| HamCram |
| EMCOMMWEST |
|
BREAKING
NEWS! Those successfully passing any Amateur Radio exam (Technician, General, or
Extra) at either the W5YI VE session or the HamCram will receive a
complementary membership in the Sierra Nevada Amateur Radio Society and a
chance to win a
Wouxun KG-UV3D dual-band handheld radio. Earn Your Technician Class Ham License at
EmCommWest 2012
Get your HAM license in just one Day! This is a one-day Review of all 392 Questions in the Technician Class question pool. The test is made up of 35 of these questions and you must answer 26 (74%) of them correctly. All answers are multiple choice. In the last few years, a nine year old girl and a 94 year old man passed the test---so you can too! We even include test-taking tips in the class! Most people say that it’s about as difficult as the written driving test---not too bad for an adult but you do have to study a little! My Fast Classes have a 95+ % pass rate for the people who have studied ahead of time. See below for practice tests---try one! It’s easier than you think! Upgrade testing will also be available at EmComm for those who want to upgrade their current license. See the Study Materials section below for more info. PRE-REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED SO WE CAN HAVE ENOUGH CLASS MATERIALS. You must preregister by Wednesday, May 2. Class limit, 25 people. If you wait until after 5/2, you must have instructor permission and you may not get in! Sign up at dbook@gbis.com. If you don’t pre-register you may not receive the materials. Call David Book at 775/843-6443 if you have additional questions. COSTS: Course materials are $15.00 CASH. Please bring exact change. Sorry, we aren’t set up for PayPal, credit cards, checks etc at the Class. We’ll also include a few handouts to get you started with your New License! The Tech test itself is $15.00 CASH. Bring exact change and go to the head of the line! All children 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult. This is not really a complete class covering all the knowledge in all the questions. It’s a last-minute Review! We expect you to study the material beforehand. If you have studied on your own, there is usually about a 95% pass rate. If you have not, your chances of passing are much lower! You have to do your part! Many people pass the test by themselves with only a little study on their own. We will begin the Cram at 8:00 am, break for a 1 hour lunch, and test at 4:00 pm. This only leaves about a minute for each of the 392 total questions. But all is not lost! Some of the questions are duplicates that are simply re-worded. And others have an easy, common-sense answer. Remember the 9 year old! Registration will start at 7:30 and we’ll begin at 8:00. Please be prompt and ready for class with pencils, highlighters, paper, and any normal class materials you need. Latecomers may lose their seat to Drop-In’s! Bring a small calculator. If it’s a scientific calculator or something with memories the Volunteer Examiners will probably make you remove the batteries and wipe the memories. We will break for a 1 hour lunch and take a couple of other short breaks in mid morning and mid-afternoon. The test will be given at 4:00, immediately after we finish. The test usually takes about 30 minutes. Be sure to bring identification. If you don’t have a driver’s license, bring a school ID, library card, or something similar. Be sure to study the correct question pool! The July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2014 question pool is the one in use! There’s still a lot of study material around for the OLD July 1, 2006 – June 30, 2010 pool. Don’t study the old material since about 40% of the questions were changed! Study Materials We will be reviewing the questions in the same order as my favorite study guide: Gordon West’s The Technician Study Manual (July 1, 2010 – June 30, 2014) available from http://www.w5yi.org for $20.95 plus shipping. They ship fast! He’s reorganized the questions for logical learning and gives bite-sized explanations of the correct answers with a lot of diagrams and drawings. He also has books for the General and Extra Class licenses. There’s a FREE 50 page No-Nonsense, Technician Class Study Guide available at http://kb6nu.com/tech-manual that’s really pretty good for the price! He also has a FREE General study guide if you want to upgrade! Note that the General question pool changes on July 1 and that study guide will be outdated. The Amateur Radio Relay League is the premier amateur radio organization in the country and has the Ham Radio License Manual for $24.95. It’s pretty dry but has the most knowledge and in-depth learning. However, you’ll find it a handy reference book once you get licensed! It’s sometimes available in book stores or it can be ordered from www.arrl.org. The ARRL also has a Tech Q & A available for Kindle readers that’s available from Amazon.com. The ARRL also has an iPhone app available for the Technician License. It’s available for $1.99 from Apple’s iTunes “App Store.” Other apps are probably available---Let me know if you find a good one! Free Practice tests for the Current question pool are available at http://www.qrz.com/p/testing.pl Theses practice tests use exactly the same questions and methodology as the REAL tests! Don’t be scared, try one now and see how you do! It’s easier than you think! They also have practice tests for General & Extra licenses. There is also an interactive FREE practice testing website available at http://hamexam.org. This site will test you, give you feedback on how you did, and allow you to check any weak areas you may have. Other Useful Information If you don’t pass the test, you can sometimes re-take the test a second time by paying a second test fee but your second test will have different questions. Check with the VE examiners to see if they have time for re-tests. You can probably retest again the next day. Otherwise, additional test sessions are held regularly in major cities. Nationwide test schedules are available at www.arrl.org. Remember that this session is only a review to pass the entry-level license test. After you’ve passed the test, you can legally get on the air but there’s a lot you won’t know! Try to attend a “New Ham Class,” (Check the EmComm Schedule), join ARRL and a local club, or talk to other hams. Start with the person that encouraged you to become a ham! There’s a list of local clubs available at the ARRL website. ARRL has an excellent magazine---if it seems too complicated at first, keep reading and in a few months you’ll know a lot! This is a fun hobby lets people engage in many different activities. Some people get into this for emergency communications, some people want to chat with people in foreign countries, some like to own a TV station or use “private” radio control frequencies. Others like to use radios with their computers. We’ll give everybody a little information to get them started but you really need to talk to others and start really learning once you have your license. There’s something for everyone in this hobby. For example, I started in Ham Radio so I’d have emergency communication in remote parts of Nevada, during Search & Rescue, and on Sierra Club trips. I don’t even have a radio in my house, only in my car or on my belt! But I’ve talked to people in Poland with the radio in my truck. I’ve been a ham since 2003 and have had a General Class license since 2007. I passed my Extra exam in 2010 so I’ve been studying too! After the testing, I’ll be looking for volunteers to help carry materials down to my truck and see my “ham-truck-shack”!
David Book, KD7YIM, |