I Earned My Amateur Extra

I did it. I crammed well. I spent the entire week studying. http://www.hamtestonline.com is the ticket. It so worth the $50. I spent 34 hours on hamtestonline and about another 8 hours reading.

I missed one on my General and 6 on my Extra.

Now that I've passed the tests, it is time to go back and learn the materials. I am very good with practical application, and can explain what I am doing. But to test on an entire subject when I don't use the knowledgeand never memorize all the formulas, makes me a bad tester. So I spent the week learning the 1200 questions for the 2 tests. The full weekend and from 8PM till 1:30 AM just about each night.

I can now slowly read the ARRL general and extra license guide. I've also got the ARRL 2008 handbook. I am just glad that book comes with a cd of the book in pdf form. I would nst carry a monster like that in my backpack.

Since past the ability to use my FT-60 for emergencies, and thing else I learn is for nerdy fun. Ham today is about esoteric knowledge and talking to people you'll probably never meet. Like most social networks :D But you never get hot chicks on your friend page. So HAM is about esoteric language. Sort of like learning Klingon or having the map to middle earth memorized better than your local town. I am learning morse code. I even went to a 2 hour lecture about it yesterday.

The speaker was Dave Wolfe. If you ever have a chance to hear him speak go. Even the inside jokes he does in the code isn't bad. His presence is excellent. I did not realize the talk had gone on for so long until I looked at a clock and realized it had gone for an hour and a half at that point.

Well 73.

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