Ham Radio Course

[skegpro]

There has been a lot of posts regarding travel on local resource roads as of late. Here is something to consider.
John Bell is offering a course discount to our ACC members to prepare you for the Canadian Basic Amateur Radio exam
This course will run for 5 weeks from January 31 to March 4, with classes on Sunday and Thursday evenings from 6:30-9:00 PM PST. Each class will be 2.5 hours long and will take place online over zoom.
The course fee is $80 for ACC Columbia Mountain Section members (regular $100) and includes 10 online sessions, a digital course manual, and access to videos of previous sessions. If you are unsuccessful at passing the exam you are welcome to audit future courses at no extra cost.
If you'd like to register for the course and would like more information, please send John Bell (at johnmbell@gmail.com) an email message including your email, name, proof of your ACC membership and a few words on why you're interested in getting your amateur radio license. He will get back to you within 24 hours with registration and payment information.

 

[ferniesnow]

What does ACC stand for Dustin??

 

[skegpro]

What does ACC stand for Dustin??

Alpine Club of Canada.

 

[ferniesnow]

Thanks. Another of the left leaning cooperative type companies.
They are in the news today for not accommodating a refund on a booking in the Micheal Trudeau (belonging to the ACC) hut in the West Koots. No refund, no other switching of dates, etc.. The group may be out $15G and feel they are following the COVID priorities. A little off topic but...........information just the same.

 

[skegpro]

Thanks. Another of the left leaning cooperative type companies.
They are in the news today for not accommodating a refund on a booking in the Micheal Trudeau (belonging to the ACC) hut in the West Koots. No refund, no other switching of dates, etc.. The group may be out $15G and feel they are following the COVID priorities. A little off topic but...........information just the same.

Yeah the post wasn't about the ACC, not a member or a supporter, but just wanted to get the link out for the course incase someone who isn't radio savy wanted to learn a new skill.

 

[Dakine879]

There has been a lot of posts regarding travel on local resource roads as of late. Here is something to consider.
John Bell is offering a course discount to our ACC members to prepare you for the Canadian Basic Amateur Radio exam
This course will run for 5 weeks from January 31 to March 4, with classes on Sunday and Thursday evenings from 6:30-9:00 PM PST. Each class will be 2.5 hours long and will take place online over zoom.
The course fee is $80 for ACC Columbia Mountain Section members (regular $100) and includes 10 online sessions, a digital course manual, and access to videos of previous sessions. If you are unsuccessful at passing the exam you are welcome to audit future courses at no extra cost.
If you'd like to register for the course and would like more information, please send John Bell (at johnmbell@gmail.com) an email message including your email, name, proof of your ACC membership and a few words on why you're interested in getting your amateur radio license. He will get back to you within 24 hours with registration and payment information.

I'd love to take a HAM radio license, it would further my nerd street cred haha. I would be cool to chat with people from all over too!

 

[skegpro]

Hi Skegpro,


Thanks for your interest, the classes are all recorded and recordings are made available to everyone for review (usually the day after.) Below you will find some general information about the upcoming course. You'll also find the Course Manual attached to this email.


Registration, Payment, ACC Discount, and Refunds

You will be considered Registered once payment has been received. Payment ($100 per person) can be made via Interac E-Transfer to this email address (JohnMBell@gmail.com), using the password: Stoked.

Refunds will be available in full up until 12:00 PM on January 31, 2021. After that point no refunds will be possible.


Class Format

The classes will be run over Zoom video conference. There will be one permanent Zoom meeting ID/password combination for the entire course.


Classes will take place on Sunday and Thursday evenings, 6:30-9:00pm Pacific Time from Sunday, January 31 - Thursday, March 4. The first four weeks will cover course content and the last week will be for exam review. Each class will follow this approximate schedule (all times are Pacific):


6:20 - 6:30 Assemble

6:30 - 6:50 Check in and review

6:50 - 7:30 Course content

7:30 - 7:40 Break

7:40 - 8:20 Course content

8:20 - 8:30 Break

8:30 - 9:00 Enrichment


I like to include additional presentations on topics not necessarily covered by the exam as a form of enrichment. Past topics have included digital data/voice modes, Summits On The Air, and an overview of Handheld radios. If you are particularly interested in any topics related to amateur radio (like satellites, kit building, or anything else,) let me know and I'll try to fit it into the enrichment sessions. Occasionally course material may run into the enrichment block.


Time Commitment

There will be 25 hours of classes (with breaks) and 4-5 hours of reading over the 5 week course. You should also anticipate another 5-10 hours of self-guided studying to prepare for the final exam (depending on your technical knowledge and learning style.) I am happy to answer any questions you might have and discuss studying strategies that will work for your needs.


Classes will also be recorded and will be available in case you should be unable to attend any of the live sessions.


