HR2.0: Episode 97 - How To Teach a 1-Day Technician Class, by KB6NU (Dayton Hamvention)

24 years of ham radio and I'm still learning every day. It's a life long learning experience. You will get out of ham radio depending on how much effort you put into it. Same with the $ side of it. Nothing in Ham Radio happens over night. There is something for everyone, you just have to find your own niche. I like teaching others from my own experience, but also we have a club W8NP, Massillon Amateur Radio Club, that is full of wonderful elmers . Every spring the club provides a technician course but it's definitely more in depth than just 1 day or a couple hours. In fact, it's 10 week class ( 1 day per week) with practical hands on learning and not just memorizing the answers to the question pool. It's only a foundation to get someone started. Where you go from there is up to you. The support structure is there, you just need to use it, ask questions, tear things apart, put them back together, blow apart some things. It's how you learn. I am always picking the brains of elmers in the club. That's the best way to learn, not from a 2 hour class.

 

Excellent job guys!

 

Of course! Same here!

Disagreement should not be mislabeled as animosity.

 

I wish I was in the area, I would love to help out.

 

Or, you are incorrect.

List all the possibilities

 

Thank you Chip.

I REALLY have to go. I am doing my own form of radio art advancement. I am building a 433mhz remote control that will be used by a friend of mine to test semi trailer lights for DOT approvals. He loved the prototype, in fact he is using it today. Now, instead of backing a van up to connect to the trailer and have someone in the van operate the lights and someone walking the trailer, he just hooks up my gadget and uses a small remote control to operate the lights with a single walk around. Not ham radio, but radio art, hopefully.

 

It sounds like you want to go round and round with this.

OK, now I am REALLY getting off the keyboard.

Have a good day!!

 

Just for a little counterpoint, I only used the no-nonsense courses, transferred to audio, and listened to over and over as I drove around throwing newspapers. I also spent a few hours looking at the written material just before the test. I got the tech & general passed in April 2015, missing 1 question each. Passed the Extra in Oct 2015 and missed 1 question there also. It worked fine as a jumping off point, actually knowing something has come from endless hours of listening to podcasts, looking up stuff, and local hams (a great bunch here in KC). It is always up to the individual. For me, the tests just raised a lot of questions, and with an internet and other hams, I can find answers. And this is a hobby, how can there be a moronic question? Any question just indicates a ham who is interested in something, and should be encouraged. That said, there are some valid points being made by others here.

 

More and more appliance operators! I would like to ask the people that you turn out in one day to identify 12 commonly used electronic components and give an example of the use for each of them. Just the other day I had a general class operator call me and ask why his RF gain control made the S meter change when the control was articulated. READ THE MANUAL! But if a person doesn't know anything about communications electronics how are they to understand a manual. It is a diminishing circle and so that is what amateur radio is becoming. Just take a listen to the bands and you will get the picture especially in pile-ups. Listen, listen listen and learn, make simple electronic projects and learn, show the practical application of operating a station and learn. I don't see how anyone can learn ALL they need to know to go on the air properly in a one day class. It is not rocket science, but it is science that is applied to a wonderful hobby that has taken a dive ever since the code requirement was dropped. At least in those days of code requirement, a prospective amateur had to study and the resultant license was something that meant a lot to the new amateur. It isn't the number of new amateurs you can turn out, but the quality of amateur operators you Elmer that successfully pass their exam that will add to the ranks of good operators that are not plug and play disappointments. W6LDX

 

...or who don't get on the air at all as 'just in case' hams.

 

what the hell i want to know is why all of you are complaining about someone getting a licence in one day should be proud because ham radio is fell by the wayside nothing to offer the children of today they can do anything we can do and better on a smart phone . we should be proud that there are people who want to at least try yes elmers would be good and everybody needs a hand from time to time the club i started with had nothing but kindness and help radio broke everybody got together and it got fixed it seemed most of them had some electrical skill today its a thing of the past clubs today are a get together and brag about having the latest zillion dollar hf rig with the toilet paper dispenser lets face it the china radios are not good but they are affordable and have a place remember in a emergency rules are not enforced clubs today want to do bike rides and dress up in look at me shirts and hats fyi this is my second time climbing the licence rungs took it the first time with the help of a real good person who took time to teach me on a radio my dad took me to the field office of the fcc and told me to get what i was going to do because he was not coming back started with novice and in a few months went to general with my buddy helping got drafted and spent my time in the service came out had a family and could not afford radio and allowed them to expire 20 years later i got the bug went to a test session came out as a tech ] code dropped but heck i could do it ] this was done from memory only and pratical radio experiance did a lot of radio repair over the years so yes you dont need to be a 4 week course some can do it in one day as for todays radio just hand it to a 4 year old they can do it because it programs like a phone and they understand it . so get off your old stuck in my way buts and encourage the grands insted of telling how it was in 1953 the glory days of radio are gone never to return

