The 2022 version of the Technician Class question pool is out. The National Council of Voluteer Examiner Coordinators have really made quite a few changes to the question pool this time. They removed 64 questions, added 51 new questions, and updated 136 questions. There are now a total of 412 questions total. This means that close to half of the questions are different from the last question pool.
I got started working on updating my No Nonsense Technician Class License Study Guide this week. From the get go, I ran into questions that had been deleted or modified. T5A05 is the first question that I cover in the study guide. The question in 2018 question pool reads:
What is the electrical term for the electromotive force (EMF) that causes electron flow?
(ANSWER: Voltage)
This question is followed by:
What is the unit of electromotive force?
(ANSWER: The volt)
Now, T5A05 reads:
What is the electrical term for the force that causes electron flow?
(ASNWER: Voltage)
The second question about the unit of electromotive force has been deleted.
I’m not really sure that either version of the question is 100% correct, but after consulting with my friend Bob Witte, K0NR, and Ward Silver, N0AX (editor of the ARRL Handbook), I’ve decided to just let it go. They point out that even authors of engineering textbooks are split on how to describe the relationship of electromove force and voltage.
The ARRL Handbook 2022 is kind of equivocal:
Electromotive force (or EMF) [is] the source of energy that causes charged particles to move. Voltage is the general term for the strength of the electromotive force or the different in electrical potential between two points. Voltage and EMF are often used interchangeably in radio.
I’ll also note that they use EMF and the letter E when they define Ohm’s Law and describe Kirchoff’s Voltage Law.
Speaking of equations, since the Question Pool committee has decided to go with voltage instead of EMF, they had to change all of the questions dealing with Ohm’s Law a power calculation. For example, the answer to T5D02, “What formula is used to calculate voltage in a circuit?” was “Voltage (E) equals current (I) multiplied by resistance (R)” in the 2018 question pool, but is now simply “V = I x R.” The questions dealing with the other versions of Ohm’s Law have been similarly changed.
Despite this, I do think this version of the question pool has been improved. They’ve eliminated, for example T5A06, “How much voltage does a mobile transceiver typically require?” This question wasn’t so bad in and of itself, but it just didn’t belong in this section. They also improved the question about electrical conductors. Instead of just asking which material is a good conductor, they now ask, “Why are metals generally good conductors of electricity?”
At any rate, I’m now hard at work on updating the study guide. I have, in fact, already completed the first draft of the first chapter. Click here to take a look at it. Let me know what you think.
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