ARRL Benton County ARES BCARES

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Technician Classes and exam sessions

Benton county ARES holds Amateur Radio Technician Class license training sessions and license exam sessions throughout the year. Both sessions are free and open to the public.

These combined license/exam sessions are held over a three day period of Friday-Sunday. The license training portion is held Friday evening from 6-9pm, and Saturday from 9am-5pm. There will be breaks.

The exam portion is held on Sunday after a 9-11am review session. All three license level exams are offered (Technician, General and Extra). You do not have to take the training to take an exam.

Registration links for our scheduled sessions are as follows.

Please note the location that is listed for the specific exam session. Some sessions are held at the Benton County Sunset Building located at 4077 SW Research Way, Corvallis, OR 97333, while others are held at the Benton County Sheriff's Annex located at 205 NW 5th St, Corvallis, OR 97330. Locations may be changed, and we will use the contact information from your registration to contact you about any updates.

The Friday and Saturday sessions will cover material for the FCC Amateur Radio Element 2 (Technician) exam. Those students who would like to do a little bit of prep work may sign up at HamStudy.org for practice tests and studying.

There are also several books published by the ARRL, Gordon West, and Stephen Horan, among others. While we can't vouch for, or recommend, any one in particular, most of the books out there do a good job of covering the relevant material. Some may be available at your local library. If you do purchase a book, consider finding someone to give it to when you are done.

One important thing to note is that the tests are updated every 4 years. The current Technician test is part of the 2022-2026 update. Books from libraries and low-cost books online may be older editions. While most of the important information doesn't change much from cycle to cycle, there may be content in older books that is less relevant for the current exam. HamStudy.org is always up to date.

Before you attend the exam session, there are two things that you will need to do:

  • Sign up for an FCC Registration Number (FRN) from the FCC. Please note that the address that you use to sign up for the FRN does get published publicly. You can use any address to which you normally can receive mail, such as a PO Box or a work address. It does not need to be your physical home address.

  • Sign up for an account at HamStudy.org and register for the exam. Searching for Corvallis should pull up our exam session.

We are going to be conducting the exam through ExamTools, which is a platform related to HamStudy.org. If you have a laptop or tablet that you would like to use, please bring it. Paper exams will be available on-site as well.

The exam itself is free. Applicants who successfully pass a test and earn either a new license or an upgrade will receive an invoice for $35 from the FCC for their fee. The FCC will not issue a new or upgraded license until the fee is paid but, once paid, generally the new license is granted within a few hours. This fee from the FCC is relatively new, and is charged each time a new license is issued, renewed, upgraded, or when a vanity call sign is issued.

If you have any questions, please let us know.

* For volunteers, we are looking for a cadre of elmers who can help answer questions during the class lectures and help with demonstrations. Equally important, we are looking for volunteer examiners who are accredited with the Laurel VEC. If you would like to know more or would like to become a VE with the Laurel VEC, please let us know..