Glossary

Glossary

Amateur radio and FCC terms first, then words this app invented.

The exam world

Term	Means
VE	Volunteer Examiner. An accredited licensee who administers exams.
VE team	The group of VEs who run sessions together. In VE Ops, a Team — it owns its own credentials, settings and roster.
VEC	Volunteer Examiner Coordinator. The FCC-recognized organization that accredits VEs and files results — ARRL, W5YI and others. A shared record in VE Ops: one "ARRL" for the whole deployment, not one per team.
Session	One sitting at which exams are administered.
Element	One exam: Technician (2), General (3), Extra (4).
CSCE	Certificate of Successful Completion of Examination — proof a candidate passed an element.
Retest	Taking another element at the same session, usually after passing the one below it. Its own fee, its own payment.

The FCC side

Term	Means
FRN	FCC Registration Number. Public, not private — it is how the FCC identifies a person.
CORES	The FCC's system where a candidate pays the FCC's own application fee.
ULS	Universal Licensing System. The FCC's licensing database, and where a grant shows up.
Grant	The FCC issuing the license. What everyone is waiting for after a pass.
The ten-day rule	The FCC's application fee must be paid within ten days or the application expires. This is the only ten-day rule in this domain.
Upgrade	An existing licensee moving up a class. ⚠️ The FCC's grant date does not change on an upgrade — only the effective date does. Anything checking "did this exam produce a result" against grant date is right for a new licensee and permanently wrong for an upgrade.

Systems VE Ops talks to

Term	Means
ExamTools	Where sessions and candidates are created. The source of truth for people — VE Ops reads it and never writes back.
Square	Collects the team's exam fee.
Zoom / Discord	The meeting and the event for a remote session. Both optional.

Words this app made up

Term	Means
Trigger	A moment worth telling somebody about — "a candidate registered", "the session starts tomorrow", "the FCC fee is outstanding".
Message rule	Trigger + audience + channel + timing + template. The unit a Team Admin configures.
Suppressed	A message that was deliberately not sent and never will be. Not "queued" — turning the switch back off releases no backlog.
Unmatched payment	Money arrived that does not correspond to a known candidate. Usually a different email address.
Applicant Status	The list of everyone who has passed and is still waiting on the FCC.
Historical import	Backfilling old, already-finished sessions. Imported sessions are flagged so the app knows not to email their candidates or chase their fees.
Refresh candidates	Pull ExamTools right now. Also creates payment links and sends confirmations for anyone new — not a passive reload.
Job	Background work that runs on a schedule. Everything automatic in this app is a job comparing stored state against a feed, not a reaction to a button.
Tag	A label on a VE. Grants no access to anything. Where Discord sync is on, mapped tags follow Discord roles.

Where these words get used

• Roles and permissions — who can do each of the things above
• Session Manager — most of this vocabulary in the order you meet it
• What a candidate sees — the same session from the other side

Something here unclear, or a word missing? File an issue — a term that needed looking up and wasn't here is worth knowing about.