"rickman" wrote in message news:l064q8$jm5$1@dont-
But a amateur license might be the best bet. Does this require my to
learn a bunch of technical stuff? That shouldn't be a problem, in theory
I'm an EE, but I've done mostly digital work and I know RF is a whole
different animal. Can you point me in the right direction toward getting
an amateur license that would let me operate a marine radio on land? Who
knows, I might end up doing a bunch of other amateur radio stuff... I know
it can be an addictive hobby... lol

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I have not read all the thread, but the main thing for amateur license is
there any money changing hands in the process? If not and this is just a
bunch of friends, then the amateur (ham) license canbe the way to go. You
can use whatever ammount of power you want up to 1500 watts. There are some
5 watt hand held units for around $ 50 that seem to work fine. Mobile units
of around 50 watts for less than $ 200 .

You do not really have to know anything, just have the ability to memorize
the answers to around 300 questions. You can get a book (or down load it on
line) that has the exect questions and answers. The test will be a portion
of the question pool. I think that 70 % is passing. The questions have 4
multiple choice answers to choose from. I don't know the price to take the
test now, but probably under $ 15. The exams are given several times a year
in most states at differant locations.

You can go here to see some practice tests.
http://qrz.com/hamtest/