In the 1970's, I began teaching ham license classes. I assumed that the traditional style of class most radio clubs offer was the best. Prospective hams would come once a week, for a two or three-hour evening lecture. The complete course would last several weeks. At a later date, the graduate would attend a separate session for a license exam, most often at anothr location. . Over the years, however, I became very frustrated. No matter how good the instruction was. Very few “first-nighters” were willing to attend the complete course. Hence they never got their license. The public simply won’t generally endure a class like this.

So I speculated. Could the average person qualify for a ham license in just ONE DAY? That would take "the sting" out of the traditional class. But Is only one day even possible? Can a prospective ham master the material in so short a time? Would they be a good ham? | READ WHAT THE ARRL THINKS |

To find out, I took a chance. In September 1995, I nervously posted a "Get Your Ham License in One Day" announcement on a bulletin board at work, a large electronics firm in San Jose, CA. Three weeks later, we met for the experiment. I did nothing more than provided each with a printed copy of the Technician Question Pool and set them to reading it for three hours – no lecturing, no explaining, no teaching. We took fifteen-minute breaks every hour, had lunch at noon, came back for three hours in the afternoon, and at 4 PM we administered the test. It was all over in just one day.

To my astonishment, only one of the two dozen attendees did not pass. From that day onward, we do it exactly the same way. No lecture, no class, no theory, just a disciplined reading of the question pool. It is a winning formula, even though we stumbled onto it by accident.

In the intervening years, hundreds have succeeded this way. Never have we fallen below 85%. Our youngest was ten, the oldest over ninety. What's more, few knew anything in advance about ham radio or electronics. It isn't just engineers who can pass this way. Short-term memory and the discipline we provide is the key to success, not technical knowledge.

When we expanded the program, some began to wonder, as you may now be doing, "Is this method a good idea?" Does it produce adequately qualified hams, or can only a longer conventional class do that? I wondered this myself. Time, however, has provided clear "proof of the pudding." In the San Francisco Bay area, where the program flourishes, there is not a wide-area repeater which does not today boast our graduates. But are they "substandard?"

Today, we are entirely confident that the FCC made the correct choice in allowing our style of license acquisition. For that's basically what it did by putting out ham license testing to volunteer examiners in 1984. Other Federal license programs have since adopted the same practice, based on the success of the ham program. One-day graduates have demonstrated that getting a license that quickly does indeed adequately fulfill the intent of ham radio law and practice. Our graduates are not substandard, and there is a very good reason why.

One of the stated cardinal purposes of ham radio is for the hobby itself to be the primary teacher, not pre-license study. Long before the day of published question pools, volunteer examiners, and the potential for a one-day license, the intent of the law was clear that most of the training will take “place on the air.”

Federal radio law really ONLY requires that a person thoroughly reads the rules and regulation before receiving a license. The highly responsible ham community and actually being on the air is why all new hams, not just our graduates, to follow the rules. Our hobby has long been justly proud of this.
What’s more, the broad appeal of our program attracts a much wider range of the public to the hobby than the conventional approach. This we consider our most positive influence. If nothing else, it helps to dispel the "classical" image of a ham as a "technical egghead." We take great pride in this.

Here’s one final example of the value of a one-day license. We’ve found that more of our graduates on average make their way into public disaster programs. They tell us they ONLY enrolled in our program to become active in a disaster program. Attendees with RV’s, boats and model airplane enthusiasts say much the same. They tell us, had it not been possible to receiver their license quickly, they would not have become a ham.

In our view, "Get Your License in One Day" is having a very positive influence on ham radio. Our graduates are building the hobby. We encourage you to consider doing the same in your ham community or club. We will be very happy to assist you; “we know the ropes.” It's a non-profit volunteer program that we hope will spread. My early disillusionment with the "conventional" way to teach ham radio has more than paid off. Why not join us? You WILL most definitely be serving your hobby.