How to Get an Amateur Radio Callsign in 2024
For those who just want to get a call sign and not read my long stories, I will give it right away sequence of actions valid as of October 2024:
Preparing for the exam. Learn tickets.
Filling applications for exams.
Send a scan of the completed and signed application + a scan of your passport to its own branch of the State Radio Frequency Center.
Signing the received contract for the provision of services and paying the receipt.
Sending a signed agreement and a screenshot of successful payment.
Arrange with your branch about the time to take the exam.
Pass the exam.
Receive documents on successful passing of the exam, scan them.
Register applicant's account on the GRChC website.
Download, fill out and sign application for signal formation.
In the applicant's account, create a request for the formation of a signal, attach an application and a scan of documents on passing the exam.
Wait until you receive a call sign.
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And now a story about how to stumble at every step.
The call sign of a radio amateur is issued like a car license – for 10 years. After that, or rather before the expiration of the term, it is necessary to submit documents for an extension for the next ten years.
My callsign expired in 2013. I had no time to renew it then, I had a lot of other more important things to do in my life. And so, 11 years later, I decided to get a callsign again. In 2003, this process was something completely incomprehensible, but also simple. While working in a collective radio station, one way or another, I got a lot of interesting experience. And passing the exam at the local amateur radio union then went quickly, especially since the questions for the third category were very simple.
Now I decided to get a call sign myself, without any amateur radio unions, to go through everything “straight ahead”, through all government agencies. And I wanted a more serious category.
The main site in this whole story: GRChTs (Main Radio Frequency Center)
First, I read what I had to do, at least approximately. And here, many thanks to all the previous articles on the Internet, there was a lot of useful information there. And after reading, I made a plan and decided to follow it:
1) I am preparing for the exam (I am learning the questions).
2) I fill out an application to take the exam and send it by email to my branch of the State Radio Frequency Center.
3) I'm taking an exam.
4) I receive documents confirming successful completion of the test.
5) I fill out an application to receive a call sign and send it to the State Radio Frequency Center.
6) I receive a call sign.
7) I register the radio station.
8) I am happy about success and new freedoms.
But, as they say, a radio amateur proposes, and…
1) PREPARATION.
I set about studying the exam questions. Current questions are on the GRChC website.
There are 426 questions in total. But they are quite simple.
At the same time, only 30 questions are randomly given on the exam and I have the opportunity to make 5 mistakes. Easier than for a driver's license.
I learned the tickets using the “Russian ham test” app on my phone:
The biggest challenge for me there were issues related to regulations and legislation regarding amateur services. Especially international ones.
In addition, in the process of studying I learned interesting things about the layers of the atmosphere. Technical questions seemed simple, some even made me smile.
Since I didn't have enough time to sit down and solve all the questions at once in a day, I did it in several sittings, on the way to the subway. The downside of this app is that there is no convenient navigation through the questions. Close it halfway – then scroll to where you left off. Otherwise, respect to the creators.
2) SUBMITTING AN APPLICATION TO PASS THE EXAM.
While I was preparing for the exam, I decided to sign up for the exam right away.
The main feature: to hand in at the place of registration. Actually, the call sign will be assigned according to the district of the place of registration.
To take the exam, you must complete an application for the provision of the service.
The application must be downloaded from official website.
«Item No. 4: Services provided by branches of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “GRChC”“: Verification of operational and technical readiness of amateur service operators.»
This is what it looks like and filling it out is quite clear:
To be honest, the very top of the application confused me a little, but I filled it out as I understood it and everything was accepted. After filling out the paper, I printed it out, signed it and scanned it.
Found it on the website your branchand sent a scan of the application and a scan of my passport to the email address. With the message in the letter: “Please accept the application for processing. I am attaching the application file and a copy of my passport.”
And… they didn't answer me. Three days later I decided to repeat the experiment and sent it again. After a week of waiting, I called the phone number listed at the branch. I explained that I would like to take the exam, to which I was told that I needed to send an application and a scan of my passport by email. When I replied that I had already sent it a couple of times, they asked me to send it again.
After the third sending, they sent me a contract to sign in a reply letter, and a receipt for payment of the service. By the way, the service costs 2016 rubles.
