# 25 - I'm Finally Licensed

This past week and a half has been torture waiting for the FCC to process my General class amateur radio license and issue a callsign, but they finally processed it today.

My original callsign from over 30 years ago was already used by someone else, so they had to issue me a new callsign: WH6FQE

That is a mouthful, so I applied for a vanity callsign that will be easier for me to remember. It will take a couple weeks for them to process the modification to my license, so I will use this callsign until then.

I wasn't really expecting the license to be processed until Monday, so I didn't start checking the database until then, but nothing. Every few hours I would check again, and still no listing.

The same thing went on every few hours on Tuesday, then Wednesday. The days dragged on with no listing. Finally just before lunchtime today I saw my name listed in their database. I can now finally transmit legally on my ham radios. I don't have to wait another week or so for the license to be mailed to me, as long as the callsign is listed in their database, I am legal.

Now I can focus my attentions on other areas of study. My Emergency Communications class doesn't start until the 29th of this month, so I am preparing for it by studying The Amateur Radio Public Service Handbook until then.

Since it is an online class and it says I can work at my own pace, I was shocked when registering for it to see that it is a 9 week class that doesn't end until February of next year.

Classes like this are designed for people who are working and do not have much free time each week for studies. Unfortunately that is not me. I would rather have the class span over a week, or at most a couple weekends, and get it finished.

It is hard for me to study in a course that drags out so long like this. That was the one thing that I hated about the technician ham license class. It was only 2 hours a night once a week for a month and a half.

I wish they would design the course to be truly "work at your own pace", then I could study at my pace and not feel like I am being held back all of the time and being limited in what I can accomplish.

Well, time to get back on the air and try out these radios that have been sitting here for weeks waiting on my license to be used.

WH6FQE