Frustrations of Trying to Become a Ham in St. Lucia

Radios have always fascinated me. I grew up with memories of my dad listening to shortwave radio and my uncle being an avid CB operator. Over time I outgrew my fascination for these things, of so I thought until…YouTube.

YouTube can be a bit of a rabbit hole that can waste a whole lot of your time jumping from video to video. My interest in EDC and light prepping lead YouTube to recommend that I watch a few Ham videos. It started with some guys talking about cheap Chinese radios (BaoFeng) as a means of emergency coms, but that soon evolved into watching guys with HF base stations and even the MicroBitx kit radio from India. I was interested and hooked. I couldn’t get enough of these. I had found something that I wanted to get into.

I decided I should take the plunge into becoming a Ham radio operator. Being an IT professional who deals with WiFi from time to time, I figured this would also help me professionally to learn a bit more about this mysterious world of RF. When my uncle told me about his contact with local Ham’s and an upcoming exam, I was eager and anxious to through my hat into the ring. Boy was I in for a surprise.

Maybe I am extremely naïve or just plain ignorant. You see, my idea of Ham radio was shaped by what I was seeing and reading online. I started following a Youtube course for obtaining the Technicians license and in the first lesson, the instructor described how simple it was to get a license.

• Show up when theres a test with ID
• Pay
• Write the test,
• If you pass, you get an opertunity to write the next level’s test
• Your test is graded right then and there
• Wait for your name to enter the FCC database (couple days) and you can start operating
• Your licence is emailed to you and you print it

Suffice to say, my experience has not been the same. I do understand that this is St. Lucia but WOW, I really did not expect this. at the time of writing this I have written the test and passed and after 4 months still don’t have a license. Please forgive my rant.

Firstly, I must commend the Local Hams for organizing some training. It was helpful. I only attended one day and had to miss the other due to church but I really would not be able to have passed if that was all I did. I noticed in the training that everything being presented was similar to the US training with the exception of a few localizations. So I watched a couple of o youtube training, read up on the Technician license, and even did Technician’s practice questions.

Secondly, my test experience was not bad. I did have to preregister and come back to do the test. I really didn’t have complaints about the test but the results took a few days to come out. Guess things are slower in St. Lucia. After being told via email that I was successful. I then had to come back to the NTRC, fill out another form, and pay again for my license.

This was in October 2020. It’s February 2021 and another exam is being held and I still don’t have my license. I really don’t know the ins and outs of this but I don’t understand a logical reason why this would take so long. It almost seems like they need to do an in-depth background check or something. I’ve made the joke to some people and perhaps I’ll share it here. I figure it may be easier to get a gun license than a HAM license in St. Lucia.

What do you think?