When I upgraded from Technician to General just short of 25 years ago, my first attempt resulted in failing the code test by one question. I went back home, listened to W1AW's code practice sessions from 35 down to 5 wpm until I was sure I could copy at least 20, then, a month later, went back and tried the test again. This time my results were the exact opposite: I passed the code with 90 percent. I don't remember how well I did on the written test but that doesn't matter, as I do know I passed it and received a CSCE. Was able to get on the air with my newly-earned General class privileges that evening, and have been enjoying the hobby ever since -- even more so than when I just had Novice HF privileges as a Technician.
For Sandy G.: I agree with electronjohn, KDØDQZ. There is probably at least one ham in your neighborhood, and certainly elsewhere in East Tennessee as well, so I'd be on the lookout for tall towers with beams, 220- and 440-MHz antennas (the latter often used by hams such as VK's own W6ATV who are interested in amateur TV) and so on. Where there is such an installation, there is almost always a "shack" (the term used to describe the area where a ham's transmitting/receiving gear is located, though I think the term is more than just a bit demeaning, although traditional, going back to the days when ham radio stations were set up in actual shacks) at the base of or near the antenna farm.
Most hams are, as John mentioned, very friendly folks who would be more than happy to show off their installations, especially to prospective amateurs. One or two visits to local ham shacks, and meeting their owners, may well change your mind about becoming a licensed amateur, and as a nice bonus, you will likely make some good friends along the way. You do not need to know a thing about soldering or anything else technical to get an amateur radio license nowadays; there is no code test anymore, and the written exam can be passed simply by memorizing the answers to the actual tests conducted at FCC field offices and by volunteer examiners. These tests are published in books available at electronics stores or amateur radio supply houses such as Amateur Electronic Supply of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (with branch stores in Cleveland, Orlando, Florida, and Las Vegas, Nevada; the Cleveland store has been my one source since 1977 for almost all the ham radio equipment I own today). These stores are also set up for 24/7 online ordering of equipment or anything else in their warehouse; go to
www.aesham.com to view their price list. You can also request a copy of their latest catalog at this website. I don't remember offhand where the catalog link is, but if you do a little looking around the home page you'll find it.
Amateur radio is a very fascinating hobby, as I have found in my nearly 38 years of involvement in it. It goes far beyond just talking with a microphone to other amateurs over the airwaves; there is amateur television (which ChrisW6ATV of VK fame is very involved in), satellites (known as OSCARs--Orbiting Satellites Carrying Amateur Radio), packet radio, RTTY (radio teletype), et al. I read somewhere, I think it was in an old issue of the (now defunct)
Electronics Illustrated magazine in their monthly amateur radio department, conducted by Tom Kneitel, K2AES (now deceased -- an SK, Silent Key, in ham radio talk), that the only way to be bored with ham radio is not to be familiar with it. Most people who have had their television reception ruined by a nearby ham's signals get upset when this happens (or used to; with today's digital TV and most folks having cable or satellite these days, however, I honestly don't think television interference [TVI] is anywhere near the problem today it was when television was all analog), and I remember reading in the old (again, now defunct) Popular Electronics magazine in its Amateur Radio department years ago of a non-ham neighbor of a long-time amateur wanting to actually put the amateur off the air, because the latter was interfering with his neighbor's TV reception. To make a long story short, the amateur, IIRC, eventually talked his neighbor into getting a ham radio license; in fact, the neighbor eventually admitted that, after listening for awhile to the ham's contacts over his TV, the conversations were much, much more interesting to listen to than the TV shows of the time (mid-1960s, IIRC) were to watch.
You do not need a room full of equipment to get started in ham radio, once you get the license. Many amateurs these days start out with a 2-meter hand-held radio and gradually work their way up to HF or VHF gear. But be careful: This hobby can wind up costing a bundle if you really get into it. Many hams start out with older gear purchased at a hamfest or, nowadays, online (eBay has a special section devoted to auctions of ham and shortwave radio gear) and work their way up, as their finances permit.
