|
The Education ConnectionChris Prioli, AD2CSWWW.AD2CS.COM |
"You've Got Your License, Now What!"
Monday, July 15, 2024 @ 1800 Hours
W2MMD Clubhouse
An evening of exposure to “Where Do I Go From Here!” items that will hopefully help to guide the new or recently upgraded ham to Amateur Radio activities in which those individuals may have an interest.
Great attendance to our second annual "You Got Your License, Now What!
December 2024
Well, Session VIII of the GCARC Ham Exam Preparation Classes is now in the books. I was both pleased and disappointed with the outcome. The Technician (Element 2) class dematerialized, as the students all dropped out for various reasons. On the other hand, we gained two new General-rated operators and also two new Club members.
The next session will be held at some point after the first of the year - look for some firm information in next month’s column. In the meanwhile, I am keeping myself busy with some other training classes…
As I mentioned in last month’s column, I have made the plans and arrangements for another NanoVNA class. This class is scheduled to run on the 3rd and 5th days of December, from 1800 Hours to 2100 Hours for a pair of three-hour classes (with a break at the mid-point). The classes will be held at the W2MMD Clubhouse.
The tentative class program is as follows :
The cost for the class is $15.00, which is intended to cover the Club’s costs in putting the classes together. Each student will be given a circuit board on which four different filter circuits have been assembled. We will use these boards during the class experiments.
Each attendee must have a NanoVNA for personal use in this class. While the specific make and model do not matter very much, the class will in all likelihood run more smoothly if we all have the same type of instrument. The preferred model is the NanoVNA H4, which is readily available through Amazon. The current price is right around a hundred dollars. Just make sure that the model that you purchase includes a micro-SD card slot. To go along with that slot, each attendee will also need bring a 32GB microSD card to class, as we will be using the card slots during the program. Finally, each attendee will want to bring a notebook and something with which to write.
If this class is for you, take a few minutes and drop me an email so that I can get your name on the class roster and hold your seat.
My targeted class size is about a dozen students, and this one is filling up quickly.
Don’t wait too long and miss out because of that wait!
That’s it for now… see you next month!
Well, Session VIII of the GCARC Ham Exam Preparation Classes is now in the books. I was both pleased and disappointed with the outcome. The Technician (Element 2) class dematerialized, as the students all dropped out for various reasons. On the other hand, we gained two new General-rated operators and also two new Club members.
The next session will be held at some point after the first of the year - look for some firm information in next month’s column. In the meanwhile, I am keeping myself busy with some other training classes…
As I mentioned in last month’s column, I have made the plans and arrangements for another NanoVNA class. This class is scheduled to run on the 3rd and 5th days of December, from 1800 Hours to 2100 Hours for a pair of three-hour classes (with a break at the mid-point). The classes will be held at the W2MMD Clubhouse.
The tentative class program is as follows :
- Meeting 1 : Tuesday, December 3, 2024
- Basic Familiarization With The NanoVNA
- Exploring The menu system
- Understanding how to navigate the NanoVNA
- Understanding the NanoVNA features and capabilities
- Updating NanoVNA firmware
- Calibration of the NanoVNA
- How to make custom calibration standards
- Understanding the need for and methods of calibrating the unit
- Basic Familiarization With The NanoVNA
- Meeting 2 : Thursday, December 5, 2024
- Antenna system analysis with the NanoVNA
- Feedline analysis with the NanoVNA
- Capturing and using screenshots from the NanoVNA
- PC interface for the NanoVNA
- Exploring various NanoVNA operational modes
- Comparing the NanoVNA to a Rig Expert antenna analyzer
The cost for the class is $15.00, which is intended to cover the Club’s costs in putting the classes together. Each student will be given a circuit board on which four different filter circuits have been assembled. We will use these boards during the class experiments.
Each attendee must have a NanoVNA for personal use in this class. While the specific make and model do not matter very much, the class will in all likelihood run more smoothly if we all have the same type of instrument. The preferred model is the NanoVNA H4, which is readily available through Amazon. The current price is right around a hundred dollars. Just make sure that the model that you purchase includes a micro-SD card slot. To go along with that slot, each attendee will also need bring a 32GB microSD card to class, as we will be using the card slots during the program. Finally, each attendee will want to bring a notebook and something with which to write.
If this class is for you, take a few minutes and drop me an email so that I can get your name on the class roster and hold your seat.
My targeted class size is about a dozen students, and this one is filling up quickly.
Don’t wait too long and miss out because of that wait!
That’s it for now… see you next month!
November 2024
As turkey time and the winter holidays rapidly approaching, I would like to suggest that anyone who does not already own a NanoVNA should put one on his/her Gift List of items most sought after as holiday gifts this year.
As I mentioned in last month’s column, I am getting ready to put on another NanoVNA class. This class will be offered at some point shortly after the conclusion of the current Ham Exam Preparation Class session, which wraps up the week of 11 November. I would like to run the NanoVNA class early in December. I am aiming for a pair of three-hour classes (with a break at the mid-point), on each of two separate evenings, for a total of six hours of study and training.
Naturally, I am looking for a count of individuals - Club members or not - who may be interested in signing up for this program. My plan is as follows :
1. Meeting 1 : Tuesday, December 3, 2024 @ 1800 Hours
My intent is to hold the class cost to a simple $15 fee per attendee, which will be applied to defraying the Club’s expenses that will be incurred as a result of hosting this program.
Each attendee must have a NanoVNA for personal use in this class. While the specific make and model do not matter very much, the class will in all likelihood run more smoothly if we all have the same type of instrument. The preferred model is the NanoVNA H4, which is readily available through Amazon. The current price is right around a hundred dollars. Just make sure that the model that you purchase includes a micro-SD card slot. To go along with that slot, each attendee will also need bring a 32GB microSD card to class, as we will be using the card slots during the program. Finally, each attendee will want to bring a notebook and something with which to write.
If this class is for you, take a few minutes and drop me an email so that I can get your name on the class roster and hold your seat. My targeted class size is about a dozen students, and this one may fill up quickly. Don’t wait too long and miss out because of that wait!
The tentative dates for this class, as of this writing, are Tuesday, 3 December 2024 and Thursday, 5 December 2024.
That’s it for now…see you next month!
As turkey time and the winter holidays rapidly approaching, I would like to suggest that anyone who does not already own a NanoVNA should put one on his/her Gift List of items most sought after as holiday gifts this year.
As I mentioned in last month’s column, I am getting ready to put on another NanoVNA class. This class will be offered at some point shortly after the conclusion of the current Ham Exam Preparation Class session, which wraps up the week of 11 November. I would like to run the NanoVNA class early in December. I am aiming for a pair of three-hour classes (with a break at the mid-point), on each of two separate evenings, for a total of six hours of study and training.
Naturally, I am looking for a count of individuals - Club members or not - who may be interested in signing up for this program. My plan is as follows :
1. Meeting 1 : Tuesday, December 3, 2024 @ 1800 Hours
- Basic familiarization with the NanoVNA
- Exploring the menu system
- Understanding how to navigate the NanoVNA
- Understanding the NanoVNA features and capabilities
- Updating NanoVNA firmware
- Calibration of the NanoVNA
- How to make custom calibration standards
- Understanding the need for and methods of calibrating the unit
- Antenna system analysis with the NanoVNA
- Feedline analysis with the NanoVNA
- Capturing and using screenshots from the NanoVNA
- PC interface for the NanoVNA
- Exploring various NanoVNA operational modes
- Comparing the NanoVNA to a Rig Expert antenna analyzer
My intent is to hold the class cost to a simple $15 fee per attendee, which will be applied to defraying the Club’s expenses that will be incurred as a result of hosting this program.
Each attendee must have a NanoVNA for personal use in this class. While the specific make and model do not matter very much, the class will in all likelihood run more smoothly if we all have the same type of instrument. The preferred model is the NanoVNA H4, which is readily available through Amazon. The current price is right around a hundred dollars. Just make sure that the model that you purchase includes a micro-SD card slot. To go along with that slot, each attendee will also need bring a 32GB microSD card to class, as we will be using the card slots during the program. Finally, each attendee will want to bring a notebook and something with which to write.
If this class is for you, take a few minutes and drop me an email so that I can get your name on the class roster and hold your seat. My targeted class size is about a dozen students, and this one may fill up quickly. Don’t wait too long and miss out because of that wait!
The tentative dates for this class, as of this writing, are Tuesday, 3 December 2024 and Thursday, 5 December 2024.
That’s it for now…see you next month!
October 2024
Well… it is now heading into October. By the time that you read this, the Session VIII classes of the Ham Exam Preparation series will be into their third or even fourth week, well on the way. However, it is the very basics of these class meetings that I would like to discuss today. As I write this, I am trying hard to understand the mind set of those individuals who make these classes so frustrating for me.
Consider this…a certain number of individuals enroll in the session, so I go ahead and run the class based upon that enrollment level. However, in reality, the class is operating with just a small fraction of the number who enrolled. Let’s talk numbers…I had a total of seven enrollees, but now I am running a class basically for two individuals, one of whom is already licensed at the General level and simply wanted a refresher (and to support his son, who is a student in the class). A third student routinely arrives at least a half-hour late. One of the enrollees informed me via email that his work schedule changed, preventing him from attending. All of the others simply fail to show up.
When the end-result tabulations are made, these numbers do not look very good for the Club and for this program. On a personal level, it affects my reputation and credibility when I promote the program.
As a result of all of this, I have decided to make a plea directly to the membership for some help in fixing this problem. Please…if you are acquainted with any of the students in any of our license preparation classes, do your best to encourage those students to show up for class, to show up on time, and to put in the effort required to succeed in achieving the license or upgrade sought by enrolling in the class.
Succeeding requires commitment to the job at hand, not just a gentle involvement with the material being taught. Look at it all as if we were talking about the chicken and the pig as related to our classic American breakfast of bacon and eggs. The chicken is involved in the breakfast, but the pig? He is different. The pig is committed to that breakfast. I need for more of our class enrollees to be pigs and less to be chickens if these folks wish to succeed in their license efforts.
On another topic, I am looking for a count of individuals - Club members or not - who may be interested in signing up for a three-hour (with a break) familiarization class for the NanoVNA. This class would cover the basics of the device, different device types, calibration, and the various common measurements that can easily be made with a NanoVNA. The only requirement for the class is that each student must bring a NanoVNA as well as a notebook and writing tools. The class fee will be an even $15 to cover the materials provided by the Club for the session. Date and time will be announced once I have a good handle on the number of enrollees that will attend.
That’s it for now… see you next month!
Well… it is now heading into October. By the time that you read this, the Session VIII classes of the Ham Exam Preparation series will be into their third or even fourth week, well on the way. However, it is the very basics of these class meetings that I would like to discuss today. As I write this, I am trying hard to understand the mind set of those individuals who make these classes so frustrating for me.
Consider this…a certain number of individuals enroll in the session, so I go ahead and run the class based upon that enrollment level. However, in reality, the class is operating with just a small fraction of the number who enrolled. Let’s talk numbers…I had a total of seven enrollees, but now I am running a class basically for two individuals, one of whom is already licensed at the General level and simply wanted a refresher (and to support his son, who is a student in the class). A third student routinely arrives at least a half-hour late. One of the enrollees informed me via email that his work schedule changed, preventing him from attending. All of the others simply fail to show up.
When the end-result tabulations are made, these numbers do not look very good for the Club and for this program. On a personal level, it affects my reputation and credibility when I promote the program.
As a result of all of this, I have decided to make a plea directly to the membership for some help in fixing this problem. Please…if you are acquainted with any of the students in any of our license preparation classes, do your best to encourage those students to show up for class, to show up on time, and to put in the effort required to succeed in achieving the license or upgrade sought by enrolling in the class.
Succeeding requires commitment to the job at hand, not just a gentle involvement with the material being taught. Look at it all as if we were talking about the chicken and the pig as related to our classic American breakfast of bacon and eggs. The chicken is involved in the breakfast, but the pig? He is different. The pig is committed to that breakfast. I need for more of our class enrollees to be pigs and less to be chickens if these folks wish to succeed in their license efforts.
On another topic, I am looking for a count of individuals - Club members or not - who may be interested in signing up for a three-hour (with a break) familiarization class for the NanoVNA. This class would cover the basics of the device, different device types, calibration, and the various common measurements that can easily be made with a NanoVNA. The only requirement for the class is that each student must bring a NanoVNA as well as a notebook and writing tools. The class fee will be an even $15 to cover the materials provided by the Club for the session. Date and time will be announced once I have a good handle on the number of enrollees that will attend.
That’s it for now… see you next month!
September 2024
The end of the summer brings us closer to some important September events… like the GCARC Hamfest (8 September), the Bike MS Ride (28 & 29 September), and… oh yeah… the start of the next session of GCARC Ham License Exam Preparation Classes.
Session VIII, the Fall 2024 session, is set to run as follows :
The end of the summer brings us closer to some important September events… like the GCARC Hamfest (8 September), the Bike MS Ride (28 & 29 September), and… oh yeah… the start of the next session of GCARC Ham License Exam Preparation Classes.
Session VIII, the Fall 2024 session, is set to run as follows :
Registration is now open, and the classes are posted on the ARRL website. At this point, I have only three students for the Element 2 class and another three students for the Element 3 class. I would like to see many more enrollees, and I would especially like to see some folks come out to upgrade their tickets to the Amateur Extra level. There was no Element 4 enrollment in the past two sessions. It stands to reason that some of the new Generals out there would want to upgrade to the Extra level. Now is the time to do it!
I apologize to those who attended the last Tech Saturday, wherein my laboratory VNA decided not to cooperate. I finally tracked the problem down to a firmware upgrade issue, and all is now well again. If anyone is interested in seeing what I was planning to demonstrate in that session, let me know and I will set up an informal demonstration on a Saturday morning at the Clubhouse.
While I am asking for feedback from the readers, here’s another one…
I am looking for another small project build that we can once again do as a group, and I am open to suggestions as to what that project should be. Please drop an email to me with any ideas that you may have for a small to medium project that would be a useful piece of equipment for our Club members. Put on your thinking caps and open up your wish books. Come up with some ideas that I can consider and then maybe develop into a group project build as we have done in the past. Those sessions were very well accepted and attended, and I would like to continue the trend.
That’s it for now… see you next month!
I apologize to those who attended the last Tech Saturday, wherein my laboratory VNA decided not to cooperate. I finally tracked the problem down to a firmware upgrade issue, and all is now well again. If anyone is interested in seeing what I was planning to demonstrate in that session, let me know and I will set up an informal demonstration on a Saturday morning at the Clubhouse.
While I am asking for feedback from the readers, here’s another one…
I am looking for another small project build that we can once again do as a group, and I am open to suggestions as to what that project should be. Please drop an email to me with any ideas that you may have for a small to medium project that would be a useful piece of equipment for our Club members. Put on your thinking caps and open up your wish books. Come up with some ideas that I can consider and then maybe develop into a group project build as we have done in the past. Those sessions were very well accepted and attended, and I would like to continue the trend.
That’s it for now… see you next month!
August 2024
The summer doldrums are upon us, and with that slack period comes a much-needed (even if it is not deserved) break for me. Of course, September will be on us soon, as time continues its inexorable march forward, never slowing and never reversing its course.
September brings the advent of Session VIII, the Fall 2024 session, of the GCARC Ham Exam Preparation Classes. The schedule is set to run as follows :
The summer doldrums are upon us, and with that slack period comes a much-needed (even if it is not deserved) break for me. Of course, September will be on us soon, as time continues its inexorable march forward, never slowing and never reversing its course.
September brings the advent of Session VIII, the Fall 2024 session, of the GCARC Ham Exam Preparation Classes. The schedule is set to run as follows :
Registration is now open, and the classes are posted on the ARRL website. I already have some enrollees for this session, so we are off to a good start. Hopefully, some of the Session VII students will enroll for license upgrade training.
The August 10, 2024 Tech Saturday Forum topic, will deal with a light look at VNA’s, Smith Charts, inductance, capacitance, and the correction of antenna system mismatch conditions from a visual and hands-on viewpoint.
I have constructed a device that employs the working parts of an MFJ antenna tuner in such a manner that we can connect the capacitors and inductor in various forms of series and/or parallel matching circuits. We can then observe the effects of changing these values directly on the screen of a large-scale bench-type vector network analyzer (VNA)… or on our familiar NanoVNA’s.
Come on out and have some fun while learning a bit about how it all works. We will try to peek through all of the smoke and mirrors and see how the magic happens.
The doldrums also means that this is a shortened column this time around, so that’s all for this edition…
See You Next Month
The August 10, 2024 Tech Saturday Forum topic, will deal with a light look at VNA’s, Smith Charts, inductance, capacitance, and the correction of antenna system mismatch conditions from a visual and hands-on viewpoint.
