I finally earned my General ticket! I was extremely worried about it as I was bumping up against the deadline for the new question pool and I felt I didn’t know the material as well as I wanted too. Either way I had to take a shot, so back in May I signed up for an online test. This was another cause for anxiety for me. I’ve heard that these online tests are easy but they can be very scrutinizing to make sure you have no hidden material anywhere that can lend you a hand.
I was some what right be concerned about the scrutiny. My office is in our open basement and I tried my best make sure there was nothing out but I had to run around at the last minute and find things to cover my extra monitors. Luckily, we had a huge selection of blankets! Once that was settled I was fine to get working on my test. It was strange because they had me remove my headphones but leave my mic on so I couldn’t hear anything but I know they could hear every little squeak my chair or floor made.
All in all I believe it took me around 10 minutes to complete, I by no means got a perfect score but I didn’t just barely pass either. When they told me I passed a huge sigh of relief that I was able to complete this before the question pool was refreshed.
So now what? Well I’ve been focusing on HF. I can hear people from all over the world but all I have is a QRP Xiegu G90 and some speaker wire for an antenna. I’m playing around with the configuration and placement to see if that can help me be heard. I’ve been focusing on digital modes too and all the pains that come along with that. Oh, I’ve also been reading up for my Extra license. I believe the question pool for that refreshes next year, plus its a much bigger pool.
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