Licensing Education & Training

General License Class to be held Online – March 18th and 19th

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Successful License Class Student

The Nashua Area Radio Society will be holding a General License Class on March 18th and 19th.

The class will be held online via Zoom web conferencing.

We will hold an online exam at the end of the class so successful students will earn their General Upgrade by the end of the weekend class.

There is pre-study required for the class so make sure you register soon.  

For more information on the class, visit our class information page.

To register, visit our registration form page.

We will also be giving an Extra License Class on April 21st, 22nd, and 23rd.  See our class information page for more information.

New General Class Element 3 Question Pool Goes Into Effect On July 1, 2023

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ARRL VEC logo/bannerFrom ARRL VEC Newsletter, February 2023:

General Class Element 3 Question Pool Errata Released 

The NCVEC Question Pool Committee (QPC) has released the latest errata for the 2023 – 2027 General Element 3 question pool, which goes into effect on July 1, 2023. Nine questions were modified (G1B01, G1C01, G1C02, G5C02, G7C10, G9B05, G9C09, G9D09, and G9D10) and two questions (G9C06 and G9D13) were withdrawn from use. 

The pool is available as a Microsoft Word document and PDF. These changes are reflected in the new General Pool download file dated February 1, 2023. 

New General Examinations will take effect for exam sessions on July 1, 2023

The newly revised general pool must be used starting July 1, 2023. VECs and VEs will have new test designs available starting on that date. Previously supplied versions of ARRL VEC General-class exam booklets (2019 series) and computer-generated General-class exams from the 2019 question pool are valid until midnight on June 30, 2023. The ARRL VEC will supply its officially appointed, field-stocked VE teams with new General exam booklet designs around mid-June. 

Cape Ann (MA) Amateur Radio Association Technician In A Day Session, February 25, 2023

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Cape Ann ARA logo

Our Technician In A Day Session is a study course.  The course allows you to become licensed by the Federal Communications Commission.

You should obtain a copy of the ARRL Technician Class License Manual.  You may purchase this book at Ham Radio Outlet or any other amateur radio related store.

You should read the book.  The information contained therein will allow you to answer questions on a 35 question test for obtaining your Technician License.

There are videos on Youtube at W4EEY that explain the theory and cover the questions to enhance your knowledge.   You may also take practice exams at hamstudy.org for comprehension.

TECH IN A DAY CLASSROOM SESSION

  1. You should apply and obtain a FCC Registration Number at: https://apps.fcc.gov/coresWeb/publicHome.do
  2. You will be charged a slight fee for this course. Normally, $15.00 for the Examination and $10.00 for materials, snacks and drinks which will be provided for the session.
  3. The Tech In A Day Session will be almost a full day session (8 am to 5pm)
  4. The first Study Session begins at 9:00am for 45 minutes and you will be given a 15 minute break before the next session begins at 10 am.
  5. Three study sessions will be held before a lunch break (approximately 11:45am-1:00pm)
  6. There will be three more study sessions in the afternoon to run to 4:45 pm.
  7. Testing will begin approximately at 5:00 pm.

You will be administered an examination of 35 questions of which you must score at least 26 out of 35 or better to PASS.

Upon completion and passing of your examination you will be handed a Certificate of Successful Completion of Examination) (CSCE Form).

Your call sign should be process in 10-12  business days.

If you would like more information, you may email us at caarave@caara.net or Telephone (978) 504-9112 for more information.

 

Ham Radio University Online Forums, January 7, 2023

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Ham Radio Univ 2023 BannerMel Granick, KS2G, writes:

Ham Radio University will also have a Contesting forum, –hosted by Yours Truly, KS2G– along with 15 other presentations on subjects ranging from Station Grounding, to Cables & Connectors, to Raspberry Pi Apps for Ham Radio.

The on-line webinars are tomorrow, January 7th from 8:00 am-4:00 pm EST (13:00-20:00 UTC)

They’re all free-of-charge … but advance registration is required.

Go to:
http://www.hamradiouniversity.org/

73,
Mel – KS2G

Next Consortium Meeting, Manville RI, December 5, 2022

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Bob Beaudet, W1YRC, writes:

Greetings all:

The next Consortium will take place on Monday, Dec 5th at the Manville Sportsman’s Club, 250 High St. in Manville, RI. Our regular presenter, Jim, K1GND, is taking some leave time away from the Consortium to provide care for his wife, Ann who is undergoing some serious medical issues. We were planning on Mike, K1ETA, to present material regarding his extensive portable operating by the sea shore, on hill tops and in the field using QRP and higher power with a variety of home made antennas. However, Mike came down with some serious congestion and other cold related problems.