I have constructed a device that employs the working parts of an MFJ antenna tuner in such a manner that we can connect the capacitors and inductor in various forms of series and/or parallel matching circuits. We can then observe the effects of changing these values directly on the screen of a large-scale bench-type vector network analyzer (VNA)… or on our familiar NanoVNA’s.
Come on out and have some fun while learning a bit about how it all works. We will try to peek through all of the smoke and mirrors and see how the magic happens.
The doldrums also means that this is a shortened column this time around, so that’s all for this edition…
See You Next Month
July 2024
Well, the seventh session of the GCARC License Preparation Class program is now in the books. Many thanks to Gary Reed N2QEE, Greg Ciraula W5DO, and Mike Resnick N2WOQ for their assistance in making this happen.
We had a very large group for the Element 2 (Technician) class, numbering eighteen students, and a medium-sized group for the Element 3 (General) class, which had seven students. Of those who tested, all but one of each group passed their exams, with many of the students posting perfect scores. Results like that show exactly why we, as a Club, continue to offer such classes, and will continue to do so.
Almost a half of the Element 2 group decided to take their exams early, testing on the regular second-Thursday test night instead of waiting for their scheduled test date ten days later. The truly amazing thing is that the vast majority of those students still came to the remaining class meeting, anxious to learn all that they could.
Here is the list of the new Technician Class :
In addition, the following individuals have earned upgrades to General Class :
Congratulations to all of those listed above.
On another topic, it occurs to me that we don’t always think of Field Day as an educational event, but it often is. In particular, we held a short but informative educational session during the Saturday afternoon portion of this year’s Field Day exercises. In particular, we had a group of attendees who were briefly instructed, and had the opportunity to participate in a hands-on fashion, regarding the installation of no-solder “N” type connectors to a length of RG-213 coaxial cable.
Each participant was provided with a short section of cable and a connector kit. There was a handout provided that detailed the assembly sequence and the cable preparation lengths. The process was demonstrated, and then each participant followed the instructions and installed the connector to the cable.
While there was some discussion as to whether or not crimping a center pin is an acceptable practice, it is nonetheless within the connector manufacturer’s guidelines. As such, this exercise illustrated the ease with which a connector can be installed to a cable in the field.
That’s all for this edition… see you next month.
Well, the seventh session of the GCARC License Preparation Class program is now in the books. Many thanks to Gary Reed N2QEE, Greg Ciraula W5DO, and Mike Resnick N2WOQ for their assistance in making this happen.
We had a very large group for the Element 2 (Technician) class, numbering eighteen students, and a medium-sized group for the Element 3 (General) class, which had seven students. Of those who tested, all but one of each group passed their exams, with many of the students posting perfect scores. Results like that show exactly why we, as a Club, continue to offer such classes, and will continue to do so.
Almost a half of the Element 2 group decided to take their exams early, testing on the regular second-Thursday test night instead of waiting for their scheduled test date ten days later. The truly amazing thing is that the vast majority of those students still came to the remaining class meeting, anxious to learn all that they could.
Here is the list of the new Technician Class :
- Diane Amico, KE2DPT
- Mike Angelastro, KE2DPQ
- Jim Beury, KE2DRN
- Harry Eshleman, KE2DQA
- Leonard Ford, KE2DPS
- Anish James, KE2DRI
- John McGonigle, KC3ZJX
- Angela Metzger, KE2DRJ
- Ron Newman, KE2DPO
- Rosemarie Newman, KE2DPP
- Sheree Revilla, KE2DRK
- Gregg Rudinski, KE2DRM
In addition, the following individuals have earned upgrades to General Class :
- Diane Amico, KE2DPT
- Ron Newman, KE2DPO
- Rosemarie Newman, KE2DPP
- Aimée Ortiz, K9RVT
- Jake Scholz, KC2QYT
- Jason Watkins, KD2VVJ
Congratulations to all of those listed above.
On another topic, it occurs to me that we don’t always think of Field Day as an educational event, but it often is. In particular, we held a short but informative educational session during the Saturday afternoon portion of this year’s Field Day exercises. In particular, we had a group of attendees who were briefly instructed, and had the opportunity to participate in a hands-on fashion, regarding the installation of no-solder “N” type connectors to a length of RG-213 coaxial cable.
Each participant was provided with a short section of cable and a connector kit. There was a handout provided that detailed the assembly sequence and the cable preparation lengths. The process was demonstrated, and then each participant followed the instructions and installed the connector to the cable.
While there was some discussion as to whether or not crimping a center pin is an acceptable practice, it is nonetheless within the connector manufacturer’s guidelines. As such, this exercise illustrated the ease with which a connector can be installed to a cable in the field.
That’s all for this edition… see you next month.
June 2024
So… at this point, as I write this column, the GCARC Ham Exam Preparation Classes Session VII meetings are more than halfway behind us. There are four more instructional meetings, followed by the last meeting at which the FCC exams will be proctored. This schedule has the Element 2 group testing on Monday 24 June while the Element 3 group is scheduled for a Tuesday 25 June test date. These should both be great VE sessions, when they occur, due to the numbers of exam candidates scheduled to sit for the exams.
It is kind of funny what can happen when your mind decides not to cooperate and go along with the scheduled program. For example, on two recent occasions in the Element 3 (General) class, I found myself at a complete loss for the words to explain a couple of pretty basic concepts. I just could not make my thoughts come together with cogent explanations for the class. I felt terrible about it, because my job as instructor in these classes is to help the students, not to confuse them.
How does one remedy such a situation? In my case, I set about documenting the explanation that I previously could not think of for each of these topics. Then, when the class next met, I started out as I always do, asking if there were any questions that had come up in the interim. Then I presented the two explanations in a clear and concise manner. It did not hurt the cause any that I had made up a slide for each topic with the explanation presented in a factual and easily-understood manner.
The disturbing part is that I have now taught this material during six prior sessions, so why was I drawing a blank this time? That is the nature of memory and cognition, and until they computerize the human mind, it will not change. That is the reason that so many training programs utilize gross repetition as a means of establishing a concept, rule, or procedure as a rote memory item that will surface without forethought. I believe that such repetition is an excellent means of memorizing the things which we, as hams, continually have problems.
For example, radio amateurs at all license levels will often have difficulty with remembering the band limits for specific bands, or maybe the channel frequency assignments for the five channels of the 60-meter band. These important frequencies can be drilled into our brains to become rote tidbits of data through deliberate and prolonged repetition. An easy way to accomplish this is to make up some “flash cards” on 3” x 5” index cards, which are widely available at office supply centers. Make topic-specific flash cards for any data with which you are having difficulty as regards memory. This system will work well for almost any area of information that you want to commit to permanence in your “memory banks” for immediate retrieval without the need to think about it. Online flashcards are available at ham training websites such as hamexam.org, which I use extensively for practice tests in the classroom as well.
That’s all for this edition… see you next month.
So… at this point, as I write this column, the GCARC Ham Exam Preparation Classes Session VII meetings are more than halfway behind us. There are four more instructional meetings, followed by the last meeting at which the FCC exams will be proctored. This schedule has the Element 2 group testing on Monday 24 June while the Element 3 group is scheduled for a Tuesday 25 June test date. These should both be great VE sessions, when they occur, due to the numbers of exam candidates scheduled to sit for the exams.
It is kind of funny what can happen when your mind decides not to cooperate and go along with the scheduled program. For example, on two recent occasions in the Element 3 (General) class, I found myself at a complete loss for the words to explain a couple of pretty basic concepts. I just could not make my thoughts come together with cogent explanations for the class. I felt terrible about it, because my job as instructor in these classes is to help the students, not to confuse them.
How does one remedy such a situation? In my case, I set about documenting the explanation that I previously could not think of for each of these topics. Then, when the class next met, I started out as I always do, asking if there were any questions that had come up in the interim. Then I presented the two explanations in a clear and concise manner. It did not hurt the cause any that I had made up a slide for each topic with the explanation presented in a factual and easily-understood manner.
The disturbing part is that I have now taught this material during six prior sessions, so why was I drawing a blank this time? That is the nature of memory and cognition, and until they computerize the human mind, it will not change. That is the reason that so many training programs utilize gross repetition as a means of establishing a concept, rule, or procedure as a rote memory item that will surface without forethought. I believe that such repetition is an excellent means of memorizing the things which we, as hams, continually have problems.
For example, radio amateurs at all license levels will often have difficulty with remembering the band limits for specific bands, or maybe the channel frequency assignments for the five channels of the 60-meter band. These important frequencies can be drilled into our brains to become rote tidbits of data through deliberate and prolonged repetition. An easy way to accomplish this is to make up some “flash cards” on 3” x 5” index cards, which are widely available at office supply centers. Make topic-specific flash cards for any data with which you are having difficulty as regards memory. This system will work well for almost any area of information that you want to commit to permanence in your “memory banks” for immediate retrieval without the need to think about it. Online flashcards are available at ham training websites such as hamexam.org, which I use extensively for practice tests in the classroom as well.
That’s all for this edition… see you next month.
May 2024
As I write this column, my faithful color laser printer is churning out the pages upon pages of prints of the handout sets for the GCARC Ham Exam Preparation Classes, which are set to start in just a few short days. I am writing this on Friday, 19 April, and the classes start up on Monday, 22 April. The handout sets are fairly large, with two sets of prints, done in color, amounting to 70 pages (35 sheets) in one set and 62 pages (31 sheets) in the second set. When I factor in the need to print eighteen copies of the handouts, we are talking about a bunch of work. It works out to over two reams of paper, and I go through a full set of color toner cartridges and two complete black toner cartridges. I also go through a set of drums in the full job. Why am I telling you this? Easy… I want to point out something that happened when I decided that it was too much work to print all of this myself.
A five-cartridge toner set (one of each color and two blacks) can be had for my printer from Amazon for about thirty-five dollars. A set of four drums (CYMK) come in at just about a hundred dollars. A ten-ream case of 20-lb bright white paper comes in at about ninety-five dollars, so call it nine-fifty per ream. The pocket folders cost me about a half a buck each. Total all of that up, and I come out with a bit over one hundred and sixty-five dollars in supply costs to print the handouts.
I decided to save the wear and tear on my aging old Brother HL-3170CDW printer and have the handouts printed outside this time. Boy, was I in for a surprise! Staples® wanted nine hundred and ninety-eight dollars to print - just to print and collate - these handouts. That did not include the folders or putting the prints into the folders. If I wanted the job done right away, while I waited, it would be even more!
I am talking about this because it was very educational for me to see what this would have cost if I had gone through with it… which leads me to the real topic of this column. There is a surprising cost involved in doing anything related to Amateur Radio, and those costs can skyrocket if we don’t take the time and the initiative to research what we are doing and to learn - yes, learn - just what we are all about in this hobby.
I am now in the middle of reviewing the book penned by Ron Block NR2B dealing with proper protection of the radio shack from the dangers and vagaries of stray electricity. Ron’s work is nothing short of amazing in the level of accuracy and detail to which he has gone. As it turns out, it is impossible to review a written work editorially without reading it, and when I read something, I absorb it. Ron’s book has been providing me with an education in the field of electrical protection and the associated protection devices. It will do the same for anyone who reads it. The information provided has broadened my understanding of not only the need for protecting the radio shack, but the possible results of not doing so. As I said a little bit back, it is a research experience into the electrical preparation of the radio shack for its safe and continued use.
I am a firm believer in doing things in the most expedient manner, and I thought that I had a basic working understanding of the protection needs for the shack. As it turns out, I did not know what it was, and how much there was, that I did not know!
Educationally, it is good to get out of our habitual comfort zones every now and then, and to pick up some new or expanded knowledge along the way. There are many ways to do this. One way is to select a topic and research that issue until you have dug as deeply into it as you can. Another is to attend online presentations - live streams, webinars, and so forth - that explore a topic of interest. A third way is to attend live and in-person presentations. These can be especially useful to the ham when they include some live demonstrations, or better yet, some hands-on experiences.
At GCARC, we attempt to present such live experiences as and when possible. We have several such events coming up in the near future, covering the next couple of months :
Each of these events is going to provide the opportunity for our Club members to grow their knowledge and skills. The Tech Saturday Forum on 4 May 2024 will provide a hands-on experience in building and tuning a 70cm ground-plane antenna. The Tech Saturday Forum on 8 June 2024 will offer a similar experience, but for a wire J-pole antenna design.
Field Day does not really need any explanation, but for the new members reading this, Field Day is a great hands-on operating experience that also includes the construction of a temporary field-type station. It should NOT be missed!
Finally, the Advanced SMT Soldering Class, scheduled for the evenings of Monday, 8 July 2024 and (if necessary) Monday, 15 July 2024. This class will afford each attendee the experience of building a 20-watt dry 50-ohm QRP dummy load using surface mount components on a custom printed circuit board.
Each of these events requires that those members planning to attend register their intention with the proper individual(s). Anyone who plans to attend and participate in the antenna building activities at either the May or the June Tech Saturday Forum must notify us so that we can have adequate supplies and equipment on hand, and so that we can properly plan as regards available space. Send an email to me, Chris Prioli AD2CS, to reserve your seat at the Tech Saturday Forums.
Any member wishing to participate in the Field Day activities must reach out to Tony Starr K3TS in order to be matched up with an operating band team.
Anyone wishing to attend the Advanced SMT Soldering Class in July must send an email to me to reserve a seat.
The correct email addresses can be found in the current Club Roster.
It is of critical importance that these registrations occur so that the proper supply levels can be made available and so that sufficient space is made available for all those who wish to participate. The sooner that you reserve a seat, the better, but in any case, it must occur at least two weeks before the date of the event in which you want to participate. Let’s get as many Club members as possible out to these events, but let’s do it correctly - REGISTER!
That’s all for this edition… see you next month.
As I write this column, my faithful color laser printer is churning out the pages upon pages of prints of the handout sets for the GCARC Ham Exam Preparation Classes, which are set to start in just a few short days. I am writing this on Friday, 19 April, and the classes start up on Monday, 22 April. The handout sets are fairly large, with two sets of prints, done in color, amounting to 70 pages (35 sheets) in one set and 62 pages (31 sheets) in the second set. When I factor in the need to print eighteen copies of the handouts, we are talking about a bunch of work. It works out to over two reams of paper, and I go through a full set of color toner cartridges and two complete black toner cartridges. I also go through a set of drums in the full job. Why am I telling you this? Easy… I want to point out something that happened when I decided that it was too much work to print all of this myself.
A five-cartridge toner set (one of each color and two blacks) can be had for my printer from Amazon for about thirty-five dollars. A set of four drums (CYMK) come in at just about a hundred dollars. A ten-ream case of 20-lb bright white paper comes in at about ninety-five dollars, so call it nine-fifty per ream. The pocket folders cost me about a half a buck each. Total all of that up, and I come out with a bit over one hundred and sixty-five dollars in supply costs to print the handouts.
I decided to save the wear and tear on my aging old Brother HL-3170CDW printer and have the handouts printed outside this time. Boy, was I in for a surprise! Staples® wanted nine hundred and ninety-eight dollars to print - just to print and collate - these handouts. That did not include the folders or putting the prints into the folders. If I wanted the job done right away, while I waited, it would be even more!
I am talking about this because it was very educational for me to see what this would have cost if I had gone through with it… which leads me to the real topic of this column. There is a surprising cost involved in doing anything related to Amateur Radio, and those costs can skyrocket if we don’t take the time and the initiative to research what we are doing and to learn - yes, learn - just what we are all about in this hobby.
I am now in the middle of reviewing the book penned by Ron Block NR2B dealing with proper protection of the radio shack from the dangers and vagaries of stray electricity. Ron’s work is nothing short of amazing in the level of accuracy and detail to which he has gone. As it turns out, it is impossible to review a written work editorially without reading it, and when I read something, I absorb it. Ron’s book has been providing me with an education in the field of electrical protection and the associated protection devices. It will do the same for anyone who reads it. The information provided has broadened my understanding of not only the need for protecting the radio shack, but the possible results of not doing so. As I said a little bit back, it is a research experience into the electrical preparation of the radio shack for its safe and continued use.
I am a firm believer in doing things in the most expedient manner, and I thought that I had a basic working understanding of the protection needs for the shack. As it turns out, I did not know what it was, and how much there was, that I did not know!
Educationally, it is good to get out of our habitual comfort zones every now and then, and to pick up some new or expanded knowledge along the way. There are many ways to do this. One way is to select a topic and research that issue until you have dug as deeply into it as you can. Another is to attend online presentations - live streams, webinars, and so forth - that explore a topic of interest. A third way is to attend live and in-person presentations. These can be especially useful to the ham when they include some live demonstrations, or better yet, some hands-on experiences.
