Being A Cool VE
A few Requirements the FCC imposes on becoming a Volunteer Examiner:
- Must be at least 18 years old
- Never have had your amateur station or operator licenses suspended or revoked
- Hold a valid General, Advanced or Extra Class license
A requirement that SANDARC imposes on you becoming a VE:
- Be cool
Becoming Accredited
Accreditation comes through a VE team. You cannot apply to SANDARC on your own.
SANDARC does not accept accreditation applications directly from individuals and does not recruit examiners itself. You become accredited by joining an existing SANDARC team, and your Team Lead submits the application on your behalf.
How it works:
- Join a SANDARC VE team. Team Leads identify and recruit their own members at their discretion.
- Your Team Lead gives you their team's accreditation form. Each team has a form unique to that team — a form issued to a different team will not be accepted.
- Fill it out (digitally, please) and return it to your Team Lead.
- Your Team Lead submits it to SANDARC. You do not send it in yourself.
Send back a PDF, scan, or photo that is fully legible
Return the form as the digitally filled-out PDF (preferred), or as a scan or photo of the form filled out by hand. A form filled out digitally must be sent as the PDF itself, not a photo or screenshot of a screen. If any field cannot be read, SANDARC cannot process the form and your accreditation will be delayed.
Not on a team yet?
Clubs affiliated with SANDARC are listed at sandarc.org/clubs. Find one in your area, go to one of their exam sessions, and ask the Team Lead about joining. Upcoming sessions are listed on HamStudy.
Team Leads recruit their own members, so this is a conversation to have with them directly — there is nothing to send to SANDARC first.
Each application is processed on its own, right away
SANDARC does not batch accreditations or hold them for a group. Every form is processed individually the moment your Team Lead sends it in — usually almost instantly, and within 24 hours at the very outside.
Going through your Team Lead is about who submits the form, not about waiting for other applicants.
Why accreditation goes through a team
SANDARC only accepts sessions run by teams it has on file, so accreditation is tied to team membership rather than granted to individuals.
See Becoming a SANDARC Volunteer Examiner for the full process, including how long it takes and how to verify your status.
Checking Accreditation
- Once your Team Lead has submitted your VE application it will be processed within 24 hrs or your next accreditation is free!
- You will receive an email from SANDARC with the accreditation certificate attached.
- At the bottom of that certificate is a verification link if you paste that into a browser you will confirm your accreditation is valid, each url is unique to each VE.
Maintaining Accreditation
- Once you have become accredited you will be for as long as your license is active however you will only maintain access to ExamTools if you have participated in an exam every 2 years and once that two years has passed you will lose access and will need to reach back out to your team lead to regain access again.
SANDARC VE Badges
- In your accreditation email will be a link to order a badge but please note a badge is NOT required to participate in any VE session!