So, you will be treated with some operating conversation related to DXing from W1YRC over my time as a DXer starting in about 1962. Operating tips, QSL tips and various operating awards available will be covered. This will be a conversational style presentation, so bring your favorite questions and stories. Keep in mind that the purpose we serve in the Consortium is to cover basics with the goal of helping new hams and others to improve their knowledge of ham radio topics.

Thank you and see you at the Consortium. We plan to start about 7:00 PM.

73, Bob, W1YRC

[See also: The Consortium—Covering the Ham Radio Basics]

—

Greetings all for the second time:
 
I have a last minute program change that will make the presentation more interesting than it would be as I planned it. 
 
Ken Trudel, N1RGK, offered to present a follow-up to his original 2019 program concerning preparation of coaxial connectors for outdoor service. In his latest program, Ken shows how weather has affected his coaxial connectors over the three years since being installed. He has actual hardware to show and documentation. 
 
I will go first at 7:00 and Ken will follow at about 7:30–7:45. 
 
Thanks and see you at the Consortium. 
 
73, Bob W1YRC 

Registration is now open for Nashua Area Radio Society’s Fall 2022 Ham Bootcamp

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October 2020 QST Cover Ham Radio BootcampFrom ARRL web site:

10/28/2022 – The online event is scheduled for Saturday, November 5, 2022, from 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM EDT. There is no charge to attend the Ham Bootcamp which entails a variety of informative presentations and activities related to amateur radio, and is geared toward new operators of any license class that wish to learn more about getting on the air. Additionally, Ham Bootcamp allows those thinking of becoming hams to see what the hobby is all about. The sessions usually have 100 – 400 attendees and over the past several years, more than 800 have attended. More information is available at the Nashua Area Radio Society’s website. The Nashua Area Radio Society of New Hampshire is an ARRL Special Service Club.

Western Mass. Train & Test Group Technician Course Online Starts October 18, 2022

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The Western Massachusetts Train and Test group will be conducting a Technician license course starting October 18. This course will run on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7PM to 9 PM for 6 weeks via Zoom. The course is free and you will need to purchase the ARRL technician’s manual which is available at the ARRL.org website or on Amazon.

If you are interested in joining the course, please email Ken, WB8PKK, at backhoeken@yahoo.com. See also the course registration link: https://forms.gle/z3f4So956H3gpNBGA.

 

W.Mass. ham radio course flyer

Window Open for Accepting ARISS Education Proposals – ARISS News Release No. 22-52

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ARISS logoOct 3, 2022 — The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Program is seeking formal and informal education institutions and organizations, individually or working together, to host an Amateur Radio contact with a crew member onboard the ISS.  ARISS anticipates that the contact would be held between July 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023. Crew scheduling and ISS orbits would determine the exact radio contact dates. To maximize these radio contact opportunities, ARISS is looking for organizations that will draw large numbers of participants and integrate the contact into a well-developed education plan.

The deadline to submit a proposal is November 13, 2022.

Proposal information and more details such as expectations, proposal guidelines, and the proposal form can be found at https://ariss-usa.org/hosting-an-ariss-contact-in-the-usa/. An ARISS Introductory Webinar session will be held on October 13, 2022, at 8:00 PM ET.  The Eventbrite link to sign up for the webinar is: https://ariss-proposal-webinar-fall-2022.eventbrite.com.

The Opportunity

Crew members aboard the International Space Station will participate in scheduled Amateur Radio contacts. These radio contacts are approximately 10 minutes in length and allow students to interact with the astronauts through a question-and-answer session.

An ARISS contact is a voice-only communication opportunity via Amateur Radio between astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the space station and classrooms and communities. ARISS contacts afford education audiences the opportunity to learn firsthand from astronauts what it is like to live and work in space and to learn about space research conducted on the ISS. Students also will have an opportunity to learn about things such as satellite radio communication, wireless technology, and radio science. Because of the nature of human spaceflight and the complexity of scheduling activities aboard the ISS, organizations must demonstrate flexibility to accommodate changes in dates and times of the radio contact.

Amateur Radio organizations around the world with the support of NASA and space agencies in Canada, Japan, Europe and Russia present educational organizations with this opportunity. The ham radio organizations’ volunteer efforts provide much of the equipment and operational support to enable communication between crew on the ISS and students around the world using Amateur Radio.

Please direct any questions to ariss.us.education@gmail.com.

About ARISS:

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS National Lab-Space Station Explorers, Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) and NASA’s Space communications and Navigation program. The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics topics. ARISS does this by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities take part in hands-on learning activities tied to space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org.

