there is quite a bit that I do need to know and finding it out is better than not.
I know the feeling. Back in 1967 I was completing a four-year term of enlistment as an Armament and Electronics (A&E) maintenance mechanic with the USAF. The previous year I had studied and passed an exam (code at 5 wpm plus theory multiple-guess exam) to qualify for a Novice Class Amateur Radio Operator's License, call sign KN8UTJ.
So, on my discharge from active duty date in May 1967, I had almost a year of experience operating a small CW transmitter I had built from scratch, pounding on a straight key to send Morse code at (eventually) speeds of up to 20 wpm, and listening for Morse code contacts on the Novice segment of the 80m amateur radio band using a kit-built SB-300 receiver purchased from Heathkit. I knew I was ready to take the FCC test for either Technician or General class license, which at that time was administered by FCC examiners in Columbus, OH.
Long story shorter: I got out, found a decent job, went back to school, found a wife, fathered and raised four kids, graduated from college and spent the next thirty-something years working for defense contractors. Never did make it to Columbus to take the amateur radio exams. Flash-forward to 2013. Nearing the end of my engineering career, I decided to try for an amateur radio license again. By this time the Morse code requirement had been dropped by the FCC, so my rusty CW skills were irrelevant. There was no need to travel to a Federal office building to be examined because the FCC had allowed the establishment of a volunteer network of Volunteer Examiners who were licensed Amateur Radio Operators, General or Extra Class.
So, being a Dayton, Ohio, resident at the time, I attended a meeting of the Dayton Amateur Radio Association (DARA) and joined their club. DARA sponsors the annual Hamvention and administers no-fee amateur radio license examinations throughout the year. So, in March 2013 I attended one of their exam sessions and in succession passed exams for Technician, General and Extra Class licenses, receiving my Extra Class license from the FCC on April 1, 2013, call sign AC8NS. Previous to sitting for the examinations I had purchased on-line study materials from
HamTestOnline.com. Although it had been forty-six years since the last time I had held an amateur radio license and operated "on the air," most of the technical details came back to me, and new technical details that had occurred in the interim were easily learned. All that was lacking was experience in current amateur radio operating procedures. I am slowly learning about that too.
So dust off that old analog voltmeter and begin to enjoy the electronics hobby. Whatever you learned forty years ago will eventually come back to you. Some sage advise I got from an engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (before he retired): STAY OUT OF THE HIGH VOLTAGE!
Hop