At GCARC, we attempt to present such live experiences as and when possible. We have several such events coming up in the near future, covering the next couple of months :
- May 4, 2024 Tech Saturday Forum
- June 8, 2024 Tech Saturday Forum
- Field Day, June 22 - 23, 2024
- Advanced SMT Soldering Class : Monday, July 8, 2024
Each of these events is going to provide the opportunity for our Club members to grow their knowledge and skills. The Tech Saturday Forum on 4 May 2024 will provide a hands-on experience in building and tuning a 70cm ground-plane antenna. The Tech Saturday Forum on 8 June 2024 will offer a similar experience, but for a wire J-pole antenna design.
Field Day does not really need any explanation, but for the new members reading this, Field Day is a great hands-on operating experience that also includes the construction of a temporary field-type station. It should NOT be missed!
Finally, the Advanced SMT Soldering Class, scheduled for the evenings of Monday, 8 July 2024 and (if necessary) Monday, 15 July 2024. This class will afford each attendee the experience of building a 20-watt dry 50-ohm QRP dummy load using surface mount components on a custom printed circuit board.
Each of these events requires that those members planning to attend register their intention with the proper individual(s). Anyone who plans to attend and participate in the antenna building activities at either the May or the June Tech Saturday Forum must notify us so that we can have adequate supplies and equipment on hand, and so that we can properly plan as regards available space. Send an email to me, Chris Prioli AD2CS, to reserve your seat at the Tech Saturday Forums.
Any member wishing to participate in the Field Day activities must reach out to Tony Starr K3TS in order to be matched up with an operating band team.
Anyone wishing to attend the Advanced SMT Soldering Class in July must send an email to me to reserve a seat.
The correct email addresses can be found in the current Club Roster.
It is of critical importance that these registrations occur so that the proper supply levels can be made available and so that sufficient space is made available for all those who wish to participate. The sooner that you reserve a seat, the better, but in any case, it must occur at least two weeks before the date of the event in which you want to participate. Let’s get as many Club members as possible out to these events, but let’s do it correctly - REGISTER!
That’s all for this edition… see you next month.
April 2024
Well… it is almost time for the next session of Ham Exam Preparation Classes to begin. Session VII start out on Monday, 22 April with the Element 2 group, then we have the Element 3 group on Tuesdays starting on 23 April, and finally, we have the Element 4 classes starting on Friday, 26 April. As is the norm, these classes will run for ten weeks, with the license exam taking place during that last week of each session. At present, there are ten students enrolled in the Technician class and one at the Amateur Extra level. Needless to say, there are plenty of seats available for both the General (Element 3) and the Amateur Extra (Level 4) classes. If you know of anyone who might be interested in upgrading to the General or Extra levels, send them my way and I will get them signed up!
Moving along, I would like to remind all Club members about the upcoming Advanced SMT Soldering Class, which will be starting in the evening of 8 July. It will take at least two Monday evenings, and possible three, depending upon the students’ progress. We will be building a single-board 50-ohm 20-watt dry resistive dummy load, using all SMT components except for the board-to-wire connectors that will be installed. This dummy load will be equipped with a BNC jack for connection to the radio and a two-pin Molex connector for making voltage measurements as a means of approximating the power being dissipated by the device. Final cost per seat has not yet been determined, as I am still working on the final design and parts sourcing. The cost will be announced as soon as possible, so watch the website and your email for information about this class. It promises to be another enjoyable and productive class, so don’t miss out! If you are interested in attending this class, please drop me a note via email to let me know. The sooner I get an idea of the interest level and the number of enrollees, the sooner I can finalize the cost, as the purchase prices for the components is quantity-dependent.
As some of you may already know, GCARC has been invited to participate in a cooperative educational experience with a local school district. Meetings between the school district administration and our Club leadership have already taken place, and things look promising. While I am not directly involved in this effort, I feel compelled to mention it here, as it is of an educational nature and I am strongly in favor of this and other such arrangements, as they are widely beneficial to the Club at large and to the school students. These students are the hams of the future, and it is quite advantageous to get the young folks involved in Amateur Radio. I applaud our President, Jon Pearce WB2MNF and Mike Resnick N2WOQ for taking this on, and I hope that our membership gives this program the full support that it deserves.
That’s about it for this month’s column. See you next month!
Well… it is almost time for the next session of Ham Exam Preparation Classes to begin. Session VII start out on Monday, 22 April with the Element 2 group, then we have the Element 3 group on Tuesdays starting on 23 April, and finally, we have the Element 4 classes starting on Friday, 26 April. As is the norm, these classes will run for ten weeks, with the license exam taking place during that last week of each session. At present, there are ten students enrolled in the Technician class and one at the Amateur Extra level. Needless to say, there are plenty of seats available for both the General (Element 3) and the Amateur Extra (Level 4) classes. If you know of anyone who might be interested in upgrading to the General or Extra levels, send them my way and I will get them signed up!
Moving along, I would like to remind all Club members about the upcoming Advanced SMT Soldering Class, which will be starting in the evening of 8 July. It will take at least two Monday evenings, and possible three, depending upon the students’ progress. We will be building a single-board 50-ohm 20-watt dry resistive dummy load, using all SMT components except for the board-to-wire connectors that will be installed. This dummy load will be equipped with a BNC jack for connection to the radio and a two-pin Molex connector for making voltage measurements as a means of approximating the power being dissipated by the device. Final cost per seat has not yet been determined, as I am still working on the final design and parts sourcing. The cost will be announced as soon as possible, so watch the website and your email for information about this class. It promises to be another enjoyable and productive class, so don’t miss out! If you are interested in attending this class, please drop me a note via email to let me know. The sooner I get an idea of the interest level and the number of enrollees, the sooner I can finalize the cost, as the purchase prices for the components is quantity-dependent.
As some of you may already know, GCARC has been invited to participate in a cooperative educational experience with a local school district. Meetings between the school district administration and our Club leadership have already taken place, and things look promising. While I am not directly involved in this effort, I feel compelled to mention it here, as it is of an educational nature and I am strongly in favor of this and other such arrangements, as they are widely beneficial to the Club at large and to the school students. These students are the hams of the future, and it is quite advantageous to get the young folks involved in Amateur Radio. I applaud our President, Jon Pearce WB2MNF and Mike Resnick N2WOQ for taking this on, and I hope that our membership gives this program the full support that it deserves.
That’s about it for this month’s column. See you next month!
March 2024
I would like to start out this month’s column by offering a heartfelt “Thank You!” to everyone who made the GCARC Fox Hunt Antenna/Attenuator Build Class such a huge success. This includes thanks to each and every one of the students who attended. And also, a big thank you to Gary Reed N2QEE, Mike Resnick N2WOQ, Jon Pearce WB2MNF, John O’Connell K2QA, and Frank Romeo N3PUU. Each of these extremely helpful Club members and officers were there on all three evenings of the class meetings to lend whatever support they could. These class sessions could not have taken place without their help. Gary and Mike were especially helpful, as they worked directly with the students in solving any issues that arose during the build.
The following Club members came out to try their hand at building the attenuator and antenna combination :
In addition, another Club member, Mike Covaleski N2MMC purchased the complete kit to build on his own. A very limited number of kits are still available if anyone else is interested in taking this on as a solo project. The cost of the kit is the same as the class price was, a mere fifty dollars, payable to the Club. Let me know if you are interested.
The most exciting thing about this whole experience is that some of the folks who participated had never done any soldering before. Yet, everyone made it through, completing the entire project in good order.
The first night, all of the attendees assembled the attenuator sub-kits. The second evening was spent doing the basic assembly of the antenna. On the third and final evening, we competed the assemblies, marrying the two parts and installing the connecting cables and finishing touches. Even those individuals who had to miss one meeting still got caught up, with the help of their classmates, and everyone finished right on time.
It was a fun time as well as a learning experience, and it is my intention to see that more events like this are made available to the Club members as time goes by.
Before I close, I would like to mention that the GCARC License Exam Preparation Classes are set to start up again beginning on 22 April, and following the usual schedule. Plenty of seats are still available, especially for the General and Amateur Extra groups. Remember that this is the last Amateur Extra class before the new question pool takes effect.
That’s about it for this month’s column.
See you next month!
I would like to start out this month’s column by offering a heartfelt “Thank You!” to everyone who made the GCARC Fox Hunt Antenna/Attenuator Build Class such a huge success. This includes thanks to each and every one of the students who attended. And also, a big thank you to Gary Reed N2QEE, Mike Resnick N2WOQ, Jon Pearce WB2MNF, John O’Connell K2QA, and Frank Romeo N3PUU. Each of these extremely helpful Club members and officers were there on all three evenings of the class meetings to lend whatever support they could. These class sessions could not have taken place without their help. Gary and Mike were especially helpful, as they worked directly with the students in solving any issues that arose during the build.
The following Club members came out to try their hand at building the attenuator and antenna combination :
- Bruce Canino KD2LBU
- Jerry Barnish K2EAB
- Greg Ciraula W5DO
- MaryLu Ciraula KE2CEF
- Glen Guenther KE2BUO
- Melissa Guenther KE2BWZ
- Earl Moore KC2NCH
- Aimée Ortiz K9RVT
- Melissa Seidner KE2BEK
- Court Smith KD2SPJ
- Jim Wright N2GXJ
- Ethan Yost KE2AVA
In addition, another Club member, Mike Covaleski N2MMC purchased the complete kit to build on his own. A very limited number of kits are still available if anyone else is interested in taking this on as a solo project. The cost of the kit is the same as the class price was, a mere fifty dollars, payable to the Club. Let me know if you are interested.
The most exciting thing about this whole experience is that some of the folks who participated had never done any soldering before. Yet, everyone made it through, completing the entire project in good order.
The first night, all of the attendees assembled the attenuator sub-kits. The second evening was spent doing the basic assembly of the antenna. On the third and final evening, we competed the assemblies, marrying the two parts and installing the connecting cables and finishing touches. Even those individuals who had to miss one meeting still got caught up, with the help of their classmates, and everyone finished right on time.
It was a fun time as well as a learning experience, and it is my intention to see that more events like this are made available to the Club members as time goes by.
Before I close, I would like to mention that the GCARC License Exam Preparation Classes are set to start up again beginning on 22 April, and following the usual schedule. Plenty of seats are still available, especially for the General and Amateur Extra groups. Remember that this is the last Amateur Extra class before the new question pool takes effect.
That’s about it for this month’s column.
See you next month!
February 2024
As you all know by now, the weather caused a cancellation in the start of the GCARC Fox Hunt Antenna and Attenuator Build Class. Hopefully, by the time that you read this column, the class will be well underway, but right this minute, as I write this, I have my share of questions in that regard. It is snowing again, and quite heavily. There is already a four-inch blanket on top of the icy layer of snow that accumulated last week, and it does not look like it is going to stop anytime soon.
For some strange reason, all of that got me thinking about the willingness and dedication of the individuals who come out to the W2MMD Clubhouse to attend the various training and educational classes that are held there, as well those who regularly participate in the GCARC TechNet ZOOM Forums. It does not matter who the instructor or the session presenter may be. It seems that when we offer a training or educational opportunity, we have interested parties to take advantage of those opportunities. Now, all of that brings me to the topic of this month’s column… the future of education and training at GCARC.
That future is dependent in large part upon the membership, and just what it is that the membership would like to see presented in upcoming sessions, whether they be classroom events, hands-on events, ZOOM sessions, presentations at General Membership Meetings, or Tech Saturday Forum presentations. This is your club, and the educational offerings should in large part be driven by the membership.
As Chair of the Education Committee, I am willing to develop training or educational material in any area that you decide is appropriate and that would benefit the Club at large. I know that Jon Pearce WB2MNF, who heads of the Tech Committee feels the same way. What we need, though, is to know what it is that you want or need to learn about. We are always open to suggestions, and several of our recent offerings have been driven by suggestions made by Club members. We need for you to keep it up and to keep on bringing your ideas to us.
There are several good programs coming up in the near future, and I hope that they will be well-attended and well received. Let’s not let it stop there. Tell us what you want, and we will do our very best to deliver it. Drop a note to either Jon or me - our email addresses are on the Club roster - and we will do what we can to make it happen.
I would also like to take this opportunity to mention a new feature that I have added to my website, http://ww.ad2cs.com, that will make finding the new content much easier to locate. I talk about the website here because of the fact that the site holds a repository of almost all of my educational and informative writings, which I know are enjoyed by many of our members.
The new feature is the What’s New page. On this page, I will be listing the linked titles of any new articles, together with the linked page where the article is located and the date that the article was posted. This precludes the need to browse every page looking for new content, and the links will take the visitor directly to that new content.
I am frequently amazed that so many people have found my website, and that so many of those folks have had very nice things to say about the content that I post. I post that material for the benefit of the readers, and I hope that it is useful to any of you who happen to visit the site. That just about wraps it up for this column.
See you next month!
As you all know by now, the weather caused a cancellation in the start of the GCARC Fox Hunt Antenna and Attenuator Build Class. Hopefully, by the time that you read this column, the class will be well underway, but right this minute, as I write this, I have my share of questions in that regard. It is snowing again, and quite heavily. There is already a four-inch blanket on top of the icy layer of snow that accumulated last week, and it does not look like it is going to stop anytime soon.
For some strange reason, all of that got me thinking about the willingness and dedication of the individuals who come out to the W2MMD Clubhouse to attend the various training and educational classes that are held there, as well those who regularly participate in the GCARC TechNet ZOOM Forums. It does not matter who the instructor or the session presenter may be. It seems that when we offer a training or educational opportunity, we have interested parties to take advantage of those opportunities. Now, all of that brings me to the topic of this month’s column… the future of education and training at GCARC.
That future is dependent in large part upon the membership, and just what it is that the membership would like to see presented in upcoming sessions, whether they be classroom events, hands-on events, ZOOM sessions, presentations at General Membership Meetings, or Tech Saturday Forum presentations. This is your club, and the educational offerings should in large part be driven by the membership.
As Chair of the Education Committee, I am willing to develop training or educational material in any area that you decide is appropriate and that would benefit the Club at large. I know that Jon Pearce WB2MNF, who heads of the Tech Committee feels the same way. What we need, though, is to know what it is that you want or need to learn about. We are always open to suggestions, and several of our recent offerings have been driven by suggestions made by Club members. We need for you to keep it up and to keep on bringing your ideas to us.
There are several good programs coming up in the near future, and I hope that they will be well-attended and well received. Let’s not let it stop there. Tell us what you want, and we will do our very best to deliver it. Drop a note to either Jon or me - our email addresses are on the Club roster - and we will do what we can to make it happen.
I would also like to take this opportunity to mention a new feature that I have added to my website, http://ww.ad2cs.com, that will make finding the new content much easier to locate. I talk about the website here because of the fact that the site holds a repository of almost all of my educational and informative writings, which I know are enjoyed by many of our members.
The new feature is the What’s New page. On this page, I will be listing the linked titles of any new articles, together with the linked page where the article is located and the date that the article was posted. This precludes the need to browse every page looking for new content, and the links will take the visitor directly to that new content.
I am frequently amazed that so many people have found my website, and that so many of those folks have had very nice things to say about the content that I post. I post that material for the benefit of the readers, and I hope that it is useful to any of you who happen to visit the site. That just about wraps it up for this column.
See you next month!
January 2024
By the time that you read this, many of the seats - but not all of them - will have been reserved for the GCARC Fox Hunt Antenna Build Class. The class will start on Monday 15 January 2024 and will run for four consecutive Monday evenings. In this class, we will build two separate components, and then we will marry and test those units, all in preparation for the historic GCARC FOX HUNT XXX. That is correct - the 30th Fox Hunt to be sponsored by our Club will most likely be held sometime in March!
The intent of this class is to help prepare some additional members for the challenge of the Fox Hunt by providing those folks with a high-quality known-performing directional three-element antenna coupled with a 4MHz offset attenuator.
While all of the antennas will be built the same, there will be one important difference that makes each antenna unique and specific to its owner - the connection at the radio end of the coaxial cable that serves as the feedline between the antenna and the radio. That connector will be chosen from the available types so that it will directly fit the user’s radio of choice for the Fox Hunt. By so doing, the user will not need to use an adapter to connect to his/her radio.
While many of us have Baofeng radios, and while they can certainly be used for fox hunting, by and large the Baofengs do not play well with the offset attenuator as has been shown by some published testing. As a result, it is my recommendation that each fox hunter who will use the antennas that we are going to build should select a non-Baofeng radio for the job if possible.
Don’t get me wrong - it is definitely possible to fox hunt with a Baofeng… it is just that there are some better options, and if you have one of those better options, why not use it?
As to the class itself, I would like to further extend the invitation to participate in this event. The cost is fifty dollars per seat, for which you will receive a working antenna and attenuator combination. The antenna will be comprised of PVC conduit for the boom, 3-D printed attachment fittings and safety caps, and tape measure tape strips as the elements. All parts and components will be provided. Payment for the class is to be made as soon as possible, but without exception before the class starts, and should be submitted via PayPal to [email protected]. There are three seats remaining available as of this writing.
