What do you folks suggest for study materials for the Tech test? ARRL's Tech Q&A 6th Edition, the manual, an online course or some other source?
Thank you.
Thank you.
If you enjoy the forum please consider supporting it by signing up for a NES Membership The benefits pay for the membership many times over.
Be sure to enter the NES/MFS May Giveaway ***Canik METE SFX***
I used the Gordon West study guides for all 3 tests.
Its not like I studied others, to compare the GW study guides to. But, heck = they worked for me and got me to an extra in 3 months, and I had zero electrical background.
The eham.net sample tests were also an added big help.
Having the Extra is a great accomplishment. Something to be proud of. But I'll say that beyond bragging rights all it gets you is privileges to operate in a few extra KHz at the edges of some bands. You can work the same bands with a General ticket. However if you plan to become a Volunteer Examiner and help administer ham tests, they always need Extras so they can administer the General and Extra tests. Becoming a VE is easy.I'm thinking doing this - i.e. Going from zero to extra in 3 months. Did you use anything other than the Gordon West books and sample tests? Seems like a good skill set to add.
Having the Extra is a great accomplishment. Something to be proud of. But I'll say that beyond bragging rights all it gets you is privileges to operate in a few extra KHz at the edges of some bands.
Download the question pool, highlight the correct answers, memorize them, ignore the wrong answers, take the test.
The hardest questions for me were band related ones, which are basically rote memorization. Since I can very easily download a band plan chart and reference it any time I'm unsure about where I can operate, I don't feel the need to memorize exact frequencies, USB/LSB, etc. Passing the test just gets you a license/call sign. You'll learn plenty as you try to get your equipment set up.
Disclaimer: I'm an electrical engineer, so most of the science/math stuff was pretty basic for me. The biggest things to know are:
V=IR
P=VI
f (in MHz) = 300 / wavelength (in meters)
Aside from the utility, I'd like to go Extra because my dads been in the hobby since forever. It wasn't something that interested me as a kid but now it'd be nice to have a hobby in common, plus access to some cool toys (old pic here but hams probably know more about what this is than me!).
I have (now) fond memories of a lot of Saturday morning cartoons disturbed by the RF interference on the TV carrying seemingly endless loops of calls during contests.
I'm good at testing and did a couple years of EE in college (finished through RLC circuits) so the above seems pretty straightforward.
But is there any benefit to actually studying the materials? Will I learn anything useful? Or will I learn more the first day I stop by my dads and with my license?
Aside from the utility, I'd like to go Extra because my dads been in the hobby since forever. It wasn't something that interested me as a kid but now it'd be nice to have a hobby in common, plus access to some cool toys (old pic here but hams probably know more about what this is than me!).
I have (now) fond memories of a lot of Saturday morning cartoons disturbed by the RF interference on the TV carrying seemingly endless loops of calls during contests.
I'm good at testing and did a couple years of EE in college (finished through RLC circuits) so the above seems pretty straightforward.
But is there any benefit to actually studying the materials? Will I learn anything useful? Or will I learn more the first day I stop by my dads and with my license?
ETA: CRTs? Really? How old are those pics? LOL
1. You don't need Extra to share the hobby with your dad. General gets you like 95% of the privileges. Take a look at the band chart and see how much more an Extra gets. I'm not trying to dissuade you, just saying you don't need to go overboard.
2. By the time I needed anything that was on the test, I had to look it up again. It's like school where you learn things and might forget, but you know how to get the answer again.
I didn't answer your question about "But is there any benefit to actually studying the materials? Will I learn anything useful? Or will I learn more the first day I stop by my dads and with my license?"...
The test is pretty basic. It's making sure you have a good basic understanding of what you're going to be doing. When you get your brand new license in the mail you're going to plug in your radio and go "Uh, now what". Now you'll start the learning.
Here's an example from the Tech test pool...
T1A03 (D)
Which part of the FCC regulations contains the rules governing the Amateur Radio Service?
A. Part 73
B. Part 95
C. Part 90
D. Part 97
Answer: Who gives a shit. If I hadn't highlighted it in my study guide, I'd never remember the answer and I'd probably never care again unless I had a specific reason to look up a specific regulation.
Spoiler alert, it's D.
Another one that's more technically relevant...
T4A04 (A)
Where must a filter be installed to reduce harmonic emissions from your station?
A. Between the transmitter and the antenna
B. Between the receiver and the transmitter
C. At the station power supply
D. At the microphone
A Day 1 technician isn't even going to know he/she has harmonic emissions that need to be reduced. That's going to come from experience and neighbors complaining (or the kids complaining that dad's radio is messing with their Sunday morning cartoons ). At which point he/she is going to dig into the problem and find that he/she needs a filter and where that filter needs to go. So yes, you might have learned something while studying for the test but then you won't need that information again until you do.
When I "memorized" the answers, what I really did was read the question, read the correct answer and said to myself "Does that make sense?". If it did, I moved on. If it didn't, I learned what I needed to and moved on. The trick is to focus on the correct answers and ignore the wrong ones (distractors as they're called). The test uses the exact same questions and answers out of the pool, with the answers shuffled.
So for the second example, the answer is A. Does that make sense? If not, learn enough to convince yourself and move on. If and when the time comes to add a filter, you research it a little deeper (What frequencies/bands are you having problems with? What's your grounding like? What equipment are you using? Who else has had this problem before? etc), buy and install a filter and see if it solves the problem. The real learning happens after the test.
Bonus advice: Study just as hard for each test you plan on taking that day. I took Tech/General the same day, had focused on General and it was easy breezy, but when I hit the rote memorization questions in the Tech test I almost shit a brick. Not focusing on Tech could have meant leaving with no license.