Posts Tagged ‘Training’
Announcing the October 2014 WØTLM Technician License Class
July 12th, 2014 | 
Author: 
Ham Radio Two-Day License Class
Sat October 18 and Sat October 25 (8 AM to 5 PM) 2014
Location: Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Station 1, Monument, CO
The Technician license is your gateway to the world-wide excitement of Amateur Radio …
- Earn your ham radio Technician class radio privileges
- Pass your FCC amateur radio license exam right in class on the second day
- Multiple-choice exam, No Morse Code Required
- Live equipment demonstrations
- Learn to operate on the ham bands, 10 Meters and higher
- Learn to use the many VHF/UHF FM repeaters in Colorado
- Find out how to participate in emergency communications
There is a $25 registration fee for the class.
In addition, students must have the required study guide and read it before attending the two-day class: HamRadioSchool.com Technician License Course $20.95
(make sure you get the most recent edition of this book, updated for the new FCC exam questions)
Advance registration is required (no later than one week before the first session, earlier is better! This class usually fills up early.)
To register for the class, contact: Bob Witte KØNR
Email: [email protected] or Phone: 719 659-3727
Sponsored by the Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Radio Association
For more information on amateur (ham) radio visit www.arrl.org or www.wedothat-radio.org
What? A Record Level of US Ham Licenses?
The ARRL just reported that the number of FCC amateur radio licenses hit an all time high of 717,201 at the end of 2013. Since we all know that the interwebz has made ham radio communication obsolete :-), this is a difficult statistic to comprehend. Joe Speroni AH0A keeps a useful collection of ham licensing statistics including the ability to generate plots of the data. I used Joe’s site to generate this plot of total US amateur licenses versus time. Note that the vertical axis does not start at zero, so the plot tends to exaggerate the amount of change.
Click to expand
From this plot, we see that the number of licenses was in decline from about 2003 to 2007. The no code Technician license was introduced in 1991 which is earlier than the data on this chart. The FCC completely dropped the Morse Code requirement from all license classes in 2007, as indicated on the chart. (See Wikipedia for the exact dates.) The decline in licenses was reversed at that time and has been growing ever since. There is an interesting inflection point in 2010 that coincides with the release of a new Technician License question pool. The line is noticeably less steep after this point, which seems to imply that something happened to slow down the rate of new licenses.
Over the last ten years, Technician licenses have grown slightly as a percent of the total, going from 47% to 49%. So about half of US licenses are Technician. The grandfathered Novice and Advanced class licenses are in a slow decline and currently represent 2% and 8% (respectively) of the total licenses. The percent of General licenses has grown slightly over the past ten years, from 21% to 23%. Extra class licenses showed the most growth over the decade, going from 15% to 19% of total licenses.
While it’s encouraging to see continued growth in the number of ham radio licenses, these statistics immediately raise a number of questions:
- How many of these licensees are Silent Keys and their FCC license is just clocking time until it hits the 10 year expiration date?
- Given the aging ham population, when will we hit a demographic brick wall and see the number of licenses decline?
- How many of these licensees are actively involved in ham radio? I have a number of friends that keep their FCC license current but are never on the air.
Clearly, the 10 year license term will tend to mask any decline for a while but it seems that sooner or later the numbers will flatten off and probably start to decline. I don’t know of anyone that has collected and analyzed the age distribution of hams, so I am basing this on what I see at radio club meetings and major ham radio events.
How many of these licensees are active? Really difficult to say. It seems that in the 21st century, people have many activities to choose from and their interest in any one of them may fade in and out. Not everyone is a Full Up 24/7 Ham Radio Enthusiast.
In the mean time, I am going to keep teaching Tech license classes and helping people get started in a hobby that I find to be a lot of fun. Remember the The Universal Purpose of Amateur Radio: To Have Fun Messing Around with Radios.
73, Bob K0NR
Announcing April 2014 Technician License Class
Ham Radio Two-Day License Class
Monument, Colorado
Sat April 12 and Sat April 19 (8 AM to 5 PM) 2014
Location: Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Station 1
The Technician license is your gateway to the world-wide excitement of Amateur Radio …
- Earn your ham radio Technician class radio privileges
- Pass your FCC amateur radio license exam right in class on the second day
- Multiple-choice exam, No Morse Code Required
- Live equipment demonstrations
- Learn to operate on the ham bands, 10 Meters and higher
- Learn to use the many VHF/UHF FM repeaters in Colorado
- Find out how to participate in emergency communications
There is a $25 registration fee for the class.
In addition, students must have the required study guide:
HamRadioSchool.com Technician License Course $19.95
Advance registration is required (no later than one week before the first session, earlier is better!)
