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

No, and no. I'm with ya man! After 9 months of learning to fly helicopters in the Army and getting my commercial instrument rated pilots licence from the FAA. My instructors told me that I had only gotten a license to learn. They made it very clear that I didn't know enough, and that I should keep on learning and not to get the big head. I see it the same way here. Okay, so some folks train for a day and get their license. Who cares? We've got someone that is interested. To me that is what is really important. Lets help them learn. Maybe they really get into it and reach out to more folks and we keep growing this great hobby growing. Lets keep growing. Is it really that big of a deal that we help them learn the basics after they get their license.

Just saying...73

 

If we can get them OTA, then we can get them curious to learn.

BUT....

For the most part, these 'just in case' hams turn on the HT's (only) for drills. held on infrequent occasions.

Its as if a huge segment of the population got pilot licenses and didn't use them.

 

My goodness, someone who ACTUALLY gets it!! Grats to you, sir! (not sarcasm, very serious)

 

Sorry but I have no use for instant licensing classes. Students retain only enough of what they were taught to pass the test and then most is forgotten. The track record of such folks becoming active hams who contribute to the hobby is very poor. It may make a little $$ for the instructor but that is about all.

 

OMG

 

I'm sorry... but I spent hours reading and studying for each level of amateur radio. Not to mention asking questions to fellow hams and friends who do electrical engineering for a living. I am very astute, and there is no way I would spend 1 day to study even for a Tech class exam. Especially if you had no idea what you were getting into. I work on electronics on the side, and even some of the questions mentioned in each exam had me kind of, "What does this entirely mean?" So I either took the time to research it or asked other folks for clarification.

Then there are those who spend countless hours memorizing questions... I know of a lad who memorized all 712 questions of the Extra Class. But you ask them what does any of it mean... they just look at you like they saw bigfoot. If you are only going to spend an hour on a hobby, you might as well just sit down and memorize the questions. What good is it if you don't appreciate it?

People just want things handed to them... no one appreciates the work someone has to put into getting this privilege. Did I mention privilege? Some think that just because they got the license, that they have the right to use the bands. Not. It's a privilege to use those allocated frequencies. The FCC can turn around and get rid of the "extra baggage" if they feel the need to.

Sorry for the rant... but certain things really steam me up.

 

And I think that is the main rub. For me at least. Puppy mill techs and those who memorize test answers cheapens the hard work many of us put in to obtaining our licenses. Maybe I take it too personally but i can't help that. I spent every night and weekends for 8 solid weeks studying for the AE exam and never looked at the question pool except once. 12 weeks if you count the time studying for the Tech and General too.

The studying isn't over with either. Each night I spend about an hour delving further into the ARRL's Handbook and Antenna Book to study items not covered by the exam prep.

 

and this is how hobbies die----choked from the inside by the "experts" who worked "harder", "longer", and "deserved it" more......

 

Actually , these new breed of hams can, by your analogy, be described as 'stillborn': hams by license, but dead from failure to launch.

Why do you desire a large pool of stillborn hams?

 

Your words, not mine.

 

...or die by lack of evincing being busy.

 

Maybe cause he was stillborn. The purpose of an examination is to determine whether an individual has the gumption, desire, motivation, intelligence, curiosity to continue on and learn more. A test that can be studied for and passed in one day fails to discriminate between those that will and those that wont. The proponents of pass and learn later have it exactly backwards.

 

Exactly the kind of arrogant comment that sentences a hobby to a slow death.....

 

Sorry but you my friend are the one who doesn't get it.