Dave and I attended a one-day licensing course and test session today in Elk River. The event was sponsored by Sherburne County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (SherCo ARES).

As part of our Storm Spotter training last month, we also had to become licensed amateur radio operators. The class today was well-organized and Mike Steckelberg, the instructor, provided the information in a way that made it very easy to learn. We spent the day going over the 10 different sections of material that would be covered on the test, and then had breaks in between to study our test-prep handout.

The examiners came in and administered the test right before 4:00 pm. The test consisted of 35 multiple-choice questions and after spending all day preparing, was pretty easy.

Now, the next step is to figure out what kind of radio we need!

If you didn’t figure it out yet, we both passed!

Some of the material we had to study!

Yikes–there’s a lot to know!

Our class taking the licensing exam.

Mike Steckelberg (standing) and the examiners (from left to right)

John Smolenski, Boaz Erickson, Greg Ogden, and Ken Carlson.