The Exam

The final exam for Basic qualifications is a 100 multiple-choice question test. A minimal passing grade for Basic is 70%, and 80% for Basic with Honors (see Section 5.3 of RIC-1, linked in Resources.)


Thanks to a collaboration with examiners on Vancouver Island, we have approval from ISED to conduct online amateur radio exams. You will need a webcam, a calculator, and a private space free of distractions. The exam for this course will be held sometime in March at a date to be determined (probably the week after the course ends.) Both the exam and the license are free.


Resources

We will be using the Amateur Radio Basic Qualifications Manual created by the UBC Amateur Radio Society and distributed under the GNU Free Documentation license. This is the most up to date study guide available and we have been given an advanced copy before it is released to the general public. You should find the manual attached to this email, it is a good idea to read Section 1 (Pg. 1-12) before our first class.


We will also be referring to the following documents from Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada (Formerly Industry Canada.) These can be a little dry, but a lot of the content on the exam comes directly from these documents. You can find them here:


RIC-1 - Guide for Examiners Accredited to Conduct Examinations for Amateur Radio Operator Certificates

RBR-4 — Standards for the Operation of Radio Stations in the Amateur Radio Service

RIC-3 - Information on the Amateur Radio Service

RIC-9 - Call Sign Policy and Special Event Prefixes


A practice exam and study question tool are available online for the Basic qualification, along with the entire Basic question/answer pool. We'll be getting into this later in the course, but historically the more time you can spend practicing exam questions the higher your chances of passing will be. Feel free to take a swing at it if you're feeling confident! https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/025.nsf/eng/h_00040.html


Please let me know if you have any questions!


Cheers,

John Bell

VA7JBE

 

[skegpro]

http://ars.ams.ubc.ca/index.php/amateur-radio-qualification/

 

[S.W.A.T.]

I'm confused, you now have to take a course to have a radio in your pickup?

 

[Pedaling pete]

I think you only are supposed to have a license for programable radios. If the CB channels are programed in at the store then they would have the license and you wouldnt need it.

could be wrong though

 

[RGM]

I'm confused, you now have to take a course to have a radio in your pickup?

Having a ham license is totally different than calling KM in your truck. Legally you need a licence for your radio (not a ham licence) in your truck to use on the RR channels. Hardly anyone bothers. If you want to learn how a radio works and talk to guys on the other side of the world it would be a good course. If you just want to push the PTT button and talk there is no need. There is another thread on radios and logging roads, there is some good info there and that's all you need.

 

[skegpro]

I'm confused, you now have to take a course to have a radio in your pickup?

No, just for fun or if your curious how everything works.

 

[moyiesledhead]

Having a ham license is totally different than calling KM in your truck. Legally you need a licence for your radio (not a ham licence) in your truck to use on the RR channels. Hardly anyone bothers. If you want to learn how a radio works and talk to guys on the other side of the world it would be a good course. If you just want to push the PTT button and talk there is no need. There is another thread on radios and logging roads, there is some good info there and that's all you need.

What he said. Ham license doesn't make it any more legal for you to transmit on any frequency between 148Mhz and 430Mhz than not having a license.......right where the RR frequencies are.

 

[RXN]

Wrote my test today for my basic license.
Took the class through NARC (Northren Alberta Radio Club). Glad I took the class. It was long in depth and way over my head.
May 5th was 3 hrs. May 6 was 8hrs May 7 was 8hrs. May 13 was 8hrs and today 6 for the class and 2 for the test. So after 35hrs of sitting there with a lost look on my face wondering what the hell the instructor was talking about.
I walked away with 72%.

Just need 70% for your basic
80%+ is basic with honors. Meaning these folk can talk on all the HF bands.
Where as I can only use 2meter, 6 meter and 70 cm. (Which is all my VHF radios can do). So I'm happy. I really only got it to shut certain people up. The boafeng hand helds. No one really seemed to care about. But the TYT TH-9000D mounted on the dash of my jeep has earned me a few lectures.

Now that I can use the Ham guys frequencies. I just might.

Got to pick my call sign today too.
VA6RXN

 

[MOUNTAIN MICKEY]

Congratulations on passing the test---saying it again on this forum too. Meant to tell you on the other forum that a lot of "snowmobile" people use BCA radios in our area and other areas so I program them into the Baofengs as well. Helmet kits are available for Baofengs too ($25) in case you did not know.

 

[blastoff]

My dad was an instructor for ham years back in the 70’s when you had to do Morse code, I remember years back we talked with the space station & a whole lot of guys from around the world. Congrats
I see you have VA6 back mid 70’s it was VE6

 

[RXN]

My dad was an instructor for ham years back in the 70’s when you had to do Morse code, I remember years back we talked with the space station & a whole lot of guys from around the world. Congrats
I see you have VA6 back mid 70’s it was VE6

VE6RXN was already taken. I guess it's like a second area code. So I went with it