Becoming a SANDARC Volunteer Examiner
FCC VE Qualifications (47 CFR 97.509(b))
To qualify as a Volunteer Examiner under FCC rules you must:
- Be 18 years of age or older
- Hold a valid General, Advanced, or Amateur Extra class Amateur Radio license
- Never have had your Amateur Radio license suspended or revoked
VE Eligibility by License Class
| VE License Class | May Administer |
|---|---|
| General Class | Element 2 |
| Advanced Class | Elements 2 and 3 |
| Amateur Extra Class | Elements 2, 3, and 4 |
Those holding a Technician class license may not take part in administering or grading exams. However, they may assist with tasks such as responding to inquiries, setting up the exam room, or printing exam materials, including question booklets.
Examiner Accreditation Process
SANDARC does not directly recruit examiners as accreditation is gained through existing teams. Team leads are responsible for identifying and recruiting willing, qualified amateurs to join their team at their sole discretion.
To add a new examiner to your team:
- Have the prospective examiner fill out the current accreditation form.
- Email the completed form to vec@sandarc.org in one of these formats:
- The PDF, filled out digitally (preferred)
- A scan or photo of the form filled out by hand
Forms must be a PDF, scan, or photo, and fully legible
A form filled out digitally must be sent as the PDF itself — we do not accept a photo or screenshot of a screen.
If we cannot read every field, we cannot process the form. Please encourage your new team members to fill out the form digitally. Some handwriting really does hurt our eyes 😫.
We process accreditation forms within 24 hours (usually much, much faster!). In the extremely unlikely case that we do not meet that deadline, kindly send us a follow-up email. Team leads will receive an email as soon as their new examiner has been accredited. New examiners may have to wait up to four hours before ExamTools reflects their SANDARC credentials and allows them to be added to SANDARC sessions.
Note
Each team is issued an accreditation form that is digitally unique to that team. Please do not use forms that are not issued to your team. If you need a copy of your team's accreditation form, kindly let us know.
Deactivations
We reserve the right to deactivate examiners for the following reasons:
- Not having participated in a session in two years
- Unable to be reached via email (bounced email / no contact info)
- Canceled or expired licenses
Inactive examiners wishing to be reactivated should contact us at vec@sandarc.org.
Note
Deactivation does not constitute disaccreditation. Inactive examiners are still deemed accredited. However, they are not permitted to participate in sessions and cannot be added to sessions on ExamTools.
Verifying Accreditation Status
Team leads can determine whether a given person is an active (or inactive) SANDARC examiner using the below methods:
- Use the
/lookupcommand on our Discord server. - Try adding them to a SANDARC session on ExamTools (may have a four-hour lag for new examiners)
- Using the verification link on the certificate of accreditation issued to examiners.
Updating Your Examiner Records
SANDARC automatically syncs its records with the ULS Database. Therefore, you do not need to notify us for changes to the following items:
- Name
- Callsign
- License Class
- Zip Code
If your VE certificate needs to be updated as well, we will send you a new one automatically!
Examiners must always maintain a valid email address on record with the VEC. If your email address needs to be updated, please let your team lead know so that they can notify us accordingly.