From Techless to Amateur Extra in an afternoon.

From Techless to Amateur Extra in an afternoon.

It’s not often I leave the Island, but when I do, I make it worth my while!

For a number of years, I’ve had a hankering to sit the US Amateur radio exam, for no other reason than just to do it!

A few months ago, my good friend Matt said he was going to sit the exam but needed some additional candidates to ensure an exam session was viable. The exam is entirely managed by volunteers. As you can imagine there is not a huge supply of US licence examiners here in the UK & it is hard to ask them to gather only to find they are not needed on the day. I volunteered, anything to help a mate!

So, I have spent the weekend in the company of Matt & his good lady wife Kaz attending the Convention of the RSGB, the national body representing the UK amateur radio community which for us concluded with the US exam starting at 1pm Sunday afternoon, meeting Jim another club colleague who attended just for the exam.

Like the UK the US has three levels of licence, but unlike the UK their system permits you to sit one exam after the other in one session, if you pass at the lower level!

About eight people sat the exam, one already held a pass for the first two levels, so started immediately on the third paper. The rest of us started with the Technician Licence, I think all were successful bar one. As soon as your paper is handed in it is marked, pass, you are given the nod & asked if you wish to take the next level, I think all took the offered challenge.

It is a little disconcerting to hear muted conversations whispered by the examiners to candidates being told they haven’t passed as you still sweat over the last few questions & then submit your paper for checking. Hearing a whispered conversation, a nod & a new paper being put down on another candidate’s desk raises some hope.

I again got a nod & the offer of the final paper, “wow, I’ve passed the General Class exam” I thought. It was at this point the cold sweat did trickle, I really wasn’t confident at passing this, the highest level, for Amateur Extra. But I’d paid my cash & it wasn’t costing me anymore, so “give it a go” I said to myself.

This Exam was longer Fifty questions compared to thirty-five & far, far more technical in nature. I admit, it was steady concentrated effort, which on occasion was a little disturbed by whispered conversations, slips being signed & candidates leaving the room with their pass slip for General, Amateur Extra having escaped their grasp this time. I was the last but one to finish.

When that paper was finished & handed over, my brain was throbbing & I really was not confident. I had said before the exam that I would pay another fee & do an immediate resit if I had a close fail, no I would not, I was exhausted. Pass or fail, that was all I could offer at that moment, any resit would wait for some potential date in the future, if ever.

The huddle around my paper seemed to last for ages, three examiners (with a couple of extras watching over) each in turn having to check & mark the paper, using a plastic grid to place on the paper with windows to show where the correct mark ‘should’ be. Much consultation seemed to be taking place with paper & plastic overlay being passed hand to hand, eventually signatures were being appended to it by them. All of a sudden, a head popped up from the group, a grin appeared on the face, a hand emerged with a thumbs up. I was the newest Amateur Extra pass holder in the world, & I felt on top of that world.

I had not really seriously studied for the tests, yes, I had bought a book, but it had arrived a little late to seriously study it in any proper detail. Instead I had followed the latest trend to gather knowledge, YouTube! I had spent time watching videos of classes being delivered in the US, I had watched some tutorial videos put together by some ‘Elmers’ which really, for me, seemed to clarify some of the complicated topics. Those that didn’t seem to work, that is when I had a dip into the manual. However, I didn’t actually sit down & work my way through the entire syllabus for Technician, General or Amateur Extra.

What I did do was repeatedly work through the online tests which use questions that are in the published pool of questions for the exam. Starting with the Technician class I found I had sufficient general knowledge to regularly achieve a good high passing score. I moved on to the General class & started to get scores which were passing but only just. Running out of time to study I started doing the occasional Extra Test, often doing well with a good pass, sometimes though it was a spectacular fail.

I had printed out the question pool for each level, which also displayed only the correct answer, sometimes with an explanatory note. I focussed on reading this print out, not to memorise the answers, far too many questions. But it helped me identify those questions where I could not see why the answer was the correct answer. Reading or watching a YouTube video helped fill in those gaps, not that I thought it did so at the time.

Maths is an issue for me, always has been. I am one of those people who really finds it difficult to hold complex mathematical concepts in my head. One of the best bits of advice I learnt from one of the videos, was when one of the very keen mathematical Elmers pointed out that statistically the total number crunching questions that may appear on any particular paper would be very few, so I took his advice to try & understand the wider concepts whilst risking losing only a very few points on not attempting pure calculation questions, a lucky guess may help you anyway. Did it work?

I dropped one question on the Tech, four on the General & seven on the Extra. Not perfect, few are! But, a pass at each level. So, if I can do it, so can you.

Just in case you think I’m a ‘spring chicken’, I am not I sat my RAE almost thirty years ago & have not seriously studied since.

I have not mentioned how Matt, Kaz & Jim got on, well that’s not for me to report, but all left the exam room with a pass slip at one level or another.

Thanks to all the Voluntary Examiners at the RSGB Convention 2019, without you it wouldn’t have happened. Thanks to Matt for the nudge to sit the exams, as well as Matt & Kaz for being such good company & transport providers.

So now to start planning that long US vacation that has been sitting at the back of my daydreams for so many years….

#RSGB #RSGBCONVENTION #RSGBCONVENTION2019 #ARRL #HAM #HAMRADIO #AMATEUR #AMATEURRADIO