After more nights and weekends than we want to count, HamCoach AI is open to the public. It’s an adaptive study coach for the U.S. amateur radio exams — Technician, General, and Amateur Extra — and it’s available on the web today, with the mobile app rolling out alongside.
This is the first post on the blog, so we wanted to lay out what HamCoach is, what makes it different, and why we built it.
The problem with flashcards
Most exam prep tools treat the NCVEC question pool as a stack of flashcards. You grind, memorize patterns, hopefully pass, and then forget most of it before your first QSO. That’s not great for the hobby, and honestly it’s not even efficient — your brain remembers things it understands.
We wanted something that helped you actually understand what you were studying. And, just as importantly, made sure you were studying the right pool in the first place.
Pool awareness, on autopilot
The U.S. amateur radio question pools rotate on a multi-year cycle. Technician, General, and Extra are each on staggered schedules. Study the old pool and you’ll waste weeks on questions that have been retired. Study the new pool too early and your VE session might still be on the old one.
HamCoach watches the calendar and your planned exam date, picks the right pool automatically, and warns you if your study pool and exam pool are about to drift apart. You can override the choice manually — but most people won’t need to.
An AI tutor grounded in the real question
Click “explain” on any question and you’ll get a tutor response built around that exact NCVEC item — the actual question text, your answer, the correct answer. Not a generic LLM monologue.
Picked the wrong answer? The tutor will tell you why your pick was wrong, why the right one is right, and usually give you a memory hook so you stop missing it. You can also start a free-form chat from there — ask follow-up questions on resonance, dipole math, Q-signals, RF exposure, whatever the question surfaced.
Standard caveat: AI explanations can be wrong, especially on edge regulations. We say so in the UI and in the privacy policy. Always verify Part 97 specifics against the official source if it matters.
Adaptive practice that actually adapts
You start with a short diagnostic across the pool. From there, HamCoach focuses your practice on the subelements you’re weakest on — antenna theory, propagation, operating procedures, whatever’s not sticking. As your mastery on a topic improves, the algorithm pulls back and points you somewhere else.
You can see your readiness, weak areas, and streaks on the dashboard. No graphs-for-graphs-sake — just the numbers that change what you study next.
Two question modes: realtime and test
- Realtime mode gives feedback on every question with an explanation and the “ask the tutor” button. Use this when you’re learning a topic.
- Test mode is silent — you answer all questions like the real VE exam, then get scored and can review everything (and ask the tutor) at the end. Pick timed or untimed.
When you can pass a full test-mode session at the FCC pass threshold a few times in a row, you’re ready to go sit the real one.
Web and mobile, one account (Coming Soon!)
Study on your phone on the bus, finish on a laptop at home. Progress, weak areas, and AI conversations sync across both. Same login, same data.
(Mobile app support is currently in development and slated to launch in the next 3 months).
What it costs
There’s a real free tier — 25 practice questions and 5 AI explanations per day — enough to get rolling and see if it clicks before you spend a cent. The paid plan unlocks unlimited practice and AI, full test/exam modes, and the readiness analytics. Pricing’s on the pricing page.
We also have a small lifetime program for early adopters. If you’ve been given a code, you can redeem it from Settings.
What’s next on the roadmap
A few things we’re working on right now:
- More diagram-rich question support (the Extra pool has some lovely ones)
- VE-format full practice exams with the standard FCC question counts
- Study planning tools tied to your exam date — “here’s what to focus on this week”
We’ll write more here as features ship, and we’ll be straight about what’s working and what’s not.
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We’re hams, we built this for hams, and we want your feedback. Tell us what’s broken, what’s missing, and where the AI is hand-waving when it should be precise. There’s a contact form — it goes straight to us.
If you pass with HamCoach in the mix, please come tell us your new callsign. That’s the part we built this for.
— The HamCoach AI team