On a different subject, the Ham Exam Preparation Class Session VII originally scheduled for startup in mid-January has been postponed until mid-April so as to gather up some additional registrants, sufficient to support running the classes. That session is slated to start the week of 22 April 2024. I apologize if anyone was counting on attending the January session, but there is simply not enough enrollment to support the classes at this point in time.
In the meanwhile, I will attempt to identify other educational events in which Club members may take an interest, and will do my best to bring such interesting events to you frequently.
See you next month!
By the time that you read this, many of the seats - but not all of them - will have been reserved for the GCARC Fox Hunt Antenna Build Class. The class will start on Monday 15 January 2024 and will run for four consecutive Monday evenings. In this class, we will build two separate components, and then we will marry and test those units, all in preparation for the historic GCARC FOX HUNT XXX. That is correct - the 30th Fox Hunt to be sponsored by our Club will most likely be held sometime in March!
The intent of this class is to help prepare some additional members for the challenge of the Fox Hunt by providing those folks with a high-quality known-performing directional three-element antenna coupled with a 4MHz offset attenuator.
While all of the antennas will be built the same, there will be one important difference that makes each antenna unique and specific to its owner - the connection at the radio end of the coaxial cable that serves as the feedline between the antenna and the radio. That connector will be chosen from the available types so that it will directly fit the user’s radio of choice for the Fox Hunt. By so doing, the user will not need to use an adapter to connect to his/her radio.
While many of us have Baofeng radios, and while they can certainly be used for fox hunting, by and large the Baofengs do not play well with the offset attenuator as has been shown by some published testing. As a result, it is my recommendation that each fox hunter who will use the antennas that we are going to build should select a non-Baofeng radio for the job if possible.
Don’t get me wrong - it is definitely possible to fox hunt with a Baofeng… it is just that there are some better options, and if you have one of those better options, why not use it?
As to the class itself, I would like to further extend the invitation to participate in this event. The cost is fifty dollars per seat, for which you will receive a working antenna and attenuator combination. The antenna will be comprised of PVC conduit for the boom, 3-D printed attachment fittings and safety caps, and tape measure tape strips as the elements. All parts and components will be provided. Payment for the class is to be made as soon as possible, but without exception before the class starts, and should be submitted via PayPal to [email protected]. There are three seats remaining available as of this writing.
On a different subject, the Ham Exam Preparation Class Session VII originally scheduled for startup in mid-January has been postponed until mid-April so as to gather up some additional registrants, sufficient to support running the classes. That session is slated to start the week of 22 April 2024. I apologize if anyone was counting on attending the January session, but there is simply not enough enrollment to support the classes at this point in time.
In the meanwhile, I will attempt to identify other educational events in which Club members may take an interest, and will do my best to bring such interesting events to you frequently.
See you next month!
December 2023
Session VI of the GCARC Ham Exam Preparation Classes is now complete and in the books. Although the test results were not exactly what I would have liked them to be, I realize that each of the test candidates none the less gave it a “best effort”, and I am confident that those who did not test or did not test successfully will take the exam at one of our monthly VE sessions. The monthly VE sessions are scheduled for a 1900 Hour start time on the second Thursday of each month, at the W2MMD Clubhouse. Remember that these exams are not time-limited, so there is no pressure to complete the test in a fixed amount of time. Another point to note is that I strongly recommend that any students who have not successfully tested for their license upgrades pursue those upgrades as soon as possible. The more time that goes by since taking the class, the more difficult that most people will find the exam to be.
I would like to take this opportunity to extend my congratulations and my thanks to all of the students who did successfully complete their planned license testing. I fully understand the time and effort that goes into preparing for one of these exams, and I am sure that I speak for my assisting instructors as well as for myself when I say that your time and efforts are greatly appreciated.
Looking ahead, I would like to try something new for the January sessions. I am not at all sure that there will be sufficient enrollment to support running the classes at all three levels. It is my guess that there will be adequate enrollment for the Element 3 (General) class, but not so much for the Element 2 and Element 4 classes. As an alternative, I would like to offer a specialized short-term (four-week) class on a specific topic from which each student will walk away with a working piece of amateur radio-related equipment that will have been built by the student. In so doing, the student will develop several physical skills and some specific knowledge that will serve the student well throughout his/her future radio experiences.
Specifically, I am talking about building and testing a directional two-meter antenna and attenuator unit that is perfectly suitable for fox hunting and other 2-meter RDF exercises. I know that we have offered both of these topics before, individually. However, we have not offered the two units together as a combined class topic. I believe that we would get enough enrollment in this program to make it worthwhile to run the class. Here is how it would work :
The class would run for a series of four Monday evenings starting in mid-January.
The specific units built would be :
The student would develop certain skills, as was already mentioned, during this class.
Those skills would include :
This is a new idea that has not been widely discussed at this point. I am not even sure that this is in fact going to be a workable program, though I cannot see why it should not be. So… what I am looking for is some responses.
Who Would Be Interested In Attending A Class Of This Type?
If this is something to which you would be willing to commit a series of four Monday evenings, drop me an e-mail and let me know.
If you do not have a fox hunt antenna and/or attenuator for that antenna, or if you want another set-up, this is a great way not only to obtain one, but to build it yourself, have some fun doing it, and learn some new skills along the way.
See you next month!
Session VI of the GCARC Ham Exam Preparation Classes is now complete and in the books. Although the test results were not exactly what I would have liked them to be, I realize that each of the test candidates none the less gave it a “best effort”, and I am confident that those who did not test or did not test successfully will take the exam at one of our monthly VE sessions. The monthly VE sessions are scheduled for a 1900 Hour start time on the second Thursday of each month, at the W2MMD Clubhouse. Remember that these exams are not time-limited, so there is no pressure to complete the test in a fixed amount of time. Another point to note is that I strongly recommend that any students who have not successfully tested for their license upgrades pursue those upgrades as soon as possible. The more time that goes by since taking the class, the more difficult that most people will find the exam to be.
I would like to take this opportunity to extend my congratulations and my thanks to all of the students who did successfully complete their planned license testing. I fully understand the time and effort that goes into preparing for one of these exams, and I am sure that I speak for my assisting instructors as well as for myself when I say that your time and efforts are greatly appreciated.
Looking ahead, I would like to try something new for the January sessions. I am not at all sure that there will be sufficient enrollment to support running the classes at all three levels. It is my guess that there will be adequate enrollment for the Element 3 (General) class, but not so much for the Element 2 and Element 4 classes. As an alternative, I would like to offer a specialized short-term (four-week) class on a specific topic from which each student will walk away with a working piece of amateur radio-related equipment that will have been built by the student. In so doing, the student will develop several physical skills and some specific knowledge that will serve the student well throughout his/her future radio experiences.
Specifically, I am talking about building and testing a directional two-meter antenna and attenuator unit that is perfectly suitable for fox hunting and other 2-meter RDF exercises. I know that we have offered both of these topics before, individually. However, we have not offered the two units together as a combined class topic. I believe that we would get enough enrollment in this program to make it worthwhile to run the class. Here is how it would work :
The class would run for a series of four Monday evenings starting in mid-January.
- A fixed price will be developed that will include all materials necessary to complete the build.
The specific units built would be :
- A tape-measure three-element Yagi-type directional antenna built on a PVC pipe boom with a rubber hand grip, a capped tube, and 3D-printed plastic fitments for element attachment and element end capping
- A KC9ON 4 MHz Offset Attenuator with BNC connectors and a thirty-inch connecting cable for attachment to a hand-held radio.
The student would develop certain skills, as was already mentioned, during this class.
Those skills would include :
- Electronic Kit Assembly - Parts identification, following directions, and PCB soldering
- Electronics Testing - Use of oscilloscope to check operation of oscillator in attenuator
- Coaxial Cable Handling - Stripping and prepping coax, installing terminals to coaxial cable
- Antenna Physical Layout - Measuring element length, measuring driven element position, and parasitic element spacing
- Antenna Physical Construction - Assembling the component parts into a whole unit
- Antenna Testing - Use of NanoVNA or other antenna analyzer to test the assembled antenna for frequency response
This is a new idea that has not been widely discussed at this point. I am not even sure that this is in fact going to be a workable program, though I cannot see why it should not be. So… what I am looking for is some responses.
Who Would Be Interested In Attending A Class Of This Type?
If this is something to which you would be willing to commit a series of four Monday evenings, drop me an e-mail and let me know.
If you do not have a fox hunt antenna and/or attenuator for that antenna, or if you want another set-up, this is a great way not only to obtain one, but to build it yourself, have some fun doing it, and learn some new skills along the way.
See you next month!
November 2023
OK - we are two-thirds of the way through Session VI of the Ham Exam Preparation Class, and already I am looking for enrollees for Session VII. Session VII is scheduled to begin the week of 8 January 2024 - Monday 8 January for Element 2, Tuesday 9 January for Element 3, and Friday 12 January for Element 4. These classes will test out during the week of 11 March 2024. Enrollment is now open, and I look forward to another successful session of classes.
What I am especially looking forward to, however, is a new idea that we have come up with, which will be of benefit to any and all students who successfully complete one of the GCARC license exam prep classes. This is a concept that was proposed by our Club President Jon Pearce WB2MNF, and is something that is long overdue. The idea is that we offer an evening of exposure to “Where Do I Go From Here” items that will hopefully help to guide the new ham or the recently upgraded ham to Amateur Radio activities in which those individuals may have an interest.
There are so many different topics that can be presented in an introductory manner to these folks. Quite frankly, by that time, most of the students will have grown tired of hearing me speak, so these ideas will be floated by other knowledgeable Club members. We hope to attract the best people for each topic, with that “best” appellation meaning that the folks chosen to present a topic are those who have specific knowledge and experience in the topic area.
We are continually looking for topic ideas, and for volunteers to help present these topics to the program completers. Not everyone is comfortable speaking to a group of people, and those who may be comfortable in that setting may not have the skills or knowledge to present the topic to a group. For that reason, I am asking for Club members to suggest topics for presentation, and also for Club members who may be comfortable as a speaker to step up and offer their services. I cannot promise that any specific idea or volunteer will be selected, but all will be considered.
Please shoot an e-mail to me ([email protected]) with your idea(s) and/or willingness to be a presenter. Any suggestions will be reviewed by the Education Committee and the Tech Committee as the program is finalized.
The goal is to make this event a regular occurrence after the wind-up of each Ham Exam Preparation Class session.
Until next month…
OK - we are two-thirds of the way through Session VI of the Ham Exam Preparation Class, and already I am looking for enrollees for Session VII. Session VII is scheduled to begin the week of 8 January 2024 - Monday 8 January for Element 2, Tuesday 9 January for Element 3, and Friday 12 January for Element 4. These classes will test out during the week of 11 March 2024. Enrollment is now open, and I look forward to another successful session of classes.
What I am especially looking forward to, however, is a new idea that we have come up with, which will be of benefit to any and all students who successfully complete one of the GCARC license exam prep classes. This is a concept that was proposed by our Club President Jon Pearce WB2MNF, and is something that is long overdue. The idea is that we offer an evening of exposure to “Where Do I Go From Here” items that will hopefully help to guide the new ham or the recently upgraded ham to Amateur Radio activities in which those individuals may have an interest.
There are so many different topics that can be presented in an introductory manner to these folks. Quite frankly, by that time, most of the students will have grown tired of hearing me speak, so these ideas will be floated by other knowledgeable Club members. We hope to attract the best people for each topic, with that “best” appellation meaning that the folks chosen to present a topic are those who have specific knowledge and experience in the topic area.
We are continually looking for topic ideas, and for volunteers to help present these topics to the program completers. Not everyone is comfortable speaking to a group of people, and those who may be comfortable in that setting may not have the skills or knowledge to present the topic to a group. For that reason, I am asking for Club members to suggest topics for presentation, and also for Club members who may be comfortable as a speaker to step up and offer their services. I cannot promise that any specific idea or volunteer will be selected, but all will be considered.
Please shoot an e-mail to me ([email protected]) with your idea(s) and/or willingness to be a presenter. Any suggestions will be reviewed by the Education Committee and the Tech Committee as the program is finalized.
The goal is to make this event a regular occurrence after the wind-up of each Ham Exam Preparation Class session.
Until next month…
SMD class attendees, clockwise from the foreground, are Beth Kraus KE2BPE, Bruce Canino KD2LBU, Mike Thompson KG4JYA, Greg Ciraula W5DO, Court Smith KD2SPJ, and Earl Moore KD2NCH.
October 2023
We are now two weeks into the new session of Ham Exam Preparation Classes - Session VI, with a total of sixteen enrollees. We have three potential new hams in the Element 3 class, five potential upgrades in the Element 3 class, and eight potential upgrades in the Element 4 class.
The class sizes aside, our program is doing its usual level best at providing the students with the knowledge and information needed to score well on their FCC exams. Last week (as of this writing), our Element 2 class had just been introduced to the chemical process by which electricity is produced. We used a series of copper and zinc electrodes and a bag of lemons from the grocery store as batteries, lighting LED’s with the current produced. This experiment went a long way towards explaining the electrochemical generation process as found in storage batteries commonly used in ham shacks.
It is interesting to watch the reactions of the students to seeing electricity coming from a piece of fruit. What is even more interesting is their responses to the teaching points developed from such a demonstration. In that class meeting, we went on to demonstrate the action of transistors, specifically the 2N3904 NPN silicon transistor, being operated as a switch in one simple circuit, and as an amplifier in another. This is done through use of a powered breadboard, a signal generator, and an oscilloscope, as well as a digital voltmeter, thus demonstrating the use of some basic test equipment as well. Classes like this one are fun for me.
I also had a lot of fun this past Saturday (23 September) in our SMD soldering class. We had about a half-dozen students, and the instruction was aided by the presence of John Zaruba Jr K2ZA, who did a great job of helping out with the soldering and the testing of completed circuits. Each student was given a small circuit board and a handful of surface-mount components, together with a schematic sheet of the circuits to be built. The students did a great job of assembling the circuits, with every student successfully completing at least one of the two project circuits. What is important is that they learned some key skills in dealing with SMD components - both what to do and what not to do.
My thanks to all those who turned out as students, to John for his instructional help, and to Jon Pearce WB2MNF for taking some photographs of this event. I hope to be able to put on similar educational and informative training events as time goes by. What I need is for you folks - the GCARC members - to let me know what you want to see or learn. I am open to suggestions from our membership.
See you next month.
We are now two weeks into the new session of Ham Exam Preparation Classes - Session VI, with a total of sixteen enrollees. We have three potential new hams in the Element 3 class, five potential upgrades in the Element 3 class, and eight potential upgrades in the Element 4 class.
The class sizes aside, our program is doing its usual level best at providing the students with the knowledge and information needed to score well on their FCC exams. Last week (as of this writing), our Element 2 class had just been introduced to the chemical process by which electricity is produced. We used a series of copper and zinc electrodes and a bag of lemons from the grocery store as batteries, lighting LED’s with the current produced. This experiment went a long way towards explaining the electrochemical generation process as found in storage batteries commonly used in ham shacks.
It is interesting to watch the reactions of the students to seeing electricity coming from a piece of fruit. What is even more interesting is their responses to the teaching points developed from such a demonstration. In that class meeting, we went on to demonstrate the action of transistors, specifically the 2N3904 NPN silicon transistor, being operated as a switch in one simple circuit, and as an amplifier in another. This is done through use of a powered breadboard, a signal generator, and an oscilloscope, as well as a digital voltmeter, thus demonstrating the use of some basic test equipment as well. Classes like this one are fun for me.
I also had a lot of fun this past Saturday (23 September) in our SMD soldering class. We had about a half-dozen students, and the instruction was aided by the presence of John Zaruba Jr K2ZA, who did a great job of helping out with the soldering and the testing of completed circuits. Each student was given a small circuit board and a handful of surface-mount components, together with a schematic sheet of the circuits to be built. The students did a great job of assembling the circuits, with every student successfully completing at least one of the two project circuits. What is important is that they learned some key skills in dealing with SMD components - both what to do and what not to do.
My thanks to all those who turned out as students, to John for his instructional help, and to Jon Pearce WB2MNF for taking some photographs of this event. I hope to be able to put on similar educational and informative training events as time goes by. What I need is for you folks - the GCARC members - to let me know what you want to see or learn. I am open to suggestions from our membership.
See you next month.
September 2023
The dates for the next three sessions of the GCARC Ham Exam Preparation Classes have been posted, and are on the website and also on the ARRL website for your convenience. I am not planning four sessions this school year. Instead, I am planning only three. The first one, Session VI, will run from the week of 11 September through the week of 13 November 2023. The second session, Session VII, is scheduled for the weeks of 8 January through 15 March 2024, and Session VII is set for the weeks of 22 April through 28 June 2024.
