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The Waiting is the Hardest Part
18 November 2015 | by My buddy Shannon took his first amateur radio licensing test last Tuesday. We spent weeks trying to find him an exam session, jumping from club to club. We successfully found a VE session 50 miles from him. He passed both the Tech and General exams with flying colors! The VEs told him it would take 7 to 10 days before the FCC would post his license on their website. That was surprising to me, as I had seen the W5YI group get me a club call in two days within the last year. Oh well, technology does change and sometimes not for the better.
And then, 7 days later, Shannon sends me this link this morning: FCC not processing test results
What bum luck he has! Hopefully the fine folks in IT will get the problem solved quickly. A new ham awaits his call!
2 Responses to “The Waiting is the Hardest Part”
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Yep, different VECs use different tools. My VE team (ARRL) mails test results to ARRL, and it can take a week (or more) to get a call sign. The “other” VE team in town (W4VEC) submits results electronically from the test session, and call signs are often assigned by the time the new ham gets home.
When word gets out that one team can get you on the air a week earlier, you do see people making choices differently (and W4VEC is $3 cheaper than ARRL 😉
I am a VE for both the ARRL and W5YI. I am the liaison for the ARRL sessions I run here where we live. I find the ARRL to be much faster than W5YI. Now, it could be the last W5 YI session I was associated with didn’t get the paperwork in quickly who knows. I usually use Priority mail when I send test results to ARRL. When the League gets the paperwork, it goes out to the FCC electronically and unless there is some problem in DC the callsign is issued the next day or so.
Folks, it took me 16 weeks to get my Novice Ticket. It took 8 weeks for my General and about a month for my Advanced and Extra class tickets to arrive. A week or 10 days is no big deal.