
Welcome to the website of the Gloucester County Amateur Radio Club Volunteer Examiner Team, or the GCARC VE Team. We are a team of Amateur Radio operators who have joined forces to provide a safe, non-judgmental, and non-threatening environment for those candidates who wish to sit for an FCC Amateur Radio license exam.
To learn more about the team, and for details about our testing program, please visit our About the Team page. On that page, you will find details about the team itself, as well as details about the test site including a map to the site location.
It is most likely that you came to this page as a part of your preparation process for taking the required FCC “written” exam in order to earn either a new Amateur Radio license, or else an upgrade to a higher-level license. Either way, you came to the right place.
We frequently hear questions like “What do I have to do to get a ham license?” or “How do I go about upgrading to a higher license class?” or “Where can I go to take the FCC test?” We hope that this website will answer all of those, and many more, questions about the ham licensing exams.
To begin, we will address the age-old question…
How Do I Obtain An Amateur Radio License?
- Study for the exam and take practice tests
- Suggested resources:
- If new licensee, register with the FCC and obtain an FRN
- Register for an exam session on hamstudy.org and obtain a PIN
- Pay for the exam:
- Adult Candidates
- Online using PayPal (RECOMMENDED METHOD)
- In person when you take the exam (last resort method)
- Youthful Candidates
- Online using PayPal (RECOMMENDED METHOD)
- In person when you take the exam (last resort method)
- Adult Candidates
- Take the exam
- Watch email for FCC notice and pay the FCC fee
- Get on the air!
What you need to know to take an exam…
The first step in applying for your first FCC license is to obtain an FCC Registration Number (FRN). There is no fee for the FRN, and it is issued immediately upon proper completion of the registration process. It is important that the applicant has a valid e-mail address and has immediate access to that email address during the registration process. This is because the FCC will be sending at least two emails to you for verification and validation as the process continues. To learn all there is to know about obtaining an FRN, please visit our Obtain an FRN from the FCC page.
Once the FRN has been obtained, the candidate will want to find a test session at which to take the required written exam. Go to our Register at hamstudy.org page to find and then register for the exam.
Upon completion of the exam registration process, the candidate must then go to the GCARC VE Team Payment page to pre-pay the adult candidate exam fee of fifteen dollars ($15.00) or the youthful candidate exam fee of five dollars ($5.00). This is to be paid via PayPal using the tools on the payment page.
After that, STUDY! STUDY! STUDY! The exam date will come around more quickly than you may think that it will, and before you know it, you will be making the trip to the GCARC Clubhouse for your exam. Good luck!
So… what if you are working towards a license upgrade, i.e., trying to make the move from Technician (Element 2) to General (Element 3), or from General (element 3) to Amateur Extra (Element 4)? What is different? What is the same? Well, as it turns out, there is a lot of similarity here. The only real difference is that you would already have an FRN and a call sign. This means that the whole and entire job of obtaining an FRN is not a part of the upgrade process.
In the case of those candidates seeking a license upgrade, they should jump straight to our Register at hamstudy.org page to find and then register for the exam. After answering the age-related initial question, you will be taken to the start of the registration process. The first piece of data that is asked for is your FRN… but don’t worry if you don’t know your FRN! as a licensed operator seeking an upgrade, you may enter your call sign instead of the FRN when that information is requested. After that, the process continues exactly as it would for a new licensee. Easy-peasy! Record your PIN when it is issued.
As is explained on our After Payment page, all exam candidates should bring their FRN’s, their ExamTools PIN, and their valid photo ID’s to the test site for their exam sessions. Candidates seeking license upgrades should, in addition, be sure to bring a copy of the currently-held FCC Amateur Radio operator’s license when appearing at the test site.