Today, there is a way to enjoy ham radio without ever actually transmitting signals over the air. A software program called Echolink is available, which will connect your computer to well over 10000 amateurs in 193 nations world wide; there are some 4500 amateurs using the system at any given time of the day or night, so you will never be lacking for someone to talk to. The software takes advantage of a technology known as VoIP, Voice over Internet Protocol, which has been and still is used as the backbone of Internet chat rooms. Echolink is available as a 100-percent free download at
www.echolink.org; a companion program, EQ-100, is also available for free download at QRZ.com. Look up the callsign N8AD on the latter; you will be taken to the listing for the amateur to whom this callsign is registered, Leonard A. Stefanelli, of Fairview, Pennsylvania, near Erie. The listing will also have a link to Len's personal website, which will contain a download link for EQ-100. The installation process involves installing Echolink itself (EQ-100 won't work without it), then installing EQ-100. The latter will "hook" to Echolink, resulting in an image on your screen of a "virtual" amateur radio transceiver. Although Echolink will work perfectly well as a standalone program, EQ-100 gives it the look and feel of a real hardware ham rig. I use EQ-100 with Echolink and like it a lot -- since I can now get back on HF, if virtually rather than via the airwaves, I haven't missed my over-the-air (OTA) HF station at all, even though I was totally off the HF bands for about nine years before discovering EL.
I don't know if you knew this, Sandy, but some years ago (at least two decades), a five-year-old boy in Vincennes, Indiana, took and passed the tests for Novice through at least General, if I remember the news item correctly (it was in QST and the other amateur radio publications of the time). His call sign is (or was) WB9VPG--I don't know if he still has his license today.
The reason I bring up the foregoing is to make a point: if a 5-year-old can pass a code and written exam to get an amateur license, so can you. There are people on the ham bands today who know even less than you do about electronics; their lack of technical knowledge, however, does not stop them from enjoying ham radio for what it is -- a means of communicating with other, like-minded people. Ham radio is used (and was originally intended as its primary reason for being) for emergency communications and public-service activities as well, such as message traffic handling, the latter being undertaken by hams operating within the National Traffic System or NTS. The latter is a public service division of the ARRL in suburban Hartford, Connecticut.
I'm definitely not trying to twist your arm and tell you to become a ham; it's your choice. However, in this post I have tried my best to give you an overview of what ham radio is, the public service aspect of the hobby (the emphasis being on "service"), and how much fun it can be once you get into it. Once you get your license, as I said, all that's needed to get in on the ground floor, so to speak, of this great hobby is a 2-meter handheld transceiver; you can add more gear later, as your finances permit.
I am a member of a local radio club and try to get on their weekly 2-meter net using simply my Icom IC-T22a 1.5-watt handheld radio, through a repeater about five miles from my apartment. I say "I try" to get on that net because much of the time I get involved in other things and wind up forgetting about it; oh well, one of these days I'll get back to it. Between that net and my computerized HF station (with Echolink, EQ-100, and my ten-year-old way, way outdated IBM Aptiva 595 computer), I am finally enjoying ham radio again, every bit as much as I did when I was working DX, mostly on 30-meter CW (Morse code) from my former residence in suburban Cleveland.
Give it some thought, Sandy. As I said in a previous post in response to one of yours in another thread, there has never been a better time to become a ham than right now. No more code tests, the theory exam is duck soup as well, with the exam questions now available in book form (known as syllabi) -- good grief, it is almost criminally easy to get an amateur radio license these days.
I'm not a fan (fanboy, if you will) of any of the foregoing, being an old-school ham (there was a code test and you had to actually know the regulations and more than just a little about electronic theory to pass the written test when I got my first license in 1972), but, as the late Walter Cronkite used to end the old CBS Evening News, that's the way it is. Some people may think that today's amateur radio is little more than nine bands of glorified CB, but believe me, it isn't -- not by a long shot. Ham radio, for one thing, is much better organized than CB ever was; the former still requires a license, whereas the FCC ceased issuing CB licenses over 25 years ago.
Listening to hams chatting back and forth is just half the fun of amateur radio. The other half is being able to talk to these people yourself over the air and, judging from how you seem to like to post to VK's various forums and you have a lot to say in those posts (I read them with much interest whenever and wherever they appear on VK), you'd very likely enjoy the heck out of ham radio as well.
73 (best of regards),