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An FCC-issued '''amateur radio license''' is required for operating a ham radio station in the US. Three license classes are available: Technician, General, and Amateur Extra. The Technician license is the entry-level license; it allows use of the [[VHF]] and [[UHF]] [[Glossary#band|band]]s (where the vast majority of [[repeater]]s operate), and some limited [[HF]] access. The General license allows access to portions of all HF bands, as well as VHF and UHF. The Extra license allows full access to every ham band.

If you want to get a license, see our [[licensing guide]]!

== Exams ==
Obtaining a license requires taking a written exam, administered by [[volunteer examiners]] (VEs). '''A Morse code test is no longer required.''' There are 35 questions on the Technician and General exams and 50 on the Extra exam. (Each license class has a pool of several hundred questions; the 35 or 50 questions on the exam are randomly selected from this pool. You will not know which questions will be on your exam before you take it, so it is necessary to study the entire pool.) The minimum passing grade is 74%; this is 26 correct answers on the Technician and General exams and 37 on the Extra exam.

The exams must be taken in order; if you do not have a license and want to obtain an Extra license, skipping Technician and General, you will need to take all three tests at once. Similarly, to skip straight to General, you must take both the Technician and General tests; if you have a Technician license and want to upgrade to Extra, you will need to take the General and Extra tests together.

You may see the Technician, General, and Extra exams referred to as Elements 2, 3, and 4, respectively. These are the terms used by the FCC for the exams themselves. (Element 1 was the Morse code exam, which is no longer required). A Technician licensee must pass Element 2; a General licensee must pass Elements 2 and 3, and an Amateur Extra licensee must pass Elements 2, 3, and 4.