Hi folks... long time lurker, rare poster around here. Given the ham chatter on this board I figured the crowd might be interested in a fairly new ham licensing/testing option that's faster than most test sessions, and free =)
Quick background: This all stemmed from a test session during the last Sedonafest (no direct association other than being an FJ owner myself) where a few other VE non-members on AZFJ and myself managed to license 16 new hams out in the middle of the woods. Since then there have been a few more off-road trip/test session combos and even a few in town and ham has been taking off like wildfire among the non-member crowd over there.
Long story short, we formed a new VE team with the Laurel VEC system (instead of the ARRL VEC that most tests go through) and that allows us to offer up the tests completely free of charge as well as process results electronically and see new licenses in the FCC database in a fraction of the time. (Overnight has certainly happened before...)
We're holding our first test session under that new Laurel system this coming Tuesday and have more sessions already on the schedule. So if anyone is interested on such short notice, or for future dates, we'll be happy to run ya through the wringer =)
This particular session is being held at the Phoenix Public Library Mesquite Branch Tuesday June 10th @ 6pm. It's located on the outer circle of the Paradise Valley Mall, so hopefully not too long a haul for most folks. (4525 Paradise Valley Mall Loop, Phoenix, AZ 85032)
We've also got another one planned for later this month up on FR300 at the 4x4ham.com field day test site, at the same library again a couple weeks after that, and even testing at Sedonafest this year again. From there on out we plan to hold local/in-town test sessions at that library location on a recurring monthly basis, unless precluded by other special event sessions. More details than I could bore everyone with here at www.phxham.com if you're interested =)
Quick background: This all stemmed from a test session during the last Sedonafest (no direct association other than being an FJ owner myself) where a few other VE non-members on AZFJ and myself managed to license 16 new hams out in the middle of the woods. Since then there have been a few more off-road trip/test session combos and even a few in town and ham has been taking off like wildfire among the non-member crowd over there.
Long story short, we formed a new VE team with the Laurel VEC system (instead of the ARRL VEC that most tests go through) and that allows us to offer up the tests completely free of charge as well as process results electronically and see new licenses in the FCC database in a fraction of the time. (Overnight has certainly happened before...)
We're holding our first test session under that new Laurel system this coming Tuesday and have more sessions already on the schedule. So if anyone is interested on such short notice, or for future dates, we'll be happy to run ya through the wringer =)
This particular session is being held at the Phoenix Public Library Mesquite Branch Tuesday June 10th @ 6pm. It's located on the outer circle of the Paradise Valley Mall, so hopefully not too long a haul for most folks. (4525 Paradise Valley Mall Loop, Phoenix, AZ 85032)
We've also got another one planned for later this month up on FR300 at the 4x4ham.com field day test site, at the same library again a couple weeks after that, and even testing at Sedonafest this year again. From there on out we plan to hold local/in-town test sessions at that library location on a recurring monthly basis, unless precluded by other special event sessions. More details than I could bore everyone with here at www.phxham.com if you're interested =)
, great option and it's only a few minutes from my house. Thanks for posting.
This is a great service - thanks for making this happen!
