How long after Exam?

Thank you for the congratulations. The ham community really seems to be a great bunch of people.

It's day 13 now and still nothing. If nothing happens today then I can call the ARRL and/or FCC on Monday. I did send the VEs from our session a polite email (using their callsign@arrl.net). Two of those went through and the other was bounced (assuming he wasn't using the mail forward at ARRL). I've heard nothing from either of them yet either.

Totally agree ARRL needs to upgrade how they're managing this. It's pointless to make people wait this long in the Internet age. The most common likelihood seems to be the packet was mailed late by whichever VE was given the task. Then, with Field Day approaching, perhaps ARRL has more submissions than usual to work through. It's all speculation though.

Have to say, I'm not exactly anxious to join the ARRL anymore. I was looking forward to partnering with them. I thought it was great that they were helping build the hobby, that they had a testing session scheduled near my home. I was looking forward to getting my callsign @arrl.net. Now? I'm a little bitter over all of this.

 

heh stick around a bit. Hams come in all shapes, sizes, and attitudes.

 

Yeah, it would be a whole different thing if I had a license grant. I have nothing. I'm off the air. I'm so frustrated I don't even want to touch my radio. It's hard to explain perhaps. Emotions are a bit high right now because I feel we worked really hard to earn the right to be on the radio and expectations were set and violated.

I was looking forward to having that call and on the very first day to be able to proudly put it out on the air. I've made friends in local clubs. I wanted to join my very first net. Now? I don't know. I'm upset, angry. I don't want to be on the radio upset. I feel somebody dropped the ball with indifference. The joy has been killed. It sort of stinks. I have to rebuild the fun now. Shouldn't be like this.

 

It will happen and all this will pass. As I believed was mentioned earlier. You can reach out to the VE and see what is about. It could be and unexpected event occurred. (personal emergency, or something)

 

Actually any "expectations" that were "violated" were expectations based on whims, not policy.

 

Respectfully, I disagree. I'll grant you that there's no firm policy that states you will receive your license in 10 days or less. However, it's not a whim when the officials involved, the VEs, make a statement that sets a reasonable expectation. There's no panic involved here either, just frustration.

Consider this for an analogy and see if you might be upset as well...

Let's say there's a very special amusement park you REALLY want to get into. It's filled with interesting people talking about and doing all kinds of fascinating things. The only thing is, this amusement park requires a very special ticket to get into, a ticket that costs not only money but a lot of time and energy to get. But you decide you're willing to pay the price. You really want to get into the park.

So you do what you need to do. You work really hard. It's practically like cramming a college class into a month (I did Tech and General from essentially zero). You buy study materials and equipment you need for the special park (over $1000 in radio equipment). At the end you have to pass a test to get a ticket into the park. You get an "A" on your test and your excited to get into the park.

Then, when you go to the park to enjoy what you worked so hard for your denied entry!

There's a huge guard standing at the gate wearing a T-shirt with three letters on it - FCC. He won't let you in! He just keeps shaking his head "no". You show him the ticket you earned and it means nothing to him! You tell him that the guys that sold you the ticket told you you'd be able to get into the park at 6AM (6 days after the exam) and that other people told you they got in at 10AM. You look at your watch and it's 1PM!!! You think to yourself, "I paid a LOT for my ticket! Why won't they let me in?!!" You try contacting the guys that sold you the ticket and they don't get back to you either - silence.

So, you stand there, holding the ticket in your hand (the CSCE from the exam session) unable to get into the park. You can see inside and all the fun people are having but you can't go in. The big guard with the FCC T-shirt just keeps shaking his head NO. And, as the clock keeps moving you know the gates are going to be barred soon for, yet another, couple hours while you stand there.

A sign next to the gate tells you that at 4PM you're allowed to make a call to see if they can help. You have no idea what that might mean but you suspect further non-admission. Here you thought they'd let you into the park at 6AM and now you're wondering if you'll get in by 5PM. You wasted a whole day just standing there!!!

Try to empathize. This is frustrating.

 

WOOHOO !!!!! The wait is over!!!! With only hours left in the business day my grant has come through!!!!! Thirteen days after the exam. I can feel the frustration ebbing away. Still waiting on my wife to come through but hopefully she's in the same batch.

I still think ARRL needs to improve their process though. That was hurting guys. Come on... it's 2018... there's this little thing called the Internet. Goodness.

 

Good to hear! Hope y'all have a lot of fun! Your just in time for sporadic e season.

 

Awesome! Since yours did, I went and checked mine. They've updated my license now also!

Congrats on becoming a ham. Hopefully I will see you on the air.

btw, you didn't mention what your new callsign is?

 

Well congrats Bob. Now what HF rig are you considering?

I had been checking the ULS occasionally for your call. I certainly wasn't looking for it late in the day. The FCC works in mysterious ways.

Now the next topic of discussion is getting your call noted on this QRZ account. Chill for about 2 or 3 days (famous last words), and when your KZV call shows up AUTOMATICALLY in the Zed (do a search of QRZ callsigns for it), you then can ask the Database Helpers to move that call over to this account.

And if you have not yet created an account for your wife, DON'T. Wait till her call makes its way into the ULS and then AUTOMATICALLY into the Zed, and then have her just log in here and claim it. If she has already created a "temporary" account, you will need help to "fix" that as well.

Next up, do you have any attachment to that KZV call? The phonetics are OK, but you can get a FREE custom (and shorter) 1x3 Vanity Call by submitting an application to the ULS. A Vanity Call comes through in about 18 to 21 days after your application submission. Everything has a waiting period attached to it.

If you are unsure about your valid callsign options, drop me an email or a message here in the Zed. I could help you identify something that interest you - and is available. You can't believe what some applicants submit on their callsign wish list. And then the entire world can see that they didn't have a clue what they were doing.

Glad the first hurdle is behind you. Now call somebody on the radio.