Pay the FCC application fee
Within about a week the FCC emails your CORES login with instructions to pay the $35 application fee. You have ten calendar days from the notice. Miss it and the application is dismissed and you retest.
Your call sign appears
Once the fee clears, the FCC grants the licence and your call sign appears in the ULS database — usually one to three business days after payment, sometimes the same day.
You may not transmit until your call sign is actually in the database. A CSCE is not a permit to operate. Check the ULS or QRZ daily; there is no other notification.
The paper licence
The FCC no longer mails licences. Download and print your official copy from the ULS if you want one; a printout is sufficient for any purpose that asks.
First things to do
- Program your local repeaters and listen to a net.
- Set up a QRZ.com page so people you contact know who you are.
- Join a club — it accelerates everything else.
- Read making your first contact and key up.
Then
Most operators upgrade to General within their first year, once local operating has made the HF material concrete. See licence classes.