Operating a ham radio without a license (even in an emergency) is against regulations and subject to stiff penalties if observed by the FCC. Getting a license is indeed easier than it used to be. You can probably obtain a Technician's license if you have some advanced electronics knowledge and also knowledge of the FCC rules and regulations. However, obtaining a Technician's license allows you to ONLY use CW, not phone for the HF frequency bands. I believe a Technician can use phone for the some frequencies above 10 meters. There used to be 5 licenses available....Novice, Technician, General, Advanced and Amateur Extra. Nowadays, you must take the test ($15) for Technician. If you pass that test you can take the test for General at no extra cost if you take the test immediately after having taken and passing the Technicians test. If you pass THAT test, you can also take the test for Amateur Extra after having passed the test for General. So you can get your Amateur Extra license for $15 IF you pass the Technician test AND the General test and the Amateur Extra test on the same day. That's what I did. But 99% of the ham radio community take the Technician's test and if they pass that one, they will study for a year or more and then try to take the General and then the AE. Passing the General test would allow phone work on almost all of the bands and is therefore much more desirable than the Technician's license which is MUCH more restricted.