Here's an idea for all you amateur radio enthusiasts with ties to the Scouts.  JOTA-2010 is scheduled for October 16–17, 2010. Why not add a license exam session to your weekend activity list?  It would be a great individual achievement for a Scout to earn an amateur radio license on JOTA weekend!  Most candidates complete the Technician license exam (35 questions)  in an hour or less.  You should be able to fit a license exam into the weekend activity schedule.

Many of the VE teams in your area will administer the exams at the JOTA site if you contact them soon so they put it on their schedules.  You will need to provide them with a list of license candidates and a suitable facility to conduct the exam session.

How are the interested Scouts going to prepare for the license exam?  No problem!  Have them use the the free NC4FB Online Technician License Self-Study Program available at the link provided below.  The program features subelement flashcards and graded sample exams. 

NC4FB Online Technician License Self-Study Program

 Suggested Approach

1)  Assign an adult to lead your JOTA Amateur Radio License Attainment Program.

2)  Compile a list of Scouts who want to earn an amateur radio license and are willing to study for it. 

3)  Contact the VE teams in your area and make arrangements with one of them to conduct a license exam session at your JOTA site.

4)  Make sure the adult leader monitors the study progress of each of the license candidates.  Have the license candidates Email the results of their subelement exams and sample exams to the adult leader.  See the license candidate spreadsheet progress tracking form at the link below.  You can use the free Open Office product to access the form if you don't have MS Word.

Technician License Candidate Progress Tracking Form

5)  Have the license candidates at the exam session location on time with the required ID, license fee, etc.

Note:  If you want to conduct an “in-person” prep session for the candidates prior to the exam, take a look at the NC4FB Technician License Exam Prep Session Package available at the link provided below.

NC4FB Technician License Exam Prep Session Package

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The NC4FB General License Exam Prep Package is now available for download.  The purpose of the package is to facilitate exam prep sessions delivered “in-person” to an audience of amateur radio General license candidates.  The package can be used to supplement a modular multi-session approach that covers each subelement individually or a small number of subelements per prep session.  The package can also be used as a concentrated continuous prep session that covers all 10 subelements (G0–G9) in six hours.

Electronic flashcards followed by complete subelement exams are the key features of the package. Flashcards take advantage of the properties of short-term memory and have been acknowledged by educational researchers as one of the fastest and easiest ways to memorize information for testing purposes.

What it isn't and what it is!

This package is not designed to teach a “class.”  It is designed to prepare candidates in a short period of time to pass the General license exam.

The following items are needed to use the license exam prep package:

1.  Video projector + projection screen.

2.  Laptop or netbook computer to interface to the video projector and execute the slide programs.

3.  Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer, PowerPoint, or compatible software such as Open Office to run the slide shows.  You will need PowerPoint or other compatible software such as Open Office if you are going to modify the .ppt files.  You can download a free copy of MS PowerPoint Viewer from the link shown below.

download PowerPoint Viewer

You can download a free copy of Open Office from the link shown below.

Download Open Office

4.  Computer printer and paper.  Six exam answer sheets per candidate will need to be printed.  The answer sheets can be printed and used front and back to save paper.  Six answer sheets will cover all 10–subelement exams and the sample General exam.

Don't have a video projector, screen, or a meeting room?  Check out your local EMS organization or fire department.  They all have a training room and will generally let you use it to conduct a prep session.  Most of them will also let you use their video projector and screen.

Need to advertise your prep session?  Take a look at the ARRL web site for instructions on registering a class.  Click on the link provided below. Be sure to clearly state in the description that you are going to conduct a “license prep session” so as not to mislead persons interested in a “class” involving theory,  operating practice, etc.

ARRL list class

You will need to map out a time line for the continuous prep session to allow sufficient time to complete all 10 subelements and the sample General exam prior to administering the actual license exam.  I found that running the prep session from 7:30 am to 1:30 pm followed by a short lunch break before administering the actual General license exam works quite well. 

Package Structure

The package includes flashcard files, subelement exam files, combined flashcard + subelement exam files, a sample 35–question General license exam,  files to print exam answer sheets, and instructions.   The PowerPoint files are configured for manual slide advance using the computer keyboard or a remote hand-held control unit.  I found that using automatic slide advance after 12 seconds for the flashcard slides and 15–20 seconds for the exam slides works well.  You can set the desired time interval for automatic slide advance using MS PowerPoint or Open Office.

The 10 subelement .ppt files (G0–G9) are comprised of flashcards followed by a corresponding subelement exam.  An End-of Flashcard marker slide separates the flashcards from the subelement exam.  You will want to set this marker slide to manual advance to allow candidates time to fill out their exam answer sheets before starting exams.

The answer keys for the subelement exams and sample General exam are located on the slide right after the End-of-Exam marker slide.  I recommend having the test takers grade their own tests by marking only the wrong answers on the answer sheet.  I issue test takers red and black fine point markers to use with the answer sheets. Answer choices are marked in black when taking exams and wrong answers are marked in red when grading exams.  The red marks makes it easy to quickly count the number of wrong answers that are then recorded on the bottom of the answer sheet.  An exam tally sheet slide located behind the answer key slide provides a quick way to find the score from the number of wrong answers.  Scores are entered at the bottom of the answer sheets.

Tip: If the license prep session is scheduled 10 days or more in the future, encourage candidates to get a head start by using the NC4FB Online General License Self-study program.  Link provided below.

NC4FB Online General License Self-Study Program

The NC4FB General License Exam Prep Package is made available at no cost under a  Creative Commons License and may not be sold or used for commercial purposes. The package is offered AS-IS with no express or implied guarantees regarding its use. 

General License Prep Session by NC4FB is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at nc4fb.org. Request for permissions beyond the scope of this license are to be addressed to NC4FB.

Feel free to modify the package as needed for your purposes and to add your club logo to the slides.

Please send error reports, comments, and suggestions to NC4FB.

The entire prep package is stored in a single zip file.  Download the file to your computer and unzip it.  I keep my copy of the package on a portable USB flash drive.  By clicking on the link provided below to download the package, you signify acceptance of the terms of the Creative Commons License and use disclaimers specified above and agree not to hold NC4FB liable in any way for the use of the package.

NC4FB General License Prep Session Package

Have spouses and kids in your club who want to earn their General licenses?  Organize an “Upgrade Saturday”! Use the NC4FB General License Exam Prep package to prepare candidates in the morning and schedule a VE team to administer the exam in the afternoon.

Ask your club membership director to put together a list of member licenses by date issued.  If you find you have find a number of General licensees in your club who can't seem to organize themselves sufficiently to upgrade their licenses, encourage them to enroll in the NC4FB Amateur Extra Online License Self-Study Program.  Assigning a club MENTOR to help set exam target dates and monitor member progress will produce very pleasing results for all involved.

NC4FB Amateur Extra Online Self-Study Program

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NC4FB

I’ve added an exam tuneup feature to the license self-study program. The purpose of the tuneup feature is to help license candidates maintain proficiency until the exam.

Use the link provided below to access the tuneup feature.

exam tuneup

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NC4FB