I rarely go two days without blogging, but I’ve been busy with updating the 2018 version of my No Nonsense Technician Class License Study Guide. Overall, I think that the NCVEC Question Pool Committee (QPC) has done a good job with this version of the question pool.
I’m happy to say that I played at least a small role in this. They gave me a shot at doing a little copyediting, and I spotted several errors and was able to suggest re-wording a couple of questions to make them more understandable and relevant.
For example, there was a question on how to select a power supply. I didn’t think that the question was worded quite right, and I mentioned that to the QPC. They reworded the entire question, so that now it makes more sense:
T4A01 (D)
What must be considered to determine the minimum current capacity needed for a transceiver power supply?
A. Efficiency of the transmitter at full power output
B. Receiver and control circuit power
C. Power supply regulation and heat dissipation
D. All of these choices are correctThis question is much more relevant than the question it replaced., T4A01 in the previous question pool was a not-so-useful question on microphone connectors.
They also updated the questions on digital communications. For example, they deleted the question on how to connect a terminal node controller in a packet radio station (T4A06), and added questions about WSJT software and FT-8.
So, now I’m hard at work updating the study guide. If you’d be interested in seeing an advance copy and providing comments, let me know.
Rob W4ZNG says
Thank you for continuing the updates on these first-rate guides. I studied them at every step up through passing Extra in 2014, and recommend them whenever asked about getting started or about upgrading.