There has been a cost increase to $35.00 for the classes this school year, as costs of everything from books to printer paper to toner have increased. This price should remain throughout the school year, however, with all three sessions fixed at that price level - unless something really unwelcome happens.
I have had some enrollees since the end of the last session, back in June. There is still quite a bit of demand for our classes, largely because of how successful they are in producing new licensees and license upgrades. I hope that this continues to be the case as time goes by, because I truly believe that the hobby of Amateur Radio is growing every day.
Moving on, it goes without saying that we are all saddened by the recent passing of longtime Club member and Director Chuck Colabrese WA2TML (SK). The reason that I mention this is because Chuck was also a valued member of the GCARC instructional team, instrumental in putting on these classes as we do. Despite our sadness, I am pleased to announce that Club member John Zaruba Jr K2ZA has volunteered to fill the vacancy in the instructional line-up created by Chuck’s passing. I am grateful to John for stepping up. I know that he will be a big help to me in putting on the Amateur Extra (Element 4) classes, as that is the spot left vacant. John is an Extra-rated ham, and has been active in the Club for many years, having served in various leadership positions over the years. He brings with him a wealth of knowledge and practical experience, and has been an ARRL certified instructor for several years. I am quite happy to have John join our team.
On another topic, September brings us back to our twice-monthly TechNet ZOOM program. The Technical Committee will be providing some information about the upcoming topics to be covered this year. Monday, September 18, 2023 is the first TechNet since the Summer hiatus. Stay tuned for that.
Finally, I would like to remind the Club that our surface-mount soldering class is scheduled for Saturday, 23 September at 0900 at the Clubhouse. This class is a follow-up to the THT classes that were held back in July, which were very well attended. I hope to see just as many students in this class. Please let me know if you are interested in attending so that I can obtain adequate supplies for all students.
I will be presenting a talk on the tips and tricks of soldering as one of the Forums at our Hamfest on 10 September. Please stop in and give a listen - I promise it will be worth your time.
Oh yeah - one other thing I would like to mention. One of our Element 3 (General) students in Session IV who did not test with us, took and passed her Element 3 FCC exam at a local ham club’s Field Day event in the area in which she lives. Congratulations to Jackie Blanch KD2JBY, a Club member from Manchester Township (Ocean County), on earning her General.
That’s it for now… see you next month!
The dates for the next three sessions of the GCARC Ham Exam Preparation Classes have been posted, and are on the website and also on the ARRL website for your convenience. I am not planning four sessions this school year. Instead, I am planning only three. The first one, Session VI, will run from the week of 11 September through the week of 13 November 2023. The second session, Session VII, is scheduled for the weeks of 8 January through 15 March 2024, and Session VII is set for the weeks of 22 April through 28 June 2024.
There has been a cost increase to $35.00 for the classes this school year, as costs of everything from books to printer paper to toner have increased. This price should remain throughout the school year, however, with all three sessions fixed at that price level - unless something really unwelcome happens.
I have had some enrollees since the end of the last session, back in June. There is still quite a bit of demand for our classes, largely because of how successful they are in producing new licensees and license upgrades. I hope that this continues to be the case as time goes by, because I truly believe that the hobby of Amateur Radio is growing every day.
Moving on, it goes without saying that we are all saddened by the recent passing of longtime Club member and Director Chuck Colabrese WA2TML (SK). The reason that I mention this is because Chuck was also a valued member of the GCARC instructional team, instrumental in putting on these classes as we do. Despite our sadness, I am pleased to announce that Club member John Zaruba Jr K2ZA has volunteered to fill the vacancy in the instructional line-up created by Chuck’s passing. I am grateful to John for stepping up. I know that he will be a big help to me in putting on the Amateur Extra (Element 4) classes, as that is the spot left vacant. John is an Extra-rated ham, and has been active in the Club for many years, having served in various leadership positions over the years. He brings with him a wealth of knowledge and practical experience, and has been an ARRL certified instructor for several years. I am quite happy to have John join our team.
On another topic, September brings us back to our twice-monthly TechNet ZOOM program. The Technical Committee will be providing some information about the upcoming topics to be covered this year. Monday, September 18, 2023 is the first TechNet since the Summer hiatus. Stay tuned for that.
Finally, I would like to remind the Club that our surface-mount soldering class is scheduled for Saturday, 23 September at 0900 at the Clubhouse. This class is a follow-up to the THT classes that were held back in July, which were very well attended. I hope to see just as many students in this class. Please let me know if you are interested in attending so that I can obtain adequate supplies for all students.
I will be presenting a talk on the tips and tricks of soldering as one of the Forums at our Hamfest on 10 September. Please stop in and give a listen - I promise it will be worth your time.
Oh yeah - one other thing I would like to mention. One of our Element 3 (General) students in Session IV who did not test with us, took and passed her Element 3 FCC exam at a local ham club’s Field Day event in the area in which she lives. Congratulations to Jackie Blanch KD2JBY, a Club member from Manchester Township (Ocean County), on earning her General.
That’s it for now… see you next month!
August 2023
This month, I am going to talk about something just a little bit different, while still in the educational realm. A little while ago, I had the germ of an idea to hold a two-part class on some basic soldering techniques, geared towards through hole components and involving a little bit more than just how to solder. I thought that I might get five or six enrollees, and that it would be easy - an easy fit in the Clubhouse, an easy teach with enough time for each student, and an easy review. Boy, was I ever wrong!
First off, I had a total of fourteen Club members sign up for the class :
In order to accommodate fourteen people around the table in the Clubhouse, I placed a second table end-to-end with the main table - it was like a Thanksgiving Day dinner arrangement!
The day started with some basic theory and review of terms and terminology, solder basics, and the tools required, as well as a word or two about safety. I had designed two simple circuits for the students to build, each on his own 40mm x 60mm piece of perfboard. I had each student keep working their circuits until the circuits were operational. A powered breadboard was available to test the circuit operation, together with an oscilloscope and a signal generator. Not everybody got through building both circuits that morning, but some did. Some students were there working away as late as 1430 Hours, long after the bulk of the students had gone home. A good time was had by all.
The second session, held on the following Saturday, involved first the assembly of a standard kit that I had put together, which involved soldering a three-pin jumper to a manufactured printed circuit board, followed by a high-density 15-pin D-sub connector and a Mini-DIN 6-pin connector. The concept was to give some hands-on practice with closely-spaced pins on an actual PCB. After completion of that kit, each student started in on whatever personal kits they had brought with them for the class. Some built 40-meter Pixie QRP CW transceivers, while others built Fox Hunt attenuators, while others built code practice oscillators, while… well, you get the idea.
Through both Saturday mornings, I was ably assisted in the instruction by John Zaruba Jr, K2ZA, who has extensive experience in this area. John was a huge help to me, in that between the two of us, no student went very long waiting for personal assistance with whatever problem had been encountered.
This program is being followed up with another soldering class, with this new one covering surface mount device (SMD) soldering. I have tentatively set a date of 23 September for that class. Please let me know if you are interested in attending so that I can obtain adequate supplies for all students.
On another topic, it is almost time to start up the Ham Exam Preparation Classes Session VI. I have not yet set the dates for this year’s classes, but I will be doing so in the next few days. In the meantime, I already have three or four enrollees ready to go.
Of course, on a sadder note, I am looking for a new assisting instructor for the Amateur Extra class. Any volunteers?
That’s it for now… see you next month!
This month, I am going to talk about something just a little bit different, while still in the educational realm. A little while ago, I had the germ of an idea to hold a two-part class on some basic soldering techniques, geared towards through hole components and involving a little bit more than just how to solder. I thought that I might get five or six enrollees, and that it would be easy - an easy fit in the Clubhouse, an easy teach with enough time for each student, and an easy review. Boy, was I ever wrong!
First off, I had a total of fourteen Club members sign up for the class :
- Bruce Canino, KD2LBU
- Anthony Cerami, N2OAC
- Greg Ciraula, W5DO
- Ralph Daggan, KE2AHX
- Gary Hewitt, N2WHV
- Gary Kinney, KC2ULS
- Earl Moore, KC2NCH
- Mike Resnick, N2WOQ
- Alex Rodriquez, N5MG
- Courtney Smith, KD2SPJ
- Randy Testa, KC3VCC
- Mike Thompson, KG4JYA
- Chuck White, KE2BPD
- Marty Wilt, W2ILT
In order to accommodate fourteen people around the table in the Clubhouse, I placed a second table end-to-end with the main table - it was like a Thanksgiving Day dinner arrangement!
The day started with some basic theory and review of terms and terminology, solder basics, and the tools required, as well as a word or two about safety. I had designed two simple circuits for the students to build, each on his own 40mm x 60mm piece of perfboard. I had each student keep working their circuits until the circuits were operational. A powered breadboard was available to test the circuit operation, together with an oscilloscope and a signal generator. Not everybody got through building both circuits that morning, but some did. Some students were there working away as late as 1430 Hours, long after the bulk of the students had gone home. A good time was had by all.
The second session, held on the following Saturday, involved first the assembly of a standard kit that I had put together, which involved soldering a three-pin jumper to a manufactured printed circuit board, followed by a high-density 15-pin D-sub connector and a Mini-DIN 6-pin connector. The concept was to give some hands-on practice with closely-spaced pins on an actual PCB. After completion of that kit, each student started in on whatever personal kits they had brought with them for the class. Some built 40-meter Pixie QRP CW transceivers, while others built Fox Hunt attenuators, while others built code practice oscillators, while… well, you get the idea.
Through both Saturday mornings, I was ably assisted in the instruction by John Zaruba Jr, K2ZA, who has extensive experience in this area. John was a huge help to me, in that between the two of us, no student went very long waiting for personal assistance with whatever problem had been encountered.
This program is being followed up with another soldering class, with this new one covering surface mount device (SMD) soldering. I have tentatively set a date of 23 September for that class. Please let me know if you are interested in attending so that I can obtain adequate supplies for all students.
On another topic, it is almost time to start up the Ham Exam Preparation Classes Session VI. I have not yet set the dates for this year’s classes, but I will be doing so in the next few days. In the meantime, I already have three or four enrollees ready to go.
Of course, on a sadder note, I am looking for a new assisting instructor for the Amateur Extra class. Any volunteers?
That’s it for now… see you next month!
July 2023
Summer is here, and that means a slow-down in Educational Committee activities. Not a complete halt, mind you, but yes… a slow-down.
I want to start out by extending my heartfelt thanks and congratulations to all of those students who recently took - and passed - their FCC license exams. We had a total of nine students who tested, and a total of nine students who earned their licenses or their upgrades.
There were five Element 2 (Technician) candidates :
While none of these licenses are active in the FCC ULS Database as of this writing, these individuals have all none the less worked for and earned their licenses, regardless how slow the FCC process is right now.
Similarly, we had four Element 3 (General) candidates :
As with the new licenses, these upgrades are not yet posted in the ULS Database, but the great news is that the lack of a posting does not prohibit use of the new privileges, so long as the licensee appends the string /AG to his/her call sign when exercising the new General class privileges.
The efforts put forth by these students were matched only by the efforts of the assisting instructors. We can easily understand what the students get out of it - a new license or license privileges… but what do the instructors get out of this whole process? I can answer that quite simply… SATISFACTION! Satisfaction at seeing the neophyte operators go from zero knowledge on the subject to a level of understanding that is sufficient to pass the FCC exams. Satisfaction at doing a job and doing it well, and for no other reason than just that satisfaction.
I could not possibly operate all of these classes without the assistance of these other instructors. This past session, Session V, those assisting instructors were Gary Reed N2QEE and Jim Wright N2GXJ. My hat is off to both of these gentlemen; they have my undying gratitude. You see, this past session, I had decided to give the assisting instructors a break and because the class sizes were as small as they were, I had planned to handle the classes by myself. But that is not at all what happened. Without being asked, both of these gentlemen showed up to teach the classes that they have helped with before. That level of commitment certainly deserves recognition, above and beyond the simple certificate that the ARRL offers.
Classes will resume in the fall, shortly after Labor Day. In the meantime, don’t forget the Soldering Seminar : Learn To Solder classes to be held on the 15th and 22nd of July at the W2MMD Clubhouse. Be sure to reach out to me if you are interested in participating in these classes.
That’s it for now… see you next month!
Summer is here, and that means a slow-down in Educational Committee activities. Not a complete halt, mind you, but yes… a slow-down.
I want to start out by extending my heartfelt thanks and congratulations to all of those students who recently took - and passed - their FCC license exams. We had a total of nine students who tested, and a total of nine students who earned their licenses or their upgrades.
There were five Element 2 (Technician) candidates :
- Beth Kraus, KE2BPE, from Vineland, NJ
- Charles White, KE2BPD, from Sewell, NJ
- Dan Goulianos, from Wenonah, NJ
- Richard Nicholas, KC3WIR, from Swarthmore, PA
- Aimee Ortiz, from Clementon, NJ
While none of these licenses are active in the FCC ULS Database as of this writing, these individuals have all none the less worked for and earned their licenses, regardless how slow the FCC process is right now.
Similarly, we had four Element 3 (General) candidates :
- Melissa Seidner, KE2BEK (Club member from Burlington, NJ)
- Ethan Yost, KE2AVA (Club member from Burlington, NJ)
- Bert Espanol, N3PKH, Club member from Swedesboro, NJ
- Jacques Latoison, KC3VYU (Club member from Chester, PA)
As with the new licenses, these upgrades are not yet posted in the ULS Database, but the great news is that the lack of a posting does not prohibit use of the new privileges, so long as the licensee appends the string /AG to his/her call sign when exercising the new General class privileges.
The efforts put forth by these students were matched only by the efforts of the assisting instructors. We can easily understand what the students get out of it - a new license or license privileges… but what do the instructors get out of this whole process? I can answer that quite simply… SATISFACTION! Satisfaction at seeing the neophyte operators go from zero knowledge on the subject to a level of understanding that is sufficient to pass the FCC exams. Satisfaction at doing a job and doing it well, and for no other reason than just that satisfaction.
I could not possibly operate all of these classes without the assistance of these other instructors. This past session, Session V, those assisting instructors were Gary Reed N2QEE and Jim Wright N2GXJ. My hat is off to both of these gentlemen; they have my undying gratitude. You see, this past session, I had decided to give the assisting instructors a break and because the class sizes were as small as they were, I had planned to handle the classes by myself. But that is not at all what happened. Without being asked, both of these gentlemen showed up to teach the classes that they have helped with before. That level of commitment certainly deserves recognition, above and beyond the simple certificate that the ARRL offers.
Classes will resume in the fall, shortly after Labor Day. In the meantime, don’t forget the Soldering Seminar : Learn To Solder classes to be held on the 15th and 22nd of July at the W2MMD Clubhouse. Be sure to reach out to me if you are interested in participating in these classes.
That’s it for now… see you next month!
June 2023
It is that time once again… time for the monthly Education Committee column. It seems like all that I do is talk about the same things… what is going on with the current license prep classes, and so forth. This month, I am going to take a slightly different approach. I am going to put the ball into your hands and let you try to score with it.
Here is what I mean. The Education Committee exists to serve the educational needs of the Club’s members as a whole, not just in a small way or serving a small group of those members. With that thought in mind, I want to offer you a challenge. I want to know what you want or need to learn… or to be taught. For example, we have talked in the past about basic troubleshooting. Maybe some folks would like to have a more advanced session on that. Maybe some members would like to learn more about kit assembly in the lack of clear assembly instructions. (There is a method for achieving such assembly tasks.) Maybe there is some other skill at which you want to become more proficient. Whatever it is, I want to know about it!
We have several avenues open to us when it comes to teaching the members. We have formalized multi-session classroom setting possibilities. We have the TechNet option. We have the Tech Saturday Forum path. We can also do one or two-off special sessions for specific skills.
I am already planning one such special two-session program for some time in July, with the topic and details to be announced shortly. I think that this one might appeal to a good-sized group of members, but I could be wrong.
I have considered quick sessions on topics such as how to properly install a PL-259 connector, or how to properly install Anderson PowerPoles® onto wires. I have already done some one-on-one training along these lines, but I think that there may be some more widespread interest in such training. How about the best way to assemble a simple wire dipole? Or to build a simple balun? The list goes on and on.
Take some time and think about it, and then drop me an email at [email protected] (or at any email address that you have for me) with any topics that interest you. I will consider all suggestions, and will make happen as many of them as is possible.
On another topic, I am going to take a minute to put in a shameless plug. When you get a minute, point your web browser to www.ad2cs.com and do some exploring. As time goes by, there will be more content added, and I am adding to the collection every week. Some of the material there has already been published, but there is also some previously unpublished stuff there. Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas for articles or slideshows that you want to see. Also, check back periodically to see what is new!
