Ham Basics Workshop

Last weekend our radio club held a workshop entitled "Ham Basics" with the concept to teach beginning principles on a variety of ham radio subjects. I did most of the planning and prep work behind the scenes, but asked for help with publicity and logistics for the building. In all, we had nine instructors who taught 13 classes: one general session (45-minutes) and 12 50-minute classes. We all met together for the general session, then separated into four classrooms where the other classes were held. I am grateful for the willingness of the instructors to prepare material and teach to the attendees.

We started at 9 AM in a large hall with about 80 attendees who watched several of us solve a projector problem early in my session. Most attendees were licensed hams, but there were some who came to "kick the tires" and learn a bit about the hobby. Many of the presentation outlines are available at http://www.w7aia.org/class.htm in case you are interested in the subjects. [Note: the workshop web page is not well-organized yet, but hopefully I can negotiate with the webmaster to improve it.] The slide that shows how few hams reside in some counties surprised many folks; the large ham population in the Puget Sound area and in the Portland metro area should not surprise anyone.

After the general session, attendees were able to choose from four classes. During the first class session, we offered "How to get the most from your handheld", "Simple VHF/UHF antennas", "Communications during an Emergency", and "Getting started with HF".

During the second class period, we offered "Operating mobile and portable", "Connectors and grounding", "Digital communications", and "Simple HF antennas".

During the third period, we offered "Station types from handheld to HF", "Contesting", "Using your radio for public service", and "Care and feeding of batteries".

In all, we had between 85 and 100 folks attend for all or part of the workshop. Attendees ranged from unlicensed to extra, although I think most attendees held either technician or general licenses. We received numerous thanks for the session, enough to seriously consider doing it again next year. I learned from preparing the classes, and sitting in on one class.

2009 Clark County ham classes

So far this year, Phil and I taught two ham license classes: one regular and one short class that met twice. By year end, we may well have over 100 students go through our classes. In January we taught our regular four-session class. We had 42 appear on the first Friday, then 39 on Saturday, then 37 the following Friday, and 36 on Saturday before the test. Several folks did not feel ready to test that day, so departed after the review and before the test.

In January, we had 29 from the class plus two others test for technician that day, and all 31 passed. One student also passed the general test, plus a non-student passed the general test. One class member's husband tried to upgrade from general to extra, but fell slightly short of the bar. Next time.

Since we knew several folks were not quite ready to test, we decided to conduct a short class on two Thursdays in March. We offered the class for those who did not finish, but most students who actually attended had studied on their own and just needed a bit of help to prepare for the test. Seven from that class passed their tests on Mar 21.

Now we are preparing for a general upgrade class that starts Apr 24, followed a few weeks later with a technician class in Woodland that will start May 9. The general upgrade class appears popular. To date we have 24 enrolled, and I expect when I mail out more announcements on the class, more students will enroll. Typically I send emails to past students from our technician class, and we find students from that group and from folks they meet. We also tend to get several students for each class who learn about the class from the Classes listing at http://www.arrl.org/. The general class requires more preparation than the technician class because we only teach one per year. The general has more electronics than the technician which also requires us to adjust who teaches what. I learn something new every time we teach this class.

Several folks in the Longview area had asked us to consider doing a class in Woodland or Longview, and we finally decided to do one. Since the class was not on the meetinghouse calendar, we rearranged the class schedule. Normally we teach Friday/Saturday on two successive weekends. For this class we will teach on a Saturday, followed six days later on a Friday, then a week later with a Friday/Saturday pair. The CCARC Volunteer Examiner team will administer the test. So far we have 13 enrolled, and I expect quite a few more before the class begins.

I'm grateful for the number of good people we've met over the years in our classes. And it sure is fun to see the light in people's eyes when they grasp a principle or hear an idea that gets them thinking of ways to apply what they learn.

We also plan a technician class in the fall in Vancouver that could have 30 plus students enrolled once we start the publicity.