Ham Radio Testing During Social Distancing

Martinez CERT and our neighboring Martinez and Mt. Diablo Amateur Radio Clubs encourage everyone interested to get a ham radio license. It’s a tremendously useful skill, especially during disasters, emergencies, and power outages (assuming you have a hand-held radio or power back-up for your larger radio). Bonus: you have lots of people nearby to talk and explore with!

Studying can be easily done at home or wherever you are. One great site for “flashcard” style learning is HamStudy.org. Create a free account if you want to save your study history, or just go for it and dive right in. Need a beginner’s Technician license? Here you go. They also offer material for the General and Extra licenses. Another good study site is HamExam.org. Don’t need flashcards? Here is the pool of the questions that you could be asked on the current exam. Some of the questions might seem a bit over your head, but stick with it: focus on remembering the correct answers, take the exam, then start your real learning.

Mt. Diablo (MDARC for short, pronounced em-dark) is offering testing to get your FCC license. The testing is done in a socially distanced “drive-in” manner. The next testing date will be on June 20 in Concord, and will be for all license levels. If you’d like more information on this event, drop us a line and we’ll connect you with Larry, the testing organizer.