Training/Classes/VE Testing

Training/Classes

PCARC is committed to helping anyone interested in Amateur Radio to enter, or advance within the hobby.
Based upon interest, the club holds classes and Volunteer Exam sessions to train and license Amateur Radio
operators. If you would like to join one of our classes, or would like help studying on your own, please contact
us. We can help.

Winter Seminar Series! Now that I have my Ham license, what do I do with it? This program is designed to answer
that question. For more information on this 'After the Tech Class' class, Click here

License Preparation Classes

Start Date	End Date	Class	Address	Start/End Time	Cost	Contact
To Be Determined	To Be Determined	Technician	To Be Determined	TBD	Free	Frank NM7R

Email the contact person above, or any club officer, if you have an interest in a class, an exam, or help studying for a license or upgrade on your own!

We encourage the newcomer to the hobby and the "old salt" alike, to come and learn. There is no cost for our

classes. Please email if you would like some help earning a license or upgrade! There is more information under

'Class Materials' at the bottom of this page.

Volunteer Exam Sessions

Date	Time	Classes	Address	Cost	Contact
To Be Determined	TBD	All License Classes	To Be Determined	$14.00	Frank NM7R

Please Email or Phone the contact person above, or any club officer, if you wish to pre-register to take an exam at one of
our sessions. We are generally very limited in our capacity to accept walk-ins. Sessions may be cancelled if there are
no candidates registered. Don't be disappointed, pre-register!

License Exam Session Guidelines

PCARC has an ARRL VEC affiliated Volunteer Exam Team.
On Exam Day, please bring the following with you:

1) $14.00 cash. Exact change is greatly appreciated. We will also accept a check made out to 'ARRL VEC'.
2) Photo Identification. A drivers license is fine.
3) Two (2) sharpened pencils with erasers.
4) A calculator. For the General exam, it should do square-root. A Scientific calculator is only recommended for the Extra test.
5) If you presently hold a current Amateur License, bring the original and a copy we can keep.
6) If you have a valid CSCE that you intend to turn in for credit, bring it and a copy we can keep.
7) If you do not presently have an Amateur License, then bring your Social Security Number (just the number, not the card).

We will supply scratch paper if you need it. No books, notes, papers or food are allowed in the room during the exam except those materials we will distribute for the test. All exam materials will be collected at the end of the exam.

If there is anything unusual about your examination request, please bring this to our attention when you contact us to register for the exam. This would include access issues or accommodations, examination credit for any circumstance or document other than a valid CSCE, or if you have ever had FCC action taken against your Amateur License. If you wait until exam day and only then make a request that is out of the ordinary, we may have difficulty serving you. We all want you to pass, so please work with us.

Our Team Contact Person and Liaison is Frank Wolfe, NM7R. Click here to email Frank.

Class Materials

As referenced in the 'Technician Class Notes' (below), we recommend the Gordon West series of study manuals in our classes. Gordo has organized the Question Pool into a more logical order, making it easier to study. At about $20, the study guide is a reasonable investment. Although the study guides are intended to support an organized class, they make it easy to study on your own, too.

There is no longer a Morse Code test for any class of license. The only exams are the Technician (Element 2), General (Element 3), and Extra Class (Element 4) written (multiple choice) tests.

You will be studying to pass a 35-question multiple-choice test for the entry-level Technician license. A passing grade is 74%. You must get 26 correct out of the 35. To put it another way, you can miss 9 and still pass. Each question has four possible answers. The questions are drawn from a Question Pool with approximately ten alternates for each one. The questions (and answers) on your test will be exactly as they are in the Question Pool, except the order of the answers may change. If you buy the book, it includes all the questions from the Pool. You can also download the entire Question Pool free on the ARRL website...

How are you doing with studying for the exam? The best way to gauge your progress is to take the practice tests available on the QRZ.com website. They do a great job of simulating the test, and let you know exactly how you are coming along. You can take the exam as many times as you want. It will be different every time. When you are consistently scoring at 80% or better, you are probably ready to pass your real exam.

We use a number of handouts in conducting our classes to illustrate various points or summarize information making it easier to grasp. These handouts are made available below to help those studying on their own. These are not presented as a stand-alone course. Please feel free to contact Frank, NM7R, if you are studying for a license or upgrade, or want supporting explanations for any of this material:

Click on the following Document Titles to download Technician Class files (in .pdf format):

1. (Technician Class Notes);
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Notes.pdf

2. (Basis and Purpose of the Amateur Service);
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Basis_Purpose.pdf

3. (Formulas "PIE Charts");
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Formulas.pdf

4. (Powers of Ten);
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Powers_of_ten.pdf

5. (Waveforms) ;
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Waveforms.pdf

6. (VHF Bandplan);
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/VHF_bandplan.pdf

7. (UHF Bandplan);
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/UHF_bandplan.pdf

8. (Phonetic Alphabet);
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Phonetics.pdf

9. (Anyone Can Learn CW...);
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/anyone_can_learn_CW.pdf

Click on the following Document Titles to download General Class files (in .pdf format):

1. (General Class Notes);
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Notes_Gen.pdf

2. (HF Bandplan);
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/HF_bandplan.pdf

3. (General Band Limits);
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Band_Limits_Gen.pdf

4. (Formulas for General "PIE Charts");
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Formulas_Gen.pdf

5. (More Formulas for General);
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Formulas2Gen.pdf

6. (Ionospheric Propagation);
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/skip.pdf

7. (G7-1 Circuit Diagram);
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/G7-1.pdf

8. (Component Chart);
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Components.pdf

9. (Transmitter/Receiver);
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Tx-Rx.pdf

10. (Analog vs Digital);
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Analog_vs_Digital.pdf

11. (DX Windows);
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/DX_Windows.pdf

12. (Antennas);
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Antennas.pdf