On 06/11/2014 01:29, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

Now, if I could only fix my crappy arithmetic.

Try this... :-)


From: "G \"Guglielmo\" Evans G4SDW"
Newsgroups: uk.radio.amateur
Subject: Difficulty with maths?
Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 12:47:45 +0100
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For those who claim an interest going back several
years, (in one case 50 years!) and who have still not
yet managed the M3/CB Fools' Licence hurdle that
is set for 6-year-olds, here is Lesson 1 of a maths
lecture course that I prepared some years ago.

Practising school teachers who say that maths is hard
should also start here.

-----ooooo-----

Copyright (C) 1999 G.A.Evans All Rights Reserved.

So, you're a CBer and you want a Ham Radio licence?
Good on you.
Well, let's consider the differences.....

CB is a social facility for those with no technical
qualification nor competence. You must use type-
approved equipment which you are NOT allowed
to modify. You are restricted to one band, and to
a very low output power. (More power, in fact, than
your GSM phone, but still very low)

Ham Radio is related, but not closely. Ham Radio
is also a social facility, but with a difference. You are
allowed to construct your own transmitting gear and
use it on a multitude of bands, and at very high
powers. With such privileges comes responsibility.
You must demonstrate that you have a minimum of
technical know-how, and for this purpose you must pass
an examination, The Radio Amateur's Examination.

This is not a difficult examination, It is easier than a
GCSE, and when you consider that youngsters doing
their GCSE's study and pass 10 at a time, then the RAE
on it's own is a simple matter.

To indulge in this technical activity, you must enjoy solving
puzzles. You must thrive on finding out how things
work and inventing things for yourself. If this doesn't
describe you, then perhaps Ham Radio is not for you?

Now, you will need a jargon to discuss and explain
your new-found technical excitement. As a CBer, you
may have said things like, "You're showing five
cherries". All very amusing, but hardly technical. As
a Radio Ham you will be expected to use and understand
such phrases as, "S9 plus 20 dB". The jargon that you will
use is known as "Mathematics". Now, "Hold On!", I hear
you gasp, you were hopeless at mathematics (or, "Maths")
at school.

Well, let me let you into a secret. The problem with maths
did not lie with you, but with the incompetence of your
teachers. Maths is really quite straightforward, and the
knowledge you need is no more than that which school
children of 12 possess. You're not going to tell me that
a child of 12 is better than you? Of course not!

That's all very well and glib, but it cannot be denied
that some of you have found maths to be difficult, and
based upon the scorn heaped upon you by your incompetent
teachers, some of you will have formed mental blocks that
prevent you from making any progress.

Well, what I am going to do, is to prepare some elementary
lessons for you, which you can do in the privacy of
your own home, where no-one will look over your shoulder
or laugh at you.

How am I going to do this when you already have a mental
block? Well, what I will do is take you right back to
square one, right back to where you were before you got
that block, when you were perhaps five years old, and
there was absolutely no difference between you and the
other pupils in the playground, and bring you on in
a spirit of confidence.
(You may find the first lessons to be trivial, but please
bear with me. The principles laid down will assist you
throughout the course).

The first, and most important thing which I will stress
time and time again is this.......quite often you will
come across some new maths which confuses you, but which
more often than not, is a new way of writing down
SOMETHING WHICH YOU ALREADY KNOW, something which is
a shorthand to make life easy.

-----OOOOO-----

So, let's make a very easy start, illustrating this
principle. Let us suppose that we are counting eggs,
and if you'll pardon the weak pun, let's count "X's".

X; one, obviously.
XX; two,
XXX; three,
XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXX; One Hundred and Twenty Three!

So, here is that first and most important principle...
instead of having that tedious way of counting, we use
a shorthand... "1", "2", "3" and "123". Now, as I said,
this isn't any new or clever maths, IT'S JUST AN EASY
WAY OF WRITING DOWN SOMETHING WHICH YOU ALREADY KNOW.

Right, that's enough for an introduction. Yes, it's
trivially simple, but then so is maths, as you will
see in subsequent lessons. Who knows, in a short
time you'll get that Ham Radio license!