Oh yeah! I almost forgot to mention the Ham Exam Preparation Class Session V which is currently under way. There are six students in the Element 2 class, and four in the Element 3 group. The was only one enrollee for the Element 4 class, but he did not want to be a group of one, so he decided to wait for another session. This session will finish up by the end of June, with the exam results most likely showing up in July. While all of the Element 3 students are currently Club members, none of the Element 2 students have joined our Club at this point. More to come on this as things develop!
That is all for this month… see you next time.
It is that time once again… time for the monthly Education Committee column. It seems like all that I do is talk about the same things… what is going on with the current license prep classes, and so forth. This month, I am going to take a slightly different approach. I am going to put the ball into your hands and let you try to score with it.
Here is what I mean. The Education Committee exists to serve the educational needs of the Club’s members as a whole, not just in a small way or serving a small group of those members. With that thought in mind, I want to offer you a challenge. I want to know what you want or need to learn… or to be taught. For example, we have talked in the past about basic troubleshooting. Maybe some folks would like to have a more advanced session on that. Maybe some members would like to learn more about kit assembly in the lack of clear assembly instructions. (There is a method for achieving such assembly tasks.) Maybe there is some other skill at which you want to become more proficient. Whatever it is, I want to know about it!
We have several avenues open to us when it comes to teaching the members. We have formalized multi-session classroom setting possibilities. We have the TechNet option. We have the Tech Saturday Forum path. We can also do one or two-off special sessions for specific skills.
I am already planning one such special two-session program for some time in July, with the topic and details to be announced shortly. I think that this one might appeal to a good-sized group of members, but I could be wrong.
I have considered quick sessions on topics such as how to properly install a PL-259 connector, or how to properly install Anderson PowerPoles® onto wires. I have already done some one-on-one training along these lines, but I think that there may be some more widespread interest in such training. How about the best way to assemble a simple wire dipole? Or to build a simple balun? The list goes on and on.
Take some time and think about it, and then drop me an email at [email protected] (or at any email address that you have for me) with any topics that interest you. I will consider all suggestions, and will make happen as many of them as is possible.
On another topic, I am going to take a minute to put in a shameless plug. When you get a minute, point your web browser to www.ad2cs.com and do some exploring. As time goes by, there will be more content added, and I am adding to the collection every week. Some of the material there has already been published, but there is also some previously unpublished stuff there. Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas for articles or slideshows that you want to see. Also, check back periodically to see what is new!
Oh yeah! I almost forgot to mention the Ham Exam Preparation Class Session V which is currently under way. There are six students in the Element 2 class, and four in the Element 3 group. The was only one enrollee for the Element 4 class, but he did not want to be a group of one, so he decided to wait for another session. This session will finish up by the end of June, with the exam results most likely showing up in July. While all of the Element 3 students are currently Club members, none of the Element 2 students have joined our Club at this point. More to come on this as things develop!
That is all for this month… see you next time.
May 2023
Session IV of the GCARC Ham Exam Preparation Class series is now in the books, so let’s talk a little bit about the outcomes. We started out with a total of 22 students - 5 Technician (Element 2), 8 General (Element 3), and 9 Amateur Extra (Element 4). Before the classes were completed, however, two of those students, one each in the Element 3 and Element 4 groups, left the class and successfully tested out early due to family and/or job obligations.
I had learned by experience that the Element 4 classes need a full nine weeks of classroom time, while the other two Elements can be covered in the originally-planned eight weeks of instruction. As a result, I have modified the schedule slightly to accommodate this need, and I will maintain that pattern going forward. All sessions starting in September will be a total of ten weeks, which include nine weeks of instruction plus the exam in the tenth week.
So… how did the numbers shake out? Well… we had a bang-up test session on Tuesday, 18 April, with eleven of our students testing between the Element 2 and the Element 3 groups, plus another (scheduled) visitor who came by for testing at the Element 2 level. Thus, we started out with six students taking each exam, the Element 2 exam and the Element 3 exam.
All of the element 2 candidates successfully completed their exams, with one of them going on to attempt and succeed at the Element 3 exam as well. Of the six initial Element 3 candidates, five of them successfully passed their exams, with only one of them falling slightly short. That individual tells us that a retake of the exam is in the near future.
That Tuesday evening was successful in some other ways. To begin, we gained four new Club members that night, and another one the next day, all from that test session - but not all from the classes. The visiting candidate and her better half both joined the Club, and they also enrolled in the Element 3 class for Session V which begins the week of 1 May 2023. Since the test session, another one of our Element 2 students also enrolled in the Element 3 class for the next session.
Now on to Friday, 21 April 2023, and the Element 4 exam. Here we had a total of six candidates sit for the exam, with three of them successfully completing the exam. Element 4 is the most difficult material to master, and there is considerably more to cover here than there is in the Element 2 and Element 3 classes. It is to be expected that this will be a more challenging exam, requiring the most complete preparation possible. In post-exam reviews, it became evident that those who did not pass were not as consistent with taking the online practice tests than were the successful candidates. Every little bit is important when it comes to passing this test. The good news is that in all three cases, the candidates tell me that they will be studying and will come back to one of our regular monthly test sessions to re-take the exam. Best of luck to those individuals.
With Session IV in the record books, Session V is coming up right behind it, starting on 1 May 2023 and following the same Monday Technician, Tuesday General, and Friday Amateur Extra schedule as has been the norm.
There is still time for students to enroll in these classes, and there are still some seats open. I encourage anyone who wants to upgrade his or her license to enroll and to actively participate in the class meetings.
I also encourage all GCARC members to motivate those folks that you know have an interest in obtaining an amateur license to enroll and take the Technician class.
It is still a great bargain at a $30.00 class fee for the program.
See you next month…
That just about does it for this month… see you all next time!
Session IV of the GCARC Ham Exam Preparation Class series is now in the books, so let’s talk a little bit about the outcomes. We started out with a total of 22 students - 5 Technician (Element 2), 8 General (Element 3), and 9 Amateur Extra (Element 4). Before the classes were completed, however, two of those students, one each in the Element 3 and Element 4 groups, left the class and successfully tested out early due to family and/or job obligations.
I had learned by experience that the Element 4 classes need a full nine weeks of classroom time, while the other two Elements can be covered in the originally-planned eight weeks of instruction. As a result, I have modified the schedule slightly to accommodate this need, and I will maintain that pattern going forward. All sessions starting in September will be a total of ten weeks, which include nine weeks of instruction plus the exam in the tenth week.
So… how did the numbers shake out? Well… we had a bang-up test session on Tuesday, 18 April, with eleven of our students testing between the Element 2 and the Element 3 groups, plus another (scheduled) visitor who came by for testing at the Element 2 level. Thus, we started out with six students taking each exam, the Element 2 exam and the Element 3 exam.
All of the element 2 candidates successfully completed their exams, with one of them going on to attempt and succeed at the Element 3 exam as well. Of the six initial Element 3 candidates, five of them successfully passed their exams, with only one of them falling slightly short. That individual tells us that a retake of the exam is in the near future.
That Tuesday evening was successful in some other ways. To begin, we gained four new Club members that night, and another one the next day, all from that test session - but not all from the classes. The visiting candidate and her better half both joined the Club, and they also enrolled in the Element 3 class for Session V which begins the week of 1 May 2023. Since the test session, another one of our Element 2 students also enrolled in the Element 3 class for the next session.
Now on to Friday, 21 April 2023, and the Element 4 exam. Here we had a total of six candidates sit for the exam, with three of them successfully completing the exam. Element 4 is the most difficult material to master, and there is considerably more to cover here than there is in the Element 2 and Element 3 classes. It is to be expected that this will be a more challenging exam, requiring the most complete preparation possible. In post-exam reviews, it became evident that those who did not pass were not as consistent with taking the online practice tests than were the successful candidates. Every little bit is important when it comes to passing this test. The good news is that in all three cases, the candidates tell me that they will be studying and will come back to one of our regular monthly test sessions to re-take the exam. Best of luck to those individuals.
With Session IV in the record books, Session V is coming up right behind it, starting on 1 May 2023 and following the same Monday Technician, Tuesday General, and Friday Amateur Extra schedule as has been the norm.
There is still time for students to enroll in these classes, and there are still some seats open. I encourage anyone who wants to upgrade his or her license to enroll and to actively participate in the class meetings.
I also encourage all GCARC members to motivate those folks that you know have an interest in obtaining an amateur license to enroll and take the Technician class.
It is still a great bargain at a $30.00 class fee for the program.
See you next month…
That just about does it for this month… see you all next time!
April 2023
Session IV of the GCARC Ham Exam Preparation Classes is now over the hump - it is more than half-way completed. We did a practice test last week (as of this writing) in the Technician class and four out of the five students passed it handily - they would have scored well enough on the real thing to have attained their licenses.
Practice tests are in store for the other classes as well in the coming weeks, but I heartily encourage anyone who is seeking or even considering a new license or an upgrade to log into : https://hamexam.org and register with the site. There is no cost, and if you are registered, the site will tailor delivered content to you as regards practice tests and the flash cards. The site will keep track of your progress, and you will see the questions that you keep getting wrong until you start getting them right! I use this website in my classes, and it is well-received by the students. It is a great site for anyone with an interest in moving forward in amateur radio.
Session V is shaping up to have enough attendees to make it worthwhile holding the classes again this Spring. The starting dates for that session will be 1 May (Technician), 2 May (General), and 5 May (Amateur Extra). These sessions will run through the end of June.
I attended a web conference last night (22 March) that dealt with makers and hams, drawing the similarities between these two hobby groups and exploring the ways that makers and hams overlap. It was a well-attended conference with over seventy reported attendees, presented by Maker Magazine (https://makezine.com) with a panel of hams and makers to offer commentary. Some interesting points were brought out, especially in the arenas of amateur radio applications and ways and means to entice new folks into the ham population… especially young people. There were six members of our Club in attendance. I imagine that there may have been other club groups attending as well, which really increases the attendance count. A recording of the conference was made and will become available at some point in the future for those who may want to view it.
TechNet returns on 3 April with the scheduled topic being MMSSTV. My thanks to Carl Wittig N2CRW for the yeoman’s job he did on the Audacity session on 20 March. Gary Mirkin WA3SVW will both host and present the MMSSTV meetings, which are posted on the Club’s website with full ZOOM information listed there.
That just about does it for this month… see you all next time!
Session IV of the GCARC Ham Exam Preparation Classes is now over the hump - it is more than half-way completed. We did a practice test last week (as of this writing) in the Technician class and four out of the five students passed it handily - they would have scored well enough on the real thing to have attained their licenses.
Practice tests are in store for the other classes as well in the coming weeks, but I heartily encourage anyone who is seeking or even considering a new license or an upgrade to log into : https://hamexam.org and register with the site. There is no cost, and if you are registered, the site will tailor delivered content to you as regards practice tests and the flash cards. The site will keep track of your progress, and you will see the questions that you keep getting wrong until you start getting them right! I use this website in my classes, and it is well-received by the students. It is a great site for anyone with an interest in moving forward in amateur radio.
Session V is shaping up to have enough attendees to make it worthwhile holding the classes again this Spring. The starting dates for that session will be 1 May (Technician), 2 May (General), and 5 May (Amateur Extra). These sessions will run through the end of June.
I attended a web conference last night (22 March) that dealt with makers and hams, drawing the similarities between these two hobby groups and exploring the ways that makers and hams overlap. It was a well-attended conference with over seventy reported attendees, presented by Maker Magazine (https://makezine.com) with a panel of hams and makers to offer commentary. Some interesting points were brought out, especially in the arenas of amateur radio applications and ways and means to entice new folks into the ham population… especially young people. There were six members of our Club in attendance. I imagine that there may have been other club groups attending as well, which really increases the attendance count. A recording of the conference was made and will become available at some point in the future for those who may want to view it.
TechNet returns on 3 April with the scheduled topic being MMSSTV. My thanks to Carl Wittig N2CRW for the yeoman’s job he did on the Audacity session on 20 March. Gary Mirkin WA3SVW will both host and present the MMSSTV meetings, which are posted on the Club’s website with full ZOOM information listed there.
That just about does it for this month… see you all next time!
March 2023
Session IV of the GCARC Ham Exam Preparation Classes is well under way. We currently have five enrollees in the Technician class, nine in the General class, and seven in the Amateur Extra class. All are well-attended in person, with only those most distant or homebound students attending via ZOOM. The classes during the first week were audited by our own Jeff WB2ZBN, who commented that he actually learned some things during the classes. That is the whole and entire thrust of the classes that we run - to impart some new information to anyone and everyone who attends.
Each of our class meetings is met by questions and wonderment about the mysteries of ham radio, and we do our best to answer them as completely as possible. In so doing, we often have to do some research, which ultimately leads to the instructors gaining new insights and learning as we teach. That tends to make us better teachers, more equipped for the next time the same questions come up.
It seems that the questions asked by the students in these classes are relatively the same from one class to the next. At the same time, the questions are just different enough to make the instructor think a little bit about just how to answer, about how to explain the issue so that it is fully understood. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we still seem to have difficulty explaining things so that the student understands what is being said.
A good part of the reason for that difficulty is that is quite a challenge to find a way to explain a technical concept without using the common technical terms that would apply. The problem is that it is often necessary to explain the terminology before we can explain the topic.
This actually gets quite a bit more difficult as the license levels go up, because the material becomes far more technical and detailed as we go up the license ladder. My approach is to bring everything down to the simplest terms possible, to whatever extent possible. The end result is the best of both worlds - we as instructors learn something and the students get the benefit of that learning.
The whole point of all of this is that education never stops. Even when we are teaching, we are learning. Also, as we teach each class, we become better teachers which is in turn passed on as improvements in the offered content.
On another front, we are just about to wrap up the FT8 family of related applications in our TechNet series. The first meeting in March will be the swan song for that topic, which we will follow with a four-to-six meeting coverage of an old familiar topic. We are going to venture back into the MMSSTV world of still image transmission. I realize that we have covered this topic before, but my reasoning is sound. We have many new members who were not around when we last covered MMSSTV, and we also have the added benefit of being able to cover it more adequately via the ZOOM meeting methodology. Gary Mirkin WA3SVW will be both host and presenter for this series, which will run at least until mid-May, and possibly until mid-June.
That just about does it for this month… see you all next time!
Session IV of the GCARC Ham Exam Preparation Classes is well under way. We currently have five enrollees in the Technician class, nine in the General class, and seven in the Amateur Extra class. All are well-attended in person, with only those most distant or homebound students attending via ZOOM. The classes during the first week were audited by our own Jeff WB2ZBN, who commented that he actually learned some things during the classes. That is the whole and entire thrust of the classes that we run - to impart some new information to anyone and everyone who attends.
Each of our class meetings is met by questions and wonderment about the mysteries of ham radio, and we do our best to answer them as completely as possible. In so doing, we often have to do some research, which ultimately leads to the instructors gaining new insights and learning as we teach. That tends to make us better teachers, more equipped for the next time the same questions come up.
It seems that the questions asked by the students in these classes are relatively the same from one class to the next. At the same time, the questions are just different enough to make the instructor think a little bit about just how to answer, about how to explain the issue so that it is fully understood. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we still seem to have difficulty explaining things so that the student understands what is being said.
A good part of the reason for that difficulty is that is quite a challenge to find a way to explain a technical concept without using the common technical terms that would apply. The problem is that it is often necessary to explain the terminology before we can explain the topic.
This actually gets quite a bit more difficult as the license levels go up, because the material becomes far more technical and detailed as we go up the license ladder. My approach is to bring everything down to the simplest terms possible, to whatever extent possible. The end result is the best of both worlds - we as instructors learn something and the students get the benefit of that learning.
The whole point of all of this is that education never stops. Even when we are teaching, we are learning. Also, as we teach each class, we become better teachers which is in turn passed on as improvements in the offered content.
On another front, we are just about to wrap up the FT8 family of related applications in our TechNet series. The first meeting in March will be the swan song for that topic, which we will follow with a four-to-six meeting coverage of an old familiar topic. We are going to venture back into the MMSSTV world of still image transmission. I realize that we have covered this topic before, but my reasoning is sound. We have many new members who were not around when we last covered MMSSTV, and we also have the added benefit of being able to cover it more adequately via the ZOOM meeting methodology. Gary Mirkin WA3SVW will be both host and presenter for this series, which will run at least until mid-May, and possibly until mid-June.
That just about does it for this month… see you all next time!
February 2023
As Groundhog Day approaches, I am preparing for the next session of Ham Exam Preparation Classes, Session IV. All of the prep that I am doing got me to thinking about, and then looking at, the statistics for the three completed sessions. I thought that I would share the numbers with the Club, if anyone is interested.
