RadioBanter - View Single Post

Michael Coslo · October 29th 07, 05:19 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.moderated

wrote:
On Oct 26, 2:34 pm, Michael Coslo wrote:
AF6AY wrote:
Out of 120 questions, I missed 6 (counting the marks made by the
VEC team leader) and am sure that 5 of those were on certain
regulations like bandplan numbers and satellite operation.

The bandplan frequencies and satellite operations are a real issue with
me. I always thought that better questions were available, since like
you note, you look at a chart. I do too.

At least with the band plans, the better question for the test would be
to see if the testee knew where to look them up.

With all due respect, I think there's a bit of terminology confusion
here.

Thanks for the correction Jim. I should have stated that what I don't
like on the tests is questions about what particular frequencies you are
allowed to operate on by your class.

Putting specific questions on the regs in the tests is one way of
saying that knowing those
regs is important for all hams. If they are replaced by questions
about "where do you look up the band edges" or some such, why can't the
whole exam be replaced by such questions?

That is kind of slippery sloping my point. Knowing that we are supposed
to ID at certain intervals, or what a wavelength is, or what unit is
used to describe electrical power (all questions from the Technicians
test) are things that require some knowledge, and simply knowing where
to look them up would be troublesome and time consuming in a real time
situation if one had no knowledge of what they were - or even what, in
which case knowing would not be possible.

While printing out that nice little chart from ARRL and posting it by
the rig is simple to the point, and can be looked at before transmitting
to make sure you are within the limits.

Of course taking into account the bandwidth of the transmitted signal,
another question that would be better on the test than the simple
statement of frequencies.

- 73 d eMike KB3EIA -