Finally!

During the weekly net for the Eagle Rock ARC on December 4th, someone announced there would be a test session in Rexburg the following Saturday, December 8.

I figured this would give me just enough time to take a whole bunch of practice exams for the Amateur Extra class license so I can finally accomplish upgrading my amateur radio license. So that is what I started working on.

Saturday morning rolled around and I got up early enough to be at the city offices in Rexburg by 9:30. Boy, morning is a tough time to be taking a test of any type--except maybe a urine test (you old OMs will know what I mean). When I arrived, there were the 3 VEs and 3 people taking exams. Todd Smith, the exam session coordinator came to me, introduced himself, and had me fill out all necessary paperwork and pay the examination fee.

It has been 18 years since I upgraded from technician plus to general. I haven’t really had a lot of incentive to upgrade for the sake of more frequency segments on HF, however, I figured since I tested for and was granted a General Radiotelephone Operator License in March 2017, I should take the Extra exam before I forgot what I learned for that license. Besides--if I could pass two exams totaling 130 questions--a 50 question exam should be a snap.

Well...maybe not a snap...but three days of study was enough to squeek by and pass the Extra exam. Like I figure--pass is pass!

So on December 10, 2018, the FCC granted me an upgrade to my Amateur Radio Service license from General class to Amateur Extra.

Time to celebrate!