All told, over the three previous sessions, we have had a total of 76 enrollees, 68 of whom were male, and 8 were female. Of that total, 18 overall withdrew from the classes, leaving a total of 58 students who completed the classes. Of those, 47 passed their FCC exams, earning a license or an upgrade. This number represents only those who tested with us, or who informed me of their success. The total includes 14 new Technicians, 11 new Generals, and 22 new Amateur Extras. I really wish that the pass rate was higher than it is, but I cannot help those who do not attend all of the classes and do not make up the missed subjects, or who consistently show up a half hour (or more) late for each class. The fact is that those who put in the effort, succeed!
Our classes are rather unique in that we do a lot more than just cram for the exams. We dig pretty deeply into the theory behind the operations, and I admit that it can sometimes be pretty dry material. But… the better an understanding one has of the theory behind things, the better equipped one is to figure out an answer that may not be known or memorized.
Our instructors all do a fabulous job of getting the material across to the students, as most of the successful test candidates will confirm. All that we ask is that the students take it as seriously as we do. None of the instructors get anything out of this except the satisfaction of helping the students advance in our chosen hobby. No one is paid for their time, and the time really does add up. Our programs each run to a total of at least twenty-four classroom hours, plus the testing time. All of the instructors are also Volunteer Examiners and are thus involved in the testing program as well. I want to take this opportunity to publicly thank and applaud our team of instructors for the job that they do so well. Specifically, I refer to Chuck WA2TML, Jim N2GXJ, Gary N2QEE, Steve W2SEF, and Mike N2WOQ. Thank you one and all!
On another topic, our TechNet program is progressing well, with Steve W2SEF doing a great job of presenting the current topic, that being FT8 and its related modes and applications. Thanks to Steve for a job well done, with more to come. Thanks also to Gary WA3SVW for his tireless time spent serving as the key ZOOM host for our TechNet sessions.
Finally, we are working on a plan to roll out another new program. The idea is that Club members can submit questions or topics with which they need some help, and we will then attempt to provide that help through an online ZOOM meeting on the alternate Mondays between TechNet dates. We like the title HelpNet, but we are still open to suggestions. My thought is to set up another e-mail address specifically for the submission of these help requests. The goal is to address as many submitted questions or topics as we can. This concept is not my idea. It grew out of a discussion between Jon WB2MNF and Mike KG4JYA at the last Tech Saturday Forum. It is, however, a great idea that I believe we should run with. Kudos to them for the idea!
That just about does it for this month… see you all next time!
As Groundhog Day approaches, I am preparing for the next session of Ham Exam Preparation Classes, Session IV. All of the prep that I am doing got me to thinking about, and then looking at, the statistics for the three completed sessions. I thought that I would share the numbers with the Club, if anyone is interested.
All told, over the three previous sessions, we have had a total of 76 enrollees, 68 of whom were male, and 8 were female. Of that total, 18 overall withdrew from the classes, leaving a total of 58 students who completed the classes. Of those, 47 passed their FCC exams, earning a license or an upgrade. This number represents only those who tested with us, or who informed me of their success. The total includes 14 new Technicians, 11 new Generals, and 22 new Amateur Extras. I really wish that the pass rate was higher than it is, but I cannot help those who do not attend all of the classes and do not make up the missed subjects, or who consistently show up a half hour (or more) late for each class. The fact is that those who put in the effort, succeed!
Our classes are rather unique in that we do a lot more than just cram for the exams. We dig pretty deeply into the theory behind the operations, and I admit that it can sometimes be pretty dry material. But… the better an understanding one has of the theory behind things, the better equipped one is to figure out an answer that may not be known or memorized.
Our instructors all do a fabulous job of getting the material across to the students, as most of the successful test candidates will confirm. All that we ask is that the students take it as seriously as we do. None of the instructors get anything out of this except the satisfaction of helping the students advance in our chosen hobby. No one is paid for their time, and the time really does add up. Our programs each run to a total of at least twenty-four classroom hours, plus the testing time. All of the instructors are also Volunteer Examiners and are thus involved in the testing program as well. I want to take this opportunity to publicly thank and applaud our team of instructors for the job that they do so well. Specifically, I refer to Chuck WA2TML, Jim N2GXJ, Gary N2QEE, Steve W2SEF, and Mike N2WOQ. Thank you one and all!
On another topic, our TechNet program is progressing well, with Steve W2SEF doing a great job of presenting the current topic, that being FT8 and its related modes and applications. Thanks to Steve for a job well done, with more to come. Thanks also to Gary WA3SVW for his tireless time spent serving as the key ZOOM host for our TechNet sessions.
Finally, we are working on a plan to roll out another new program. The idea is that Club members can submit questions or topics with which they need some help, and we will then attempt to provide that help through an online ZOOM meeting on the alternate Mondays between TechNet dates. We like the title HelpNet, but we are still open to suggestions. My thought is to set up another e-mail address specifically for the submission of these help requests. The goal is to address as many submitted questions or topics as we can. This concept is not my idea. It grew out of a discussion between Jon WB2MNF and Mike KG4JYA at the last Tech Saturday Forum. It is, however, a great idea that I believe we should run with. Kudos to them for the idea!
That just about does it for this month… see you all next time!
January 2023
The new year is upon us, and with it come some minor changes to our Club’s educational offerings. I will start this month’s column with the most evident change… that of the naming of our DigiNet to TechNet. We feel that the new name better suits the type of topics that we plan to present in the coming months.
The January - and probably February - TechNet sessions are going to cover FT8 and the related topics of FT4 and JS8Call, presented chiefly by Steve Farney W2SEF, and prepared through Steve’s collaborative efforts with some other Club members.
Beyond that, we have plans to cover such topics as computer time base solutions, both software and hardware, and such varied topics like the free Audacity software package for audio file manipulation, some more in-depth sessions on Fusion360 and SketchUp, some SDR software packages such as SDR#, SDR Server, SDR Console, and SDR Angel, and other such applications too numerous to list here.
Remember too that the next Ham Exam Preparation Class session starts up the week of 13 February 2023, which will be on us sooner than we realize. I will be sending out invitations to all those who completed the Technician and General classes already, in the hopes that some of those folks will be ready for a license upgrade. If you are among that esteemed group, watch you e-mail inbox in the coming weeks. The program fee will remain the same as it was last session at thirty dollars.
Finally, I would like to wish all of you a safe and happy holiday season. Spend some quality time with your families and loved ones, and get ready for the new year, which I am sure will bring good things for us in Amateur Radio.
That just about does it for this month… see you all next time!
The new year is upon us, and with it come some minor changes to our Club’s educational offerings. I will start this month’s column with the most evident change… that of the naming of our DigiNet to TechNet. We feel that the new name better suits the type of topics that we plan to present in the coming months.
The January - and probably February - TechNet sessions are going to cover FT8 and the related topics of FT4 and JS8Call, presented chiefly by Steve Farney W2SEF, and prepared through Steve’s collaborative efforts with some other Club members.
Beyond that, we have plans to cover such topics as computer time base solutions, both software and hardware, and such varied topics like the free Audacity software package for audio file manipulation, some more in-depth sessions on Fusion360 and SketchUp, some SDR software packages such as SDR#, SDR Server, SDR Console, and SDR Angel, and other such applications too numerous to list here.
Remember too that the next Ham Exam Preparation Class session starts up the week of 13 February 2023, which will be on us sooner than we realize. I will be sending out invitations to all those who completed the Technician and General classes already, in the hopes that some of those folks will be ready for a license upgrade. If you are among that esteemed group, watch you e-mail inbox in the coming weeks. The program fee will remain the same as it was last session at thirty dollars.
Finally, I would like to wish all of you a safe and happy holiday season. Spend some quality time with your families and loved ones, and get ready for the new year, which I am sure will bring good things for us in Amateur Radio.
That just about does it for this month… see you all next time!
December 2022
With the conclusion of the Ham Exam Preparation Classes Session III, we had a bang-up of a special VE session on Tuesday, 8 November for the Technician and General candidates. This meant that a total of nine candidates sat for exams that evening, five for the Technician (Element 2) exam and three for the General (Element 3) exam. The results were a resounding success. All five Technician candidates passed their exams, and two of them went on to also pass the General exam for good measure. It was an interesting evening, as every candidate who passed an exam went on to at least attempt the exam for next higher element. The night ended with four new Technicians and three new Generals.
Another special VE session was held on Friday, 18 November for the Amateur Extra candidates. At this session, three candidates sat for the Element 4 exam. In addition, one of the General candidates who did not pass the exam at the 8 November session also returned to sit for his Element 3 exam. Once again, it was a very successful evening, with all of the candidates passing the exams, including one perfect score and one forty-nine out of fifty on the Element 4 exams.
The Education Committee wishes to extend its heartfelt congratulations to all of those test candidates who successfully completed their exams!
Changing topics, it is time once again to bring up the DigiNet sessions. At the time that this was written, we were a few days short of the second session for November. The 21 November session is scheduled to be the last of the FLDIGI classes. Gary Mirkin WA2SVW, our congenial ZOOM host for these sessions, tells me that he will be finished with the FLDIGI information with the close of the third Monday of November meeting. So, with the completion of FLDIGI and its related topics, we will be starting a new topic in December.
While Gary will remain as primary ZOOM host, Mike Thompson KG4JYA will be taking over as instructor, introducing the membership to our new topic, the WINLINK Global Email System®, or just “Winlink” for short. Mike will cover the various aspects of Winlink that pertain to connectivity and amateur uses of the Winlink system. While the number of sessions for this topic has not yet been determined and will actually depend upon the understanding levels of the attendees and the flow of the material, you can be sure that sufficient time will be devoted to this topic to do it justice and ensure the widest possible comprehension of the subject.
As Jon Pearce WN2MNF has announced, the December General Membership Meeting’s program will be a discussion of 3-D printing, while the December Tech Forum Saturday will present CAD and 3-D software as utilized in Amateur Radio. These should be some interesting discussion topics, to which I am already looking forward.
That just about does it for this month… see you all next time!
With the conclusion of the Ham Exam Preparation Classes Session III, we had a bang-up of a special VE session on Tuesday, 8 November for the Technician and General candidates. This meant that a total of nine candidates sat for exams that evening, five for the Technician (Element 2) exam and three for the General (Element 3) exam. The results were a resounding success. All five Technician candidates passed their exams, and two of them went on to also pass the General exam for good measure. It was an interesting evening, as every candidate who passed an exam went on to at least attempt the exam for next higher element. The night ended with four new Technicians and three new Generals.
Another special VE session was held on Friday, 18 November for the Amateur Extra candidates. At this session, three candidates sat for the Element 4 exam. In addition, one of the General candidates who did not pass the exam at the 8 November session also returned to sit for his Element 3 exam. Once again, it was a very successful evening, with all of the candidates passing the exams, including one perfect score and one forty-nine out of fifty on the Element 4 exams.
The Education Committee wishes to extend its heartfelt congratulations to all of those test candidates who successfully completed their exams!
Changing topics, it is time once again to bring up the DigiNet sessions. At the time that this was written, we were a few days short of the second session for November. The 21 November session is scheduled to be the last of the FLDIGI classes. Gary Mirkin WA2SVW, our congenial ZOOM host for these sessions, tells me that he will be finished with the FLDIGI information with the close of the third Monday of November meeting. So, with the completion of FLDIGI and its related topics, we will be starting a new topic in December.
While Gary will remain as primary ZOOM host, Mike Thompson KG4JYA will be taking over as instructor, introducing the membership to our new topic, the WINLINK Global Email System®, or just “Winlink” for short. Mike will cover the various aspects of Winlink that pertain to connectivity and amateur uses of the Winlink system. While the number of sessions for this topic has not yet been determined and will actually depend upon the understanding levels of the attendees and the flow of the material, you can be sure that sufficient time will be devoted to this topic to do it justice and ensure the widest possible comprehension of the subject.
As Jon Pearce WN2MNF has announced, the December General Membership Meeting’s program will be a discussion of 3-D printing, while the December Tech Forum Saturday will present CAD and 3-D software as utilized in Amateur Radio. These should be some interesting discussion topics, to which I am already looking forward.
That just about does it for this month… see you all next time!
November 2022
The DigiNet training sessions have begun, with two of them behind us as this is being written. All indications are that the group - instructors and students alike - are all in favor of the newly implemented ZOOM methodology. It looks like that one is a keeper.
Gary Mirkin WA3SVW, with assistance from Steve Farney W2SEF, has been doing a great job as instructor for the current topic, FLDIGI, FLMSG, and FLAMP. Gary is also the primary (designated) ZOOM host for these sessions and will remain so even when other individuals are instructing. The ZOOM sessions are being recorded and are being made available for viewing once some housekeeping edits are made.
Speaking of current topics, Gary tells me that there will be one or two more meetings to finish of the current topic. At that point, we are moving on to VARA and will cover both VARA-FM and VARA-HF, ably instructed by Mike Thompson KG4JYA. Mike has had some good success working with VARA and is a natural choice to instruct the group at large. The way this will work is that Gary will open the ZOOM meeting, and will then turn the hosting duties over to Mike, who will present his materials as the working host of the meeting.
Stay tuned to this column for future announcements regarding the upcoming DigiNet topics.
On another note, we are now, as this is being written, into the sixth week of the session, which means that we are just two weeks away from the completion of the Ham Exam Preparation Classes Session III. While the total student count is lower than in some prior classes with a combined total of fifteen students, these folks are every bit as enthusiastic as any that we have taught. Early indications via practice tests are very good, so I have pretty high hopes for successful exams across the board.
Interestingly enough, we also picked up some new Club members through the classes. On one recent Monday evening, we set out to get all of the Technician students their FRN’s, which was no problem. However, that activity quickly led to also filling out Club membership applications. Gotta love it!
Every one of these classes is a learning experience for me as well as for the students, as I am always being reminded of some obscurity that I had overlooked or forgotten. However, it is often these obscure points that make a difference in one’s understanding of radio circuits and physics. In any event, I would have to say that on balance I get as much as I give in these classes.
Finally, with the test and repair bench just about complete, it is time to start planning some educational events centered on the bench - specifically how to use some of the various test instruments and equipment housed there. Watch for some upcoming announcements about some test and repair bench familiarization and training sessions in the near future.
That just about does it for this month… see you all next time!
The DigiNet training sessions have begun, with two of them behind us as this is being written. All indications are that the group - instructors and students alike - are all in favor of the newly implemented ZOOM methodology. It looks like that one is a keeper.
Gary Mirkin WA3SVW, with assistance from Steve Farney W2SEF, has been doing a great job as instructor for the current topic, FLDIGI, FLMSG, and FLAMP. Gary is also the primary (designated) ZOOM host for these sessions and will remain so even when other individuals are instructing. The ZOOM sessions are being recorded and are being made available for viewing once some housekeeping edits are made.
Speaking of current topics, Gary tells me that there will be one or two more meetings to finish of the current topic. At that point, we are moving on to VARA and will cover both VARA-FM and VARA-HF, ably instructed by Mike Thompson KG4JYA. Mike has had some good success working with VARA and is a natural choice to instruct the group at large. The way this will work is that Gary will open the ZOOM meeting, and will then turn the hosting duties over to Mike, who will present his materials as the working host of the meeting.
Stay tuned to this column for future announcements regarding the upcoming DigiNet topics.
On another note, we are now, as this is being written, into the sixth week of the session, which means that we are just two weeks away from the completion of the Ham Exam Preparation Classes Session III. While the total student count is lower than in some prior classes with a combined total of fifteen students, these folks are every bit as enthusiastic as any that we have taught. Early indications via practice tests are very good, so I have pretty high hopes for successful exams across the board.
Interestingly enough, we also picked up some new Club members through the classes. On one recent Monday evening, we set out to get all of the Technician students their FRN’s, which was no problem. However, that activity quickly led to also filling out Club membership applications. Gotta love it!
Every one of these classes is a learning experience for me as well as for the students, as I am always being reminded of some obscurity that I had overlooked or forgotten. However, it is often these obscure points that make a difference in one’s understanding of radio circuits and physics. In any event, I would have to say that on balance I get as much as I give in these classes.
Finally, with the test and repair bench just about complete, it is time to start planning some educational events centered on the bench - specifically how to use some of the various test instruments and equipment housed there. Watch for some upcoming announcements about some test and repair bench familiarization and training sessions in the near future.
That just about does it for this month… see you all next time!
October 2022
Now that our Ham Exam Preparation Classes have restarted, it is time to turn my attention – and yours – towards another area, namely our GCARC DigiNet.
The DigiNets are set to restart after the summer hiatus. Beginning on Monday, October 3, 2022 and repeating on the first and third Mondays of each month, the Net will be starting at 2000 Hours. We are starting out in October by addressing some FLDIGI training. Yes, we have done this subject before, but we now have many new members who were not here when we covered the topic before, and many of those who were here could most likely use a refresher class.
