At Field Day, Bruce W8BBS came to visit. Bruce is the author of the Amateur Radio No-Code Technician License Examination Study Guide and Workbook. Bruce publishes and distributes this study guide via his website free of charge.
Bruce wastes no time with this study guide. In just 14 short pages, he very succinctly tells you all you need to know to pass the Technician Class license test. (The entire study guide is 34 pages, the last 20 pages being sample tests.)
I really have mixed feelings about this manual. On the one hand, Bruce has done a great job of boiling down all the information that people need to know to get their Tech licenses. He claims a very high success rate, and I have no reason to doubt him.
On the other hand, I think it’s very doubtful that by reading just 14 pages that anyone will have a really good understanding of the material. So, while the guide will help folks get their Tech licenses, it’s not really teaching them what they need to know to be successful amateur radio operators.
It can, of course, be argued that the ARRL manual, Now You’re Talking doesn’t do much better. The book does blow through much of the theory, but that’s because there just isn’t that much theory required for the Technician test. It is, after all, the entry level license, and making it too difficult could dissuade people from taking that first step. The problem is that too many amateurs get stuck at the Tech level, and never get a taste of HF operation, which, if you ask me, is the heart and soul of amateur radio.
So, the question becomes, how do you encourage Technicians to upgrade? One way is to sponsor General Class license classes. Last winter, I taught just such a class, and tried to not only teach the material, but also give my students a taste of what you can do at the HF frequencies and how to do it.
Another way is to push the “Get on the Air” (GOTA) station at Field Day. At this year’s Field Day, we had ten different people make contacts at the GOTA station. One guy, who’s currently a Tech, was at first very reluctant to sit down and operate the radio. After much goading, we finally got him to do it, and all in all he made about a dozen contacts. We had a hard time pulling him away from the radio after that. I think that experience has given him the push he needs to more vigorously pursue getting his General ticket.
The point is that it’s all well and good to make it easy for people to get a license and start getting their feet wet. BUT, once they have their licenses, let’s not abandon them. We must continue to expose them to new things and to encourage them to progress to the General Class license and the Extra Class license. That’s the only way they’ll get real satisfaction out of amateur radio.
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