For a comm engineer the technical exam is peanuts, however you should still google for exam simulation software specific to your country. A few years ago I have had the surprise to find a few obviously wrong answers were counted as the correct ones, and if you answer correctly you will lose points. No idea how this was possible, maybe something was lost in translation. I didn't check if today those wrong answers are still considered the correct ones.
Other reasons that put me down:
- the obligation to make public some personal data like phone, name, location, HAM license
- a HAM license will automatically put one on in the upper half of any 3 letter agency list
- once registered, a HAM can be fined for various reasons, no idea how often this happens in real life
- recently here it was introduced a new law, and the HAM must keep an audio record of all traffic that was done remotely in the last year on the owned station(s)
- the HAM license must be periodically renewed
- inside a big city there is not much space for antennas
- and the most important one: I don't really need HAM radio communications, and if I want to experiment with an idea I would most probably experiment indoors, in the free bands and at very low power, so no need for a license.
I've taken my first HAM license in the '80s and some years ago (2016 I think), out of boredom, I've learned the German exam material for class A and got the German exam with zero penalty points at all 3 topics, so if an old foreigner can do it, a bio-German
with an engineering degree will have no issues taking it, the traffic rules are really just fun to learn and you can always listen to this air traffic song to exercise
Now I've got the certificate and no chance to use it, as a condition to start transmitting one needs to have a (professionally installed) antenna and a fill a German specific document showing your radiation pattern in relation with the surrounding buildings, also pay a moderate fee for usage of the spectrum, but that is the last of the problems.
Of course, I live in a "Flachdach", that means an apartment block, surrounded by other apartment blocks, so the radiated power * antenna gain has to be minimal to not go over the maximum accepted levels and trying to install it on the roof, man, that was a ride, the geriatric owners of the surrounding apartments flat out refused to allow me even a miserable wire (I live at the top floor), much less a mast or anything else, the good guys got almost apoplectic telling me about "Strahlung" & "Elektrosmog" and how dangerous is, they were way ahead of 5G hysteria of now.
So so being a renter and owner and having less time than they have, I've shelved my finely tuned Kenwood transceivers that will most likely go for sale soon
.
So, summary: if you don't have your own house and non cretin neighbors, forget about doing some serious traffic or experiments, and without this 50% of the joy is sadly gone. I can still go with my FT-817ND in the hills, but this sucks.
Regarding the Romanian law quoted by @RoGeorge, they didn't go full retard, it seems that the obligation is to record the traffic only when the station is operated from remote or you allow another HAM to use it, that kind of make sense:
http://yo3hjv.blogspot.com/2019/01/legea-nr-3562018-privind-unele-masuri.html (Romanian link, don't bother if you're not)
Cheers,
DC1MC