FLDIGI finds usage in ARES operations, so anybody who is active or is planning to become active with ARES should probably participate in these nets. The DigiNet training has historically been very well received and attended. These sessions should be no different. If you have ever wanted to start learning about digital communications modes, this is the place to start.
As we move forward, we will cover other digital modes to whatever extent is deemed suitable by the group of attendees. I can set a topic and do whatever possible to prep the instructors, though quite frankly the instructors have been doing all of that on their own. What I cannot do all by myself is decide what topics should be covered in individual class sessions. That is where you all come in. I need for the attendees to tell me what it is that they want to learn about. I can take it from there and make it happen, but it starts with you.
Some possible future topics include :
The range of topics is really as wide as the range of digital modes that exist. It is all up to you folks - the attending members.
That just about does it for this month, see you all next time!
Editor's Note : Go to : https://gloucestercountyarc.weebly.com/gcarc-technet.html and review the FLDIGI Information Resources. There are links to download the latest version of FLDIGI. Review the training documents provided by Gary WA3SVW.
Now that our Ham Exam Preparation Classes have restarted, it is time to turn my attention – and yours – towards another area, namely our GCARC DigiNet.
The DigiNets are set to restart after the summer hiatus. Beginning on Monday, October 3, 2022 and repeating on the first and third Mondays of each month, the Net will be starting at 2000 Hours. We are starting out in October by addressing some FLDIGI training. Yes, we have done this subject before, but we now have many new members who were not here when we covered the topic before, and many of those who were here could most likely use a refresher class.
FLDIGI finds usage in ARES operations, so anybody who is active or is planning to become active with ARES should probably participate in these nets. The DigiNet training has historically been very well received and attended. These sessions should be no different. If you have ever wanted to start learning about digital communications modes, this is the place to start.
As we move forward, we will cover other digital modes to whatever extent is deemed suitable by the group of attendees. I can set a topic and do whatever possible to prep the instructors, though quite frankly the instructors have been doing all of that on their own. What I cannot do all by myself is decide what topics should be covered in individual class sessions. That is where you all come in. I need for the attendees to tell me what it is that they want to learn about. I can take it from there and make it happen, but it starts with you.
Some possible future topics include :
- FT4 and FT8
- Slow-scan TV (still images) – a topic recently covered, but possible suitable for some of our newer members
- Packet Radio
- APRS
- Fast-scan TV (full-motion video)
The range of topics is really as wide as the range of digital modes that exist. It is all up to you folks - the attending members.
That just about does it for this month, see you all next time!
Editor's Note : Go to : https://gloucestercountyarc.weebly.com/gcarc-technet.html and review the FLDIGI Information Resources. There are links to download the latest version of FLDIGI. Review the training documents provided by Gary WA3SVW.
September 2022
September is traditionally the back-to-school month around here, and GCARC is no exception to this rule. Our Amateur Radio Test Preparation Classes are set to start up again with Session III during the week of September 12, 2022, following the same schedule as before - Element 2 (Technician) on Mondays, Element 3 (General) on Tuesdays, and Element 4 (Amateur Extra) on Fridays.
The books are on order, and hopefully will have arrived by the time that you read this, and I am currently working on student enrollments, printing handouts, and copying bonus materials to thumb drives. I am also working on getting our instructor team lined up. E-mails have gone out to those instructors who have helped out in the past, with the hope that they will be able to continue to do so.
I am always looking for additional help in teaching these classes. As I write this, I am short an instructor for the Element 2 classes on Monday evenings. If anyone is interested in helping out, please reach out to me as soon as possible. My preference is for Club members holding Amateur Extra licenses and ARRL Instructor certificates. The ARRL Instructor certificate is extremely easy to obtain, and I can help any volunteers who may be interested in getting the certificate.
These classes are extremely rewarding and are actually fun to teach. I do almost all of the hard work, in preparing the slide shows and handouts. All that you would have to do is show up and help out with the teaching and questions that arise - easy-peasy!
Bear in mind that there are four full sessions scheduled between September 12, 2022 and June 30, 2023, so I can certainly use some additional instructional help, if only to give those already working a break.
On another topic, please feel free to reach out to me or to Jon Pearce WB2MNF with possible educational suggestions for future Tech Saturday Forums. We are always looking for topics of interest to the Club membership. The August meeting, covering NanoVNA devices, was a hugely popular session with near record turnout. It is topics like this one that are of general interest that make for good Tech Saturday Forums.
Finally, the DigiNet sessions will be returning to the airwaves on October 3, 2022 at 2000 Hours, with the intended topic being FLDIGI. Steve Farney W2SEF will be helping out with the instruction during these net sessions, which will run on the first and third Mondays of each month from October through June. Once again, please feel free to reach out to me with suggestions for future DigiNets as well.
That just about does it for this month… see you all next time!
September is traditionally the back-to-school month around here, and GCARC is no exception to this rule. Our Amateur Radio Test Preparation Classes are set to start up again with Session III during the week of September 12, 2022, following the same schedule as before - Element 2 (Technician) on Mondays, Element 3 (General) on Tuesdays, and Element 4 (Amateur Extra) on Fridays.
The books are on order, and hopefully will have arrived by the time that you read this, and I am currently working on student enrollments, printing handouts, and copying bonus materials to thumb drives. I am also working on getting our instructor team lined up. E-mails have gone out to those instructors who have helped out in the past, with the hope that they will be able to continue to do so.
I am always looking for additional help in teaching these classes. As I write this, I am short an instructor for the Element 2 classes on Monday evenings. If anyone is interested in helping out, please reach out to me as soon as possible. My preference is for Club members holding Amateur Extra licenses and ARRL Instructor certificates. The ARRL Instructor certificate is extremely easy to obtain, and I can help any volunteers who may be interested in getting the certificate.
These classes are extremely rewarding and are actually fun to teach. I do almost all of the hard work, in preparing the slide shows and handouts. All that you would have to do is show up and help out with the teaching and questions that arise - easy-peasy!
Bear in mind that there are four full sessions scheduled between September 12, 2022 and June 30, 2023, so I can certainly use some additional instructional help, if only to give those already working a break.
On another topic, please feel free to reach out to me or to Jon Pearce WB2MNF with possible educational suggestions for future Tech Saturday Forums. We are always looking for topics of interest to the Club membership. The August meeting, covering NanoVNA devices, was a hugely popular session with near record turnout. It is topics like this one that are of general interest that make for good Tech Saturday Forums.
Finally, the DigiNet sessions will be returning to the airwaves on October 3, 2022 at 2000 Hours, with the intended topic being FLDIGI. Steve Farney W2SEF will be helping out with the instruction during these net sessions, which will run on the first and third Mondays of each month from October through June. Once again, please feel free to reach out to me with suggestions for future DigiNets as well.
That just about does it for this month… see you all next time!
August 2022
During the summer months, there is not a whole lot going on as far as GCARC Education is concerned. The DigiNet is on summer break, as are the license test preparation classes. However, there is a little bit to talk about.
One of the things that I participate in actively is the GCARC VE team. As a result, I do what I can to help build the team, so as to ensure that Gary Reed N2QEE, our VE Liaison, will always have adequate staff for the scheduled and special VE sessions that are held. One of the ways that I do this is by encouraging those members who have successfully upgraded to Amateur Extra to get involved in the VE program. This usually is easily done by visiting the ARRL VE page, downloading the manual, reading it, and then going back and taking the open book test. Finally, by submitting the completed test and a copy of your license, you are on your way to an ARRL VE credential. I hope that once we have adequate VE team members, Gary can schedule the VE’s for the various sessions and know that his staffing needs will be met. The ARRL web page on which to get started is http://www.arrl.org/become-an-arrl-ve - the process is really quite simple.
In recent months, we have added at least a half-dozen new VE’s, including Court Smith KD2SPI, Jerry Barnish K2EAB, Steve Farney W2SEF, Mike Thompson KG4JYA, Earl Moore KC2NCH, Rich Subers W2RHS, and Mike Resnick N2WOQ. These folks are all working hard to help keep the VE program going strong, and I thank them for their efforts. I extend my thanks also to all of the long-time VE’s who are still actively and faithfully participating, lest they be forgotten. Testing is an important part of the educational process, which is why I take it so seriously.
On another topic, the new Technician question pool is, of course, in active use for all Element 2 exam candidates. In accordance, I have been working on updating my Element 2 training materials so that I am ready for the upcoming fall training sessions. The spiral-bound Technician-level manual is now available from ARRL, and I just ordered my copy.
Unfortunately, the student cost for our test preparation classes will have to be increased this fall, to cover the increased cost of the books as well as to cover the costs of printing and collating the bonus materials and handouts that all of our students receive. I am looking forward to good enrollment figures despite the price increase. Any person - member or non-member - who is interested in obtaining or upgrading an Amateur Radio license would do well to attend our test preparation classes. It is still too early to state specifically what the new price will be, but I should have that information soon.
Finally, I am actively seeking suggestions for future DigiNet topics. If anyone has a favorite digital area that they would like to see explored in some depth as a DigiNet topic, please submit that suggestion to me via email, using my email address as on the Club roster.
During the summer months, there is not a whole lot going on as far as GCARC Education is concerned. The DigiNet is on summer break, as are the license test preparation classes. However, there is a little bit to talk about.
One of the things that I participate in actively is the GCARC VE team. As a result, I do what I can to help build the team, so as to ensure that Gary Reed N2QEE, our VE Liaison, will always have adequate staff for the scheduled and special VE sessions that are held. One of the ways that I do this is by encouraging those members who have successfully upgraded to Amateur Extra to get involved in the VE program. This usually is easily done by visiting the ARRL VE page, downloading the manual, reading it, and then going back and taking the open book test. Finally, by submitting the completed test and a copy of your license, you are on your way to an ARRL VE credential. I hope that once we have adequate VE team members, Gary can schedule the VE’s for the various sessions and know that his staffing needs will be met. The ARRL web page on which to get started is http://www.arrl.org/become-an-arrl-ve - the process is really quite simple.
In recent months, we have added at least a half-dozen new VE’s, including Court Smith KD2SPI, Jerry Barnish K2EAB, Steve Farney W2SEF, Mike Thompson KG4JYA, Earl Moore KC2NCH, Rich Subers W2RHS, and Mike Resnick N2WOQ. These folks are all working hard to help keep the VE program going strong, and I thank them for their efforts. I extend my thanks also to all of the long-time VE’s who are still actively and faithfully participating, lest they be forgotten. Testing is an important part of the educational process, which is why I take it so seriously.
On another topic, the new Technician question pool is, of course, in active use for all Element 2 exam candidates. In accordance, I have been working on updating my Element 2 training materials so that I am ready for the upcoming fall training sessions. The spiral-bound Technician-level manual is now available from ARRL, and I just ordered my copy.
Unfortunately, the student cost for our test preparation classes will have to be increased this fall, to cover the increased cost of the books as well as to cover the costs of printing and collating the bonus materials and handouts that all of our students receive. I am looking forward to good enrollment figures despite the price increase. Any person - member or non-member - who is interested in obtaining or upgrading an Amateur Radio license would do well to attend our test preparation classes. It is still too early to state specifically what the new price will be, but I should have that information soon.
Finally, I am actively seeking suggestions for future DigiNet topics. If anyone has a favorite digital area that they would like to see explored in some depth as a DigiNet topic, please submit that suggestion to me via email, using my email address as on the Club roster.
July 2022
As the summer break is upon us, there is not very much to report along educational lines this month. It does, however, bear mention that the listings of the next four sessions (Session III, Session IV, Session V, and Session VI) have all been set and have now been submitted to ARRL for posting on their website.
All of the new sessions are intended to be live (in-person) sessions, although ZOOM applicants will be considered if the candidate is distant enough that commuting would be exceptionally burdensome. The simple fact remains that the learning experience is better in the live classroom environment, which is why that method is the preferred method for our classes.
On another note, I am seeking volunteers to help out with the instructional duties, particularly for the Monday evening DigiNet sessions that will be starting up again in October. To start with, we are going to be addressing FLDIGI when the DigiNet sessions resume. I do not want to put the full burden of leading these sessions all on one individual, so I am looking for some volunteers to help Gary WA3SVW in explaining FLDIGI to the membership. Further, I will be looking for additional instructor volunteers for other digital topics, such as RTTY, FT4, FT8, and so forth. If you have experience using any of these modes and would like to share your knowledge, please reach out to me via email at cpprioli <at> gmail <dot> com and we can discuss your involvement. You don’t have to be an expert, just somewhat experienced and willing to share.
As you have no doubt read right here in CrossTalk, our Education Committee, headed by Chris Prioli, AD2CS, is off to a phenomenal start. The first round of classes created one new Technician, three new Generals, and nine new Amateur Extra Class operators. The second round of classes produced seven new Technicians, seven new Generals, and ten new Amateur Extra Class operators. These classes have also produced several new Club members.
Observing this success and recognizing the need and benefit of a more formal continuing education program in the furtherance of the Club’s goals, the Board of Directors has directed the Constitution Committee to change the Education Committee from ad hoc to a Standing Committee. Therefore in the Constitution, the following change is hereby proposed (Number 2022-01) :
CONSTITUTION : Article II - Officers and Their Duties, Section 2 - President
Current text :
“The President shall appoint, from the membership, the following Standing Committees and other committees deemed necessary: Membership, Publicity, Hamfest, Repeater Technical, Repeater Business, Hospitality, Club Site, Field Day, Nominations, Health and Welfare, Budget and Constitution.”
Proposed text (specific change in bold) :
“The President shall appoint, from the membership, the following Standing Committees and other committees deemed necessary: Membership, Publicity, Hamfest, Repeater Technical, Repeater Business, Hospitality, Club Site, Field Day, Nominations, Health and Welfare, Budget, Constitution, and Education.”
The stricken text reflects that there is no longer a need for a Repeater Business committee.
Any change to the Constitution requires fifteen signatures denoting support for the change, the distribution of the proposed wording to the membership (fulfilled here), and the reading of the proposed change at two consecutive General Membership meetings (July and August). A vote may then be held where the approval must exceed 75 percent of the members casting a vote at that time.
As the summer break is upon us, there is not very much to report along educational lines this month. It does, however, bear mention that the listings of the next four sessions (Session III, Session IV, Session V, and Session VI) have all been set and have now been submitted to ARRL for posting on their website.
All of the new sessions are intended to be live (in-person) sessions, although ZOOM applicants will be considered if the candidate is distant enough that commuting would be exceptionally burdensome. The simple fact remains that the learning experience is better in the live classroom environment, which is why that method is the preferred method for our classes.
On another note, I am seeking volunteers to help out with the instructional duties, particularly for the Monday evening DigiNet sessions that will be starting up again in October. To start with, we are going to be addressing FLDIGI when the DigiNet sessions resume. I do not want to put the full burden of leading these sessions all on one individual, so I am looking for some volunteers to help Gary WA3SVW in explaining FLDIGI to the membership. Further, I will be looking for additional instructor volunteers for other digital topics, such as RTTY, FT4, FT8, and so forth. If you have experience using any of these modes and would like to share your knowledge, please reach out to me via email at cpprioli <at> gmail <dot> com and we can discuss your involvement. You don’t have to be an expert, just somewhat experienced and willing to share.
As you have no doubt read right here in CrossTalk, our Education Committee, headed by Chris Prioli, AD2CS, is off to a phenomenal start. The first round of classes created one new Technician, three new Generals, and nine new Amateur Extra Class operators. The second round of classes produced seven new Technicians, seven new Generals, and ten new Amateur Extra Class operators. These classes have also produced several new Club members.
Observing this success and recognizing the need and benefit of a more formal continuing education program in the furtherance of the Club’s goals, the Board of Directors has directed the Constitution Committee to change the Education Committee from ad hoc to a Standing Committee. Therefore in the Constitution, the following change is hereby proposed (Number 2022-01) :
CONSTITUTION : Article II - Officers and Their Duties, Section 2 - President
Current text :
“The President shall appoint, from the membership, the following Standing Committees and other committees deemed necessary: Membership, Publicity, Hamfest, Repeater Technical, Repeater Business, Hospitality, Club Site, Field Day, Nominations, Health and Welfare, Budget and Constitution.”
Proposed text (specific change in bold) :
“The President shall appoint, from the membership, the following Standing Committees and other committees deemed necessary: Membership, Publicity, Hamfest, Repeater Technical, Repeater Business, Hospitality, Club Site, Field Day, Nominations, Health and Welfare, Budget, Constitution, and Education.”
The stricken text reflects that there is no longer a need for a Repeater Business committee.
Any change to the Constitution requires fifteen signatures denoting support for the change, the distribution of the proposed wording to the membership (fulfilled here), and the reading of the proposed change at two consecutive General Membership meetings (July and August). A vote may then be held where the approval must exceed 75 percent of the members casting a vote at that time.