Amateur Radio Groups Are For Everyone.

Amateur radio has something for all, that is one of the reasons that there are clubs . These groups promote that mode of operation, some by sponsoring "DXpeditons" to areas which are short on operators but you could get credits for communication with that area. These are often promoted with T-shirts, coffee mugs, and/or paperweights sporting the dates and locations of what they are going to do!

Some clubs sponsor "Hamfests", which will have a lot of areas and equipment for everyone about everything. They will have vendors that sell everything from equipment to books. There are vendors that sell antennas, there are vendors that sell computers and radio accessories. There is usually an area where "hams" can sell anything from radio accessories to remote doorbells! Most of the items available can be found at Amateur radio. Again you will see some of these clubs advertise these "hamfests" using coffee mugs and paperweights, and giving the t-shirts to the people working the floor, or the mike, or the "talk in" radio for the club.

Groups also sponsor testing sessions for people to acquire a new license or upgrade the one that they have. These are usually advertised with either the "hamfest" or if they are separate by their own means.
The basic levels of testing generally consists of the rules governing the use of Amateur radio. As a person progresses through the different classes of operation, more of the questions will be of a technical nature. All of the written tests are multiple choice ( four answers each) and several Amateur radio web sites have the questions and answers for each of the level of tests which is patterned after the written portion of the air pilots test (another government test).

Due to the changes that the World Organization on Frequency Allocations has made, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has removed the requirements of Morse code (against some of the older "hams" wishes) for all levels. This means that none of the levels of Amateur radio Operations need any Morse code. With these updated requirements for licenses more people are getting into this fantastic hobby or are upgrading to a new level. A nice gift for someone (male or female) that has accomplished this is either a t-shirt or coffee mug that has their name and call letters on the product.