. If you qualified for a new license, you must wait until your new call-sign appears in the FCC's electronic database before you may operate.
There are two ways to demonstrate credit for exams already passed. The first is your current un-expired Amateur Radio Operator's License. You automatically receive credit for all elements required to qualify for your current license. The second is a CSCE issued within the past 365 days stating that you passed additional elements above those required for your current license class (this case will be rare with the elimination of the Morse Code exam). In either case, the VE team needs to verify your original unaltered license and/or CSCE document, however, the VE team requires only a copy to be sent along with your application form. You should always keep your original documents and only surrender a copy of them for a license upgrade!
Most license applications are processed within ten days to two weeks and you can expect your new license or your upgrade to appear in the FCC database in that time.
Amateur radio licensing is a complex issue. I have only hit the high points here, but there is enough to keep even the most interested amateur attorney busy for several days. If you have any questions about anything on this page or on items I may have missed, feel free to write me at n0nb@n0nb.us.
Thanks to the Internet, there are sites dedicated to providing study lessons and practice exams. If you make use of these sites please thank the amateurs who make them available (note that my listing a site here is not an endorsement or recommendation over any other).
KB6NU's No-Nonsense Study Guides
AA9PW's Amateur Radio Exam Practice Page
QRZ's online exams
eHam.net Ham Exams
Search for W5YI-VEC exam locations near you.
Search for ARRL-VEC exam sessions near you.
Laurel-VEC exam schedule.
What exam credit your current license provides
Original content Copyright © 1997-2024 Nate Bargmann NØNB n0nb@n0nb.us
any other content copyright by respective author(s).
| This page last modified June 16, 2019 |
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