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 |
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.
| Date | Time | Classes | Address | Cost | Contact |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| To Be Determined | TBD |
|
To Be Determined
| $14.00
|
|
|
License Exam Session Guidelines
PCARC has an ARRL VEC affiliated Volunteer
Exam Team. 1) $14.00 cash. Exact change is greatly appreciated.
We will also accept a check made out to 'ARRL VEC'.
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.
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. Click
on the following Document Titles to download
Technician Class files (in .pdf format):
1. (Technician Class Notes);
2. (Basis and Purpose of the Amateur Service);
3. (Formulas "PIE Charts");
4. (Powers of Ten);
5. (Waveforms)
;
6. (VHF Bandplan);
7. (UHF Bandplan);
8. (Phonetic Alphabet);
9. (Anyone Can Learn CW...);
Click on the following Document Titles to download
General Class files (in .pdf format):
1. (General Class Notes);
2. (HF Bandplan);
3. (General Band Limits);
4. (Formulas for General "PIE Charts");
5. (More Formulas for General);
6. (Ionospheric Propagation);
7. (G7-1 Circuit Diagram);
8. (Component Chart);
9. (Transmitter/Receiver);
10. (Analog vs Digital);
11. (DX Windows);
12. (Antennas);
1. (Pacific County ARES Net Preamble);
2. (Google Ionosphere);
3. (Installing a Radio in a Vehicle);
4. (Back Up Battery);
5. (The Best Antenna);
6. (VHF/UHF Radio Recommendations);
7. (HF Radio Recommendations);
8. (U.S. Frequency Chart);
9. (Third Party Traffic List);
10. (IRLP Brochure);
11. (IRLP Operation);
12. (Lighthouse Weekend Brochure);
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!
On Exam Day, please bring the following with you:
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).
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:
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Notes.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Basis_Purpose.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Formulas.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Powers_of_ten.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Waveforms.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/VHF_bandplan.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/UHF_bandplan.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Phonetics.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/anyone_can_learn_CW.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Notes_Gen.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/HF_bandplan.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Band_Limits_Gen.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Formulas_Gen.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Formulas2Gen.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/skip.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/G7-1.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Components.pdf
p>
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Tx-Rx.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Analog_vs_Digital.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/DX_Windows.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Antennas.pdf
Other documents of interest:
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/ARES_PC_Net_Preamble_08.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Google_Ionosphere.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Vehicle_Install.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Back_up_Battery.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Best_Antenna.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Radio_Recommendations.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/HF_Radio_Recommendations.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/usfrequencychart.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/3rd_party.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/IRLP_Brochure.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/IRLP_explain.pdf
http://www.qsl.net/w7rdr/documents/Lighthouse_Brochure.pdf
Last Updated 09/10/08