United States Licensing

In the United States, amateur radio licensing exams are conducted by Volunteer Examiners, who are overseen by Volunteer Exam Coordinators, with licenses administered by the FCC. Each license class gives an expanded set of usable frequencies by the licensee, as well as addition features such as different vanity callsign possibilities and the ability to become a volunteer examiner. There are currently 3 license classes available - Technician, General, and Amateur Extra class respectively. Other classes, such as Novice and Advanced, are no longer offered but licensees are grandfathered.

To obtain each class of license, an individual must pass the previous class exam as well. For instance, in order to progress to an Amateur Extra Class license, the license holder must already have both their General and Technician Class license exams completed.

As of 2008, no morse code requirement is required to obtain an amateur radio license in the United States.{{

As of 2023, the FCC requires a $35 USD fee for new licenses, renewals, and license modifications (not including upgrades).

License Classes

Each license class has a different band plan, showing the allotted frequencies to that class.

Technician Class

Technician Class is the introductory license, with good VHF/UHF privileges and very limited HF privileges.

Technician licensees have full access to the 70cm, 1.25m, 2m, and 6m bands as well as privileges approaching microwave frequencies in the 23cm and 33cm bands. Techs can also use phone communication modes (SSB, FM) in some portions of the 10m band, and CW in some sections of HF, as defined by their license and shown on band plan documents.

General Class

The General Class license is the next step up from technician, allowing access to most of the allocated HF spectrum for radio amateurs. The test for General requires a more intricate knowledge of how radio communications work, over the legal aspects covered in the tech test.

General licensees are able to do phone, CW, and digital communications across the HF spectrum, with only some small portions left for other licenses.

General class license holders can become a volunteer examiner, and test new hams for a technician license.

Extra Class

Extra Class is the highest license level currently attainable in the US. Extra Class licensees get access to more of the HF spectrum (mostly sections concerning CW and voice on 15, 20, 40, and 80 meters). Extras can also act as a volunteer examiner for all 3 license levels, and have access to special vanity callsigns (2x1, 1x2, 2x2).

Novice and Advanced (deprecated)

Novice and Advanced tests are no longer issued, and have been proceeded by Technician and General.

Club Callsigns

See US Club Callsigns.

Study Resources

Currently, one of the most popular and most recommended study tools for US licensing is HamStudy. HamStudy has shown a strong history of keeping up to date with the latest question pools from the FCC as soon as they are released, and has multiple study modes including flashcards, "study mode" (quizzing on individual questions), and full length practice tests.

When using HamStudy, Volunteer Examiner Norm K6YXH recommends following this method:

* Click on Study Mode

• Use the drop-down option in the top bar to change from All Questions to just T1:
• Click on T1.
• Now go through each question in T1, until you've Seen 100% of the questions, and your Aptitude is 85% or more.
• Only then go to the next Sub element (T2).
• Continue doing this with each sub element.
• Do not skip sub elements.
• Do not take practice exams until you've Seen 100% of each sub element and your Aptitude is 85% or more in each sub element.
• The bar graph on the right will display your Seen and Aptitude.

There are also a variety of books published for each exam. Some of the more popular ones include those by Gordon West and the ARRL.

Make sure that before ordering these books that they are the most recent edition and still a valid question pool. The NCVEC (National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators) updates each exam's question pool every 4 years, each one staggered to allow only one change per year. The current Technician, General, and Extra pools will be valid until June 30 of 2026, 2023, and 2024, respectively