Alamo Area radio Organization

The Alamo Area Radio Organization, Inc.

Congratulations on finding your way to our new Learning Center. We're excited you're here!

Why the Web Page Study Guide?

For over a decade AARO's club members have supported more than two dozen National Disaster Medical System (NDMS)-participating hospitals in the greater San Antonio area. Since January of 2003, AARO and the Southwest Research Center Amateur Radio Club have also joined forces and co-sponsored six one-day crash review courses to earn Technician class licenses. Although open to everyone, these courses were aimed primarily at medical personnel, first responders and emergency response groups. In 2006 ten University of Incarnate Word students majoring in meteorology attended one of our classes and earned their licenses, too. Future SKYWARN Spotters? You bet, more welcomed additions to our local team of operators!

NEXT ONE-DAY CRASH REVIEW COURSE WILL BE HELD FEBRUARY 23, 2008. For more info ... click here

Invariably, a week after we gather Volunteer Instructors and Volunteer Examiners together to host a class, someone calls and asks, “When is your next class?” With the new FCC Technician class Question Pool that took effect July 1, 2006 (and will be valid through June 30, 2010), our thought was to develop an on-line resource in preparation for the Technician Class theory examination that would be available for review by every one and at any time.

What’s Here?

Here you will find the material needed to pass the FCC’s:

Element 2 examination to earn your Technician Class Amateur Radio license,

Element 3 to earn General Class Amateur Radio license (work in progress), and

Element 4 to earn Extra Class Amateur Radio license (forthcoming).

When we began structuring the Technician class project, and while our learning curve was still straight up and down, we began receiving requests for on-line General class materials, too. At this time, you can at least find all of the questions and answers for the Technician, General and Amateur Extra class licenses here. Technician links, graphics and tips to remember are now available to you, and we are formatting General and Extra to make them useful tools. Check back with us for the latest revisions.

We are attempting to distill every question and answer in the question pools down to bare-bone text (with key words highlighted. We've added some explanations and visuals, and noted the number of questions that you will receive from each of the sub-subelement groups for the three written exams: Technician-35 questions; General-35 questions; Extra-50 questions.

Although the following pages present all of the questions and answers you will find at a real test session, THIS SITE WAS NOT DESIGNED TO REPLACE TEXTBOOKS. It was created for use in conjunction with books that delve deeper into areas that we only brush across here. (Those books will also serve as excellent reference material for you in the future.)

Here you will also find links that take you to sites to try your hand at taking practice exams Practice Tests Link and to locate testing sites and dates when you are ready for the Real McCoy Test Site Link.

We hope you find our first attempt at on-line teaching easy to read and to understand, and would like to hear from you if you think we can do something better or if you think we've done something right. You can contact us directly at wa3pay-kc5bji@sbcglobal.net.

What You Won't Find Here

This site does NOT generate practice exams.

What Should I Do First?

Study ALL the questions in EACH of the subelements.

Measure your knowledge by taking practice tests available at: Practice Tests Link.

Take notice of questions, subjects and subelements that may be causing you difficulty. Go back to those subelements and review them, then take more practice exams. Repeat the cycle until you can successfully pass at least three out of five practice exams. Then you will be ready for the real test. Test Site Link

About the Test You Will Take

All three written theory exams are multiple choice (a, b, c, d) format. (Technician - 35 questions; General - 35 questions; Extra - 50 questions.) Unlike previous FCC question pools, there are NO diagrams or graphics in the new Technician Question Pool, strictly text.

Questions in the practice exams are chosen from the same question pool as the “real” tests that are administered by a team of at least three accredited Volunteer Examiners. (Go prepared. You will need to take a photo ID and know your Social Security Number! The examiners will also relieve you of some of your money, $14 per test and for each retest.)

You can test until you fail. Upon passing the Technician (Element 2) exam, you can take the General (Element 3) and Amateur Extra (Element 4) written exams, at no extra charge. If you do not pass on your first try, most VE Teams allow you to retest on the same day for an additional $14. (The fee is set by the FCC.)

AARO holds regularly scheduled testing sessions on the third Saturday of odd-numbered. Once you are ready to take the real test, use our RESOURCES page to find a testing session in your area that is convenient for you.

Good Luck!! CU at an upcoming Test Session!

Last Updated: 28 November 2007

This area was created by Charles Thomas (WA3PAY) and Teri Thomas (KC5BJI)

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