To register for the class, contact: Bob Witte KØNR
Email: [email protected] or Phone: 719 659-3727
Sponsored by the Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Radio Association
For more information on amateur (ham) radio visit www.arrl.org or www.wedothat-radio.org
Tech Day 2013 – Saturday Sept 14
Come join us on Saturday, September 14th, 2013 (9:00 AM to 2:00 PM) at the Prairie Winds Elementary School , 790 Kings Deer Point East, Monument, CO for Tech Day 2013. Tech Day is for beginner to intermediate hams who want to learn more and take that ‘next step’ in ham radio.
Everyone is welcome, no registration is required. Just show up with your bright smiley face, ready to learn something and have fun.
Presentations
9:30 am – Getting started in QRP operating from Steve WGØAT of Rooster & Peanut fame [http://www.youtube.com/user/goathiker]
10:30 am – Mobile radio installation tips with James KDØMFO
11:30 am – Practical antennas made out of copper pipe by Al WBØTGE
12:30 pm - Ham Shack 101 - the basics of setting up a home station by Stu WØSTU
1:30 pm – Some Practical Antenna Theory – Bob KØNR
* Each presentation is approximately 20 minutes with Q&A at the end.
Live Demonstations
All day long, we’ll have these displays set up so you can get a hands on look at radio operating:
QRP operating, Flex Software Defined Radio (SDR), HF antennas, mobile radio installation
The local Boy Scout troop will be selling hotdogs and drinks in hamfest style.
Tech Day 2013 is proudly sponsored by the WØTLM Amateur Radio Club
Announcing Technician License Class – Oct 19/26
Ham Radio Two-Day License Class
Monument, Colorado
Sat Oct 19 and Sat Oct 26 (8 AM to 5 PM) 2013
Location: Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Station 1
The Technician license is your gateway to the world-wide excitement of Amateur Radio …
- Earn your ham radio Technician class radio privileges
- Pass your FCC amateur radio license exam right in class on the second day
- Multiple-choice exam, No Morse Code Required
- Live equipment demonstrations
- Learn to operate on the ham bands, 10 Meters and higher
- Learn to use the many VHF/UHF FM repeaters in Colorado
- Find out how to participate in emergency communications
There is a $25 registration fee for the class.
In addition, students must have the required study guide:
HamRadioSchool.com Technician License Course $19.95
Advance registration is required (no later than one week before the first session, earlier is better!)
To register for the class, contact: Bob Witte KØNR
Email: [email protected] or Phone: 719 659-3727
Sponsored by the Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Radio Association
For more information on amateur (ham) radio visit www.arrl.org
or www.wedothat-radio.org
General License Book From HamRadioSchool.com
HamRadioSchool.com is off to a great start with a learning system that includes a web site, iPhone app and a great Technician License Course book. The Technician book, written by my fellow instructor Stu Turner W0STU, has turned out to be very popular. Stu did a great job of balancing “teaching the right material” with “focusing on the exam questions.” We’ve used the book in our two-day Tech license class with great success.
Many people have been asking Stu when he’s going to write a book for the FCC General Class License. So, by popular demand, here it is: HamRadioSchool.com General License Course. Using the same creative style that worked well with the Technician book, Stu has delivered an easy-t0-grok book for getting your General Class License.
I was happy to provide technical assistance to Stu for this book and earned the esteemed title of Technical Editor. It even says so on the front cover! (It says Technical Editor because I can’t be held responsible for proper grammar or spelling.)
Just like the Tech book, the General book has a companion iPhone app available on iTunes.
73, Bob K0NR
Technician License Class – April 2013
Monument, Colorado
Saturday April 13 and Saturday April 20 (8 AM to 5 PM) 2013
Location: Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Station 1
Sponsored by the Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Radio Association
The Technician license is your gateway to the world-wide excitement of Amateur Radio…
- Earn your ham radio Technician class radio privileges
- Pass your FCC amateur radio license exam right in class on the second day
- Multiple-choice exam, No Morse Code Required
- Live equipment demonstrations
- Learn to operate on the ham bands, 10 Meters and higher
- Learn to use the many VHF/UHF FM repeaters in Colorado
- Find out how to participate in emergency communications
There is no cost for the class (donations accepted)
However, students must have the required study guide:
HamRadioSchool.com Technician License Course $19.95
And pay the FCC Exam Fee: $15.00
Advance registration is required (no later than one week before the first session)
This class usually fills up, so don’t delay!
To register for the class, contact: Bob Witte KØNR
Email: [email protected] or Phone: 719 659-3727
For more information on amateur (ham) radio visit www.arrl.org or www.wedothat-radio.org