I quickly printed out the contract, signed it. Paid the invoice. Took some photos of them and sent them back. The next day they called me and said that I could come to this branch any day during working hours to take the exam.
Thus ended one stage.
3,4) I pass the exam. I receive a certificate.
Before taking the exam, I went through all the questions again. And I realized that I was completely ready. The next morning, I came to take the exam cheerful and happy. I was taken to a separate room, sat in front of a special computer and launched the exam program. And… it didn't start. After a couple of reboots of everything, I was told that the presence of a local programmer was necessary, who would fix everything by tomorrow, and I could come early tomorrow morning.
The next morning I sat down at the already launched program and in a couple of minutes (in reality, an hour is given for the exam) I answered all 30 questions from the ticket. They congratulated me and said that I was free and could go, and that the certificate of successful completion would be sent to me later.
First attempt to leave.
It's good that I don't walk fast. Half an hour later they called me and asked me to come back, because they forgot to sign the originals of the service agreement with me. I had to come back.
Second attempt to leave.
During my second departure I was able to walk about the same distance, when they called me again and asked me to come back, as there was some problem. When I came, they asked me to take the exam again, as the result of the previous one was not saved. And they asked me to pass it without mistakes. I could not refuse them.
Apparently, to make my increasingly sad face smile a little, all the results and documents were given to me immediately, signed by the management in a couple of minutes.
The third attempt to escape was successful.
5) APPLICATION FOR FORMATION OF SIGNAL
On the GRChC website that I have already studied section For RES amateur and amateur satellite servicesfor an individual, download “FL-PS-LS” – to form a call sign for permanent use.
This is what the statement looks like:
I fill out this application with all my data and enter the one for which the exam was passed into the declared qualification category.
After this, there are simple steps left; in our age of digitalization, everything has been simplified so much that you can submit and accept almost any documents while sitting at home.
To do this, I register in in the applicant's office on the GRChC website And… I can't get into my office.
There is an elementary login through GosUslugi, but the password to the account does not work and it is also impossible to change or reset it. After two days of communication with the hot and cold support lines, I decided to try registering a new email with a foreign domain “.com” and registering the account again. And everything worked.
It seems I have already come as close to my goal as possible. Here I am inside the applicant's office.
Everything is elementary simple and made for people.
There is a big red button “Create Callsign”. I click on it and enter my data, choosing the basis for the callsign.
Next, a friendly window appears for uploading documents.
I am attaching my application and certificate of passing the exam here.
I press send and… nothing happens. I scratch my head thoughtfully, press again and again nothing. …strange, I thought, this has never happened before and here… In general, after practicing for some time in creating a new application and going through this path using all sorts of methods, I decided to press the button next to it: “Conclude a new contract”. After that, the message “contract concluded” popped up, I would like to know which one and for what… , and on the left in the contracts the number “1” appeared. Having spat and cursed dirty, I went to bed.
The next day, after lunch, a man called me and said that I had received 33 applications for the formation of a call sign and one contract was concluded for nothing. He asked me not to create any more applications for the formation of a call sign and said that I would receive 32 cancellations by email. When I asked about the website, he said that this was a common practice and everyone was aware of it.
6) I receive.
And so I began to wait. Periodically I went into the applicant's office and checked whether a message had appeared in the “Conclusions” line. A couple of weeks later I decided to call and clarify whether all 33 applications had been cancelled by chance, but I couldn't get through. A couple of days later I got through and was told that everything was in progress.
And then, after 35 days, the happy moment came when they made a conclusion based on my request.
I go to the “Conclusions” section, open the materials and see the long-awaited 4 documents. Two of them are EP, and two documents. The document on the formation of the call sign can be downloaded and printed. But in general, it will be in the call sign database for 10 years anyway.
The next day on the GRChC website an opportunity arises see your call sign and make sure it is in the database.
7) REGISTERING A RADIO STATION
All that remains is to register the radio station. This point is quite important. Registration is carried out by Roskomnadzor. And you can register the equipment through State Services. In the search, you need to write “RES registration” and simply go to the desired service.
Then, going through the tabs and entering your document data and the radio station description, it is impossible to get confused. This process took no more than 5 minutes.
The next day I received a document registering my radio station.
Good luck to all, 73!
