Last August, I got an email from Skip, K4EAK. He wrote:
I’m a member of an RV club (the Family RV Association) which has an amateur radio chapter. FRVA’s annual convention will be next March in Perry, Georgia, and ARC is going to do a one-day prep session, followed by the Element 2 Tech exam the next morning. We’ll be using your “No Nonsense” guide, encouraging the participants (as you suggest) to read through it several times, take a few practice tests, and then attend the session before taking the exam. We also plan to follow your prep-day schedule and outline of topics.
I encouraged Skip, and offered to give him the instructor’s discount for print versions of my study guide ($11/copy). I also asked him to get back with me after he held the class to let me know how it went. A couple of days ago, I got the following:
Dan – you may recall we corresponded some time ago about the Amateur Radio Chapter of our RV club doing a prep session and exam at our annual convention in Perry, Georgia. We did it and it was a great success, so I thought I’d just give you an update.
We promoted the prep session through several media: I wrote an article for our national magazine, we posted a piece on our website, we passed out cards at various regional gatherings, and we conducted several seminars around the southeast entitled, “Why every RVer should have a ham radio license and how to get one.” In each promotion, we recommended that people buy or download your No Nonsense guide, read through it several times, and take a couple practice exams.
The response to our promotions was way more than we expected. We had dozens of inquiries, although any of them weren’t able to attend the Perry rally and were hoping for other alternatives. In the end, we had 14 Tech wannabes show up for the prep session. We basically used your method of going through the material, covering all of the questions, with additional time on some of the topics (like Ohm’s Law) that might not have been familiar to the participants.
The next day we had the local radio club come in and give the exam. Incredibly, all but 3 students passed (although one of them had an emergency in his RV and had to rush out, making the real pass rate 11 of 14 = 79%!). We gave each of those who passed a free one-year membership in our chapter and had a great time talking about them at our chapter dinner at the rally. That’s a real compliment to your study guide that it can be that successful. We can’t thank you enough for making that available.
Right now our chapter is discussing when and how to do the prep session and exam again. Who knows? It may turn into a regular occurrence. Ham radio really is a wonderful complement to the RV lifestyle, so a national RV association truly is a “target rich environment.”
Anyway, thanks again for making your materials available. It’s a real service to the ham radio community.
Best,
73 Skip K4EAK
I agree with Skip that this is a great result. RVing and amateur radio are a great fit, especially now that POTA has become so popular. If you’re a member of a similar group, be it a camping club, hiking club, bike club, or geocaching club, consider adding amateur radio to the group. I’d be happy to support you in any way that I can in holding a class.
I’ll also extend the offer that I made to Skip. If your group is meeting somewhere in lower Michigan or nothern Ohio or Indiana, I could possibly even teach the class myself. In any event, you can use my free PDF study guide or take advantage of my instructor discount for print copies.
Ham radio is a great hobby, so let’s share it.