Recently, one of the guys on the amateur radio club president’s mailing list started a mailling list for hams who teach license classes. The list, dubbed ham_instructor, now has 60 members, and already a few lively discussions have started.
One of the more interesting debates is whether a class should teach students just enough to pass the test or try to give them a deeper understanding of electronics and radio. In addressing this question, Jim Brown N0WE noted that they teach to the test, but also said, “To expand some of the theory, we offer classes that are available to people who are already licensed to concentrate more on a specific topic.”
I like this approach a lot. Getting people involved quickly is a good thing.
Keeping them involved, though–especially when about all they can do at that point is talk on a repeater–is a lot harder. That’s where these classes would come in. Each class would be designed to teach the new hams the basic technology they need to be successful. I would include the followingtopics that I would include in this series of classes are:
- How Do Repeaters Work?
- How Do Antennas Work? (Includes building a simple dipole antenna and/or ground plane antenna.)
- How Do Transistors Work? (Include building a transistor oscillator or amplifier.)
- How Does Digital Logic Work? (Include building a simple keyer circuit.)
- How Do I Build Things?
- How Do I Choose and Install an HF Rig?
- How Do I Choose and Install a Mobile Rig?
You might also want to have some classes on operating procedures and techniques, including:
- How Do I Learn the Code and Improve My Code Speed?
- How Do I Make CW Contacts?
- How Do I Participate in a Net?
- What are Contests and How Do I Participate in Them?
- How Do I Work DX?
- How Do I Work the Digital Modes?
Of course, the next problem is finding people to develop and teach these courses, but that’s not impossible. And once the courses are developed, they can be used over and over again.
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