Slant Alpha Golf

Woo Hoo!

I gave a talk to a local low power (QRP) group back in July.  In the process of hanging out with the club the SCSon learned he can get his own license.  We bought him the book and he started studying on his own.  He ran into trouble with the electronics stuff as he has had no formal instruction.   I've tried to teach him the basics but he's at an age where he won't listen to dad.

I got to thinking though about my own license.  It will expire next year and just "sitting" while he takes his exam.  Hmmm... Might as well upgrade my own ticket to General. 

So a few weeks later and I'm ready to take the exam.  He hadn't been studying but rather than let him sit I figured the $15 was worth it to get the experience with the exam format.

I mentioned I was taking the test to a couple co-workers and they all offered "Good Luck!".  I said "Thanks, but it's not a matter of luck".  Either you know the material or you don't.  There are a couple questions I just wasn't going to attempt to memorize "Which of the following frequencies are within the General class portion of the 10M band?"  Then lists three frequencies and All of the above.  I suppose I could get an exam that had enough of these "write off" questions to trip me up but I was confident.

In the end, I passed and he failed.  There's a correlation there between "I studied and he hadn't".   We are looking for a formal class for him to take.  We thought we had one, 6 Satudays and close by.  Unfortunately he's at a local community college and they won't register him because he's under 16.  FAIL!  Supposedly there are other classes that run regularly but nothing on the calendar as yet.

Suddenly I'm regretting living in an HOA neighborhood.   Even though I sleep with the HOA president, external antennas are clearly a CCR violation.  This is going to take some creativity!  Stay tuned.

*  /AG tells the world that I have passed the exam even though the exam application and results has not been processed through ARRL and posted to the usual databases.