This announcement was originally published in the ARRL Letter on December 18, 2025. ARRL members can subscribe to the weekly ARRL Letter at www.arrl.org/opt-in-out.
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On December 18, 2025, the National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (NCVEC) Question Pool Committee (QPC) released the revised 2026-2030 Technician Class (Element 2) question pool. It will be required for all Amateur Radio License exam sessions beginning July 1, 2026. The new pool includes 409 questions (27 new, 30 removed, and about 155 modified), compared to 412 in the prior pool. The pool also includes three diagrams used for some of the questions.
This updated question pool incorporates significant changes compared to the prior pool. The questions were checked for technical accuracy and relevance to current amateur radio practices, as well as for grammar, syntax, format, clarity, and for redundancy within and between the pools.
VECs and Volunteer Examiners must use test designs based on the new pool starting on July 1, 2026. Current ARRL VEC Technician Class exam booklets (2022 series) and computer-generated Technician Class exams created from the 2022 question pool are valid until June 30. After that, old versions should be destroyed.
ARRL will have new editions of Technician Class study materials, including The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual, Gordon West Technician Class License Prep book, and ARRL’s Tech Q&A, by May 2026.
View all question pools on the NCVEC website.
The NCVEC is a not-for-profit voluntary association, with membership comprised of the various Federal Communications Commission (FCC) certified Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (VECs).