Ham Radio Prep Wants to Put a Radio License in Every School in America — For Free
Brian Thorn W7YBY Sent Me Something Worth writing about...
Brian Thorn of the Chandler Amateur Radio Club forwarded an email from Ham Radio Prep. The ARCA board has made no secret of our priority: we want young people in this hobby. We talk about it at virtually every meeting, and we mean it. So when Brian forwarded me information about the Ham Radio Prep Schools Program, it stopped me in my tracks. This is exactly the kind of thing we've been looking for.
Here's the short version: Ham Radio Prep will provide a free Technician License course for one classroom of students at any school in the country. No cost to the school. No cost to the club. Just free, structured, video-based instruction that walks students through radio and electronics fundamentals — and at the end, if they choose, those students can sit for their Technician exam and walk out with a US Amateur Radio License.
One classroom per school. Free. All it takes is an email.
Why This Matters
The Technician license is the on-ramp to this hobby. It's always been the on-ramp. But the path from "curious kid" to "licensed ham" has historically required a mentor, a club willing to run a class, or a student motivated enough to find resources on their own. Ham Radio Prep removes that friction. The course is self-paced, guided by video, and structured with lessons and quizzes — the kind of format students already know how to use.
It fits cleanly into STEM curricula and works just as well as an afterschool program. If you've been looking for a way to plug amateur radio into your local school district, this is the easiest door I've seen opened in a long time.
How to Get It Started
Getting a school enrolled takes about two minutes:
Send an email to partnerships@hamradioprep.com with your name, your details, and the name of the school
Ham Radio Prep sets up the free Technician course for one classroom of students
Students work through the material at their own pace — video lessons, guided content, quizzes
Students who want to can take the exam and earn their US Amateur Radio License
That's it. One email.
A Note to Arizona Clubs
If you have a relationship with a local school — or you've ever wanted one — this is a low-effort, high-impact way to make it happen. You don't have to build a curriculum. You don't have to run the class yourself. You just have to make the introduction.
We've got 51 affiliated clubs across Arizona. If even a fraction of them put this in front of a local school, we could see a meaningful wave of newly licensed Technicians coming out of classrooms across the state.
Reach out to Ham Radio Prep at partnerships@hamradioprep.com and get something started.
73, Rick Aldom, W7STS with the assistance of Sparky, my AI Assistant