 

Did you get a drivers license after only one day studying the manual and practicing parallel parking? Did you get a pilots license after one day of ground school and flying with an instructor?
Probably not. The point is that going into an area that you have never been before requires some research and learning the ropes and pulleys. You say "Glory Days", what would you call this period in Amateur Radio? When I was a cadet in flight school, we were told that our license was a license to learn and that with time and experience, if we didn't get our aircraft blown out from under us we would have acquired enough knowledge to become flight instructors. The classes on radio operations were very comprehensive even though we would not be constructing antennas, purchasing radios based on our needs, ordering coaxial cable based on our needs, etc. Our job was to operate the aircraft as our missions dictated; save nothing for the flight reviews and ongoing classes and testing.
Enter Amateur Radio. If a prospective Operator can learn all that is needed to pass a test, know the rules and regulations sufficiently, efficiently get on the air and enjoy having a QSO with another operator and possibly starting a life-long friendship, I am all for it and applaud the efforts of the instructor. But for some reason I have a level of pessimism. After 52 years of holing a Commercial Radio Telephone Operator License, and 42 years of holding an Amateur license, it becomes easy for those of us who have had many years of experience to say, Hey, wait a minute! how can anyone get all of my experience in one day? Slam on the brakes and reverse the props...... hold it right there. We cannot compare our years of experience to a person who is fresh out of the nest, but we do it because that is what we have to relate to. The times of sneaking into the kitchen and running off with mother's backing pan to punch tube socket holes in it for our next project are over. We complain about the new radios that can shine your shoes and light your cigar but what do we have in the main operating position of our shacks. Chances are there is not a tube in the bunch, chances are that the new solid state, SMDs which inhabit the majority of the PC boards within will never see the 300 watt soldering gun that was used to construct and repair our old boat anchors. Chances are the new radios can out perform, stay on frequency, and digitally contour the incoming signals that our old boat anchors could not even detect. We are comparing ourselves and our experiences to another generation; we can't do that without bias. The new generation has better tools that got them through schools, deeper knowledge regarding computer systems and can put together abstract thought when we are still looking for the definition of it in an old dusty 40 year old edition of Websters Dictionary (provided we can spell abstract). Who do we ask to help us with our simple little computer problems? You got it, the kids.
After kicking this subject around overnight I came to a conclusion. Who am I to blow against the wind (thank you Paul Simon)? These one day Amateurs will ask for help and direction and we had better do what we can to that end or it falls on us old timers to be responsible for the possible mistakes that may occur as a result of us sitting on our collective rumps and doing nothing. If one day does the job and gets a student on his or her way to learning more and becoming a good Amateur Radio Operator, I am all for it. Now that was hard to say, but it has to be taken seriously and I hope to be able to Elmer one of the new, one-day hams and if I do a good job maybe he or she will help me figure out what I am doing wrong when writing code for my Arduino projects. 73, W6LDX

 

End result?

Actually, yes.

I have a teenager. She's studying for her driving test. Pass the written test, pass the vision test, pass the "road course" in back of the DMV, and she gets a license. And yes, she has to parallel park.

99.9% of driving will be learned by driving after the license is earned.
99.9% of ham radio will be learned by doing after the license is earned.

Scares me to death to think of sharing the road with people with essentially no experience.
At least most people improperly driving a radio can't wreck my radio.

Hope everyone was able to catch the massively great 20m conditions yesterday. The band was open all night long Friday-Saturday from the west coast to Europe.

Haven't experienced that in quite a long time.

Scott N7JI

 

Actually, as many of these one-day hams come from the public safety sector, those have a good amount of experience for operational protocols--but they almost never get on the air.

I have to ask a question: KB6NU claims naming of his course books as 'NO-NONSENSE'.

Thus one is led to believe there is "NONSENSE" in those other study guides and courses....

Can someone link me to one of these alleged 'NONSENSE" study guides or courses?

 

What the heck I want to know is what you have against using common, standard punctuation. RSVP.