Media Contact:

Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR

Quaboag Valley ARC Grant Will Develop Adult Ed Amateur Radio Classes

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ARRL Foundation logoThe Quaboag Valley Amateur Radio Club grant by the ARRL Foundation, which was awarded to the club in August, was designed to attract two very different groups to the amateur radio hobby and to club membership in local amateur radio clubs.

The first group addressed in the proposal was the adult population that may have had an interest in radio in the past but never had the opportunity to get licensed.  This group now can afford to get entry level equipment but needs help getting started.  They are the people with the intellectual curiosity and drive to enroll in adult education programs.  The program was designed to utilize existing evening school education programs to offer licensing courses at their facilities.  The grant received is helping to support the evening division Technician licensing course at Baypath Vocational Technical School in Charlton, Massachusetts.  The grant is paying for training materials and a free handheld transceiver upon successful completion of the Technician license exam. The course is currently running with 18 students. 

The second group will be for students at another vocational technical school; however it will be focused on tech school students whose training in various technical fields stimulated them to take advantage of a free program offered at their school that would lead to an Amateur Radio Technicians License.  This course is being planned for April, 2023.   The course, training materials and a pre-programmed handheld transceiver, to be awarded upon passing the Technician license exam at no cost to the student, will help to make the program affordable for interested students.

The program is being managed by Mert Kenniston, KC1KVA, and supported by Dennis Clowes, KC1LNL and Peter Baldracchi, KB1QGY, who are assisting in presentation of several of the instruction modules along with other club volunteers as “expert witnesses” for discussions.  Further development of this model to attract new hams to our clubs and our hobby is expected to be an ongoing topic at future QVARC meetings. 

Blackstone Valley ARC Consortium – 16th Season

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Bob Beaudet, W1YRC, writes:

On Monday, September 12th, we shall kick off the 16th season of the Consortium. After taking the summer off, we’re ready to start another terrific season of discussions concerning basic radio. We have discovered that many hams are weak in knowledge of fundamentals, not just newly minted ones but many old timers as well.

We shall meet at the Manville Sportsmen’s Club located at 250 High St., Lincoln, RI starting at 6:30. Jim K1GND and I will start by reporting what Jim K1GND and I have been up to since the last Consortium which consists mostly of the Gaspee project, another outreach effort intended to promote the image of BVARC.

I will spend a little time telling the group how we got to this point in the program and what we plan to do in future sessions of the Consortium.

Please do all that you can to spread the word regarding September 12th’s meeting of the Consortium. My mailing list is FAR from complete. Everyone is welcome. We charge no admission or require membership in anything. Attendees don’t even need to hold an Amateur license. But all must be serious about learning radio basics.

They must, however, have a keen interest in sharpening their baseline knowledge in radio principles. If you want to come only for socializing, please do not come. The Consortium is friendly and informal but we seriously focus on learning basic radio material. Our program covers antennas, power supplies, propagation, operating technique and other things that all Amateurs must embrace to fully enjoy our wonderful hobby.

We are even considering running another Morse code class, separate from the general Consortium session, aimed at the recent “no-code” licensees who realize that they’re lacking a very useful operating skill. We have conducted three classes previously and they were mostly successful. Of course, we encourage attendees to bring their questions to the Consortium, especially those that you have researched and failed to obtain satisfactory answers. We rather strongly avoid advanced topics in the Consortium. Our focus is building and strengthening foundation knowledge. Advanced topics need to build upon good basic knowledge for one to understand and properly use that knowledge, similar to a house. It must have a solid foundation to build upon.

73, Bob W1YRC and Jim, K1GND

Question?? E mail W1YRC at W1YRC@ARRL.ORG

 

I’ve been asked what our policy is regarding COVID and what they should do regarding any mask requirement for the Consortium.  First of all, thank you for asking. Please accept my apology for failing to address this important issue. We’re not out of the woods yet, but  it appears that we’re heading that way. Each of us have different medical issues that we must deal with. Jim and I have been fully vaccinated but Jim will be wearing a mask because his wife, Anne, has been undergoing chemotherapy and other  serious medical treatment and in an abundance of caution and concern for everyone coming to the Consortium, he shall wear a mask. 
 
I live alone and have not been in contact with anyone having COVID, so I shall not be wearing a mask. That may change but for now, that’s the way we’re dealing with it. 
 
You should wear a mask if you feel comfortable doing so and if anyone would feel more comfortable if I wore a mask, kindly say so  and I’ll better  We surely don’t want this to keep you from attending. If you would feel more comfortable if I wore a mask, please send me a reply to this e mail. Only I shall see your request if you do not reply to all.  No list will be published or revealed of who requested it. 
 
Thanks and 73. Best wishes for a nice Labor Day weekend, Don’t let the rain forecasted spoil your family time or DXing.  Hope to see you on the 12th. 
 
Bob