Staying Alive in Retirement: Learn Something New: Ham Radio

By: George Wallace

Staying alive means more than just waking up in the morning still breathing. To me staying alive means to be engaged with life, my community, my family, and within my own brain.

I have always been a volunteer. I still am.

I am interested in the world and almost everything above, in, on, and under it.

I love my wife of 40 years, my children, and our only grandchild.

I am an author. I write. Just as I am now writing this article. I am writing this article for my websites. When I’m done, I’ll post it to the websites, then blog it as well.

Why go to all the bother? It is not a bother. It is a pleasure, and it keeps my mind active and involved with the world.

Today’s topic: Studying for and passing the Technician’s ham radio license.

Several months ago I became interested in the whole field of community preparedness for emergencies. At my age and general physical inability to “do physical things”, it gradually grew into my awareness that ham radio was something very valuable that I could continue to do for quite some time in the future.

There was just one little problem: it is necessary to pass a test on the field of ham radio before you can even begin to really get involved.

This article then is my story about preparing ( not preparing ) and finally getting on the ball and doing what I had to do to be ready to pass the exam.

An acquaintance loaned me a copy of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Technician’s Manual (with study questions) several months before the scheduled exam. When I first opened the manual and started reading it, much of the material was familiar from my previous study in various fields of interest and hobbies.

I was quite mistaken about the difficulty of the material and made an unwarranted assumption: this was going to be easy.

Ten days before the scheduled test, I again picked up the manual, and spent a couple of hours scanning it again. I have always been a fast reader and equally fast in picking up information.

We all know what assumptions do to you. When I next went that evening to the internet website of the ARRL to do a practice test, I very rapidly became aware that the “kidding phase” was well past.

First, just to take the test, I was going to have to pony up $14. The marbles are real when money is involved. The pride that I usually feel about what I do was much, much more important.

I failed that first practice test quite badly. Hum-m-m-m, I thought. Perhaps I should try again, and pay careful attention to the wording of the questions. Multiple choice questions are notorious for tricky wording and other nefarious tricks.

Wrong. I failed the next five attempts at the on-line practice tests.

The awareness grew that I had to get serious and apply what I know to study and preparation for the test.

I began that night by carefully reading the first two chapters of the manual and going through the pool of test questions for those chapters.

The next morning I warned my wife that I was going to have to apply my nose to the grindstone until I was confident that I could pass the FCC test.

For me the grindstone means going back to the study habits that had been successful for me in the past in my undergrad and graduate programs.

First, I read the material, the whole manual, Chapter by Chapter. At the end of each chapter, I went through the list of possible questions for that chapter.

I knew that I was seriously deficient in four major areas at the end of that first complete round.

I was weak in frequency and wave theory, ability to calculate
antenna lengths, the structure and use of Ohm’s Laws, and the
bands and frequencies available to my level of ham radio license,
should I ever pass the test. I began to seriously study. By that, I
Mean studying up to six hours a day. Reading, going over
questions, and memorizing the required material.

Soon, I was back to taking practice exams on the internet web site.
I passed three times and failed once more. Back to studying, now I
added reading aloud and writing the required material repeatedly.

When I’d passed the practice test 12 straight times, my pride and
self confidence increased enormously. I also knew that I was
dangerously close to over-studying. Symptoms are: so much self
confidence that I was not carefully reading the questions. This is a
certain recipe for failure. Test writers are famous and make
names for themselves by the twisted way they insert keywords:
i.e.: always, never, all of the above, etc.

I cut back on the study routine. I went shopping with my wife. I
just concentrated on rote memory of the essential equations and
chart of frequencies.

Test day arrived. I drove to the appointed place and paid my $14
fee. I asked for a clean sheet of paper, and once the test period
began, I first wrote down all of the material I’d so laboriously
memorized. Only then did I even open the test booklet.

When you’re “an old guy”, nothing will give you an ego boost as
much as acing a test. It makes you feel good all over!

I still have to wait for the processing of the paper before I’m
“official”, but eventually being a real “ham” is in my future. In
the meantime, I can and will begin to associate with this new
group of people in my life, new friends, new interests, new
learnings. From tiny