Why Ham Radio at DEF CON® (and InfoSec in general)?

After several years of being involved running ham radio exams at DEF CON®, a common theme emerged: People were either wondering where to start, interested in learning more, or deciding what to do next. Other villages touched on related topics, but there wasn't anything specific for the growing ham community. Ham Radio is in may ways the original "hacker" culture and "maker" community, and it's a shame we don't better represent ourselves to the larger hacker community. Our goal is to fix that!

We were accepted as a new village to DEF CON 27 and though we were a small new village tucked away in the Flamingo, we had a great turnout, lots of interest, good content, and started building the foundation to be even better in the future.

Our Vision

Our vision is to help the community in a number of ways, including:

• Understanding just exactly how radio frequency communications work.
• Showing how you can legally transmit signals at 1,500 Watts of power.
• Gain a useful toolkit of skills allowing for further experimentation.
• Learning how the ham radio hobby and radiosport can improve your hacking skills.
• Providing a forum for hams (and future hams) in the InfoSec and IT fields to meet up, share, and learn.

For more information about the Ham Radio Village, visit http://hamvillage.org or https://discord.gg/hrv

Who may register for this testing session:

• Anyone with an interest in obtaining a new Amateur Radio license or upgrading their existing licenses.
• You may take multiple elements in a single appointment; we just ask that you have studied and are ready to pass.
• We have successfully tested over 2000 applicants in the last 6 months, including several who passed all 3 elements in a single sitting!

Fees

• All license examinations admistered by the Laurel VEC are free to all
• After passing, Laurel VEC will submit your application to the FCC. On acceptance you will receive an email from the FCC directly with instructions to pay the $35 application fee.

Questions

If you have any questions, please email ve-team@hamvillage.org, and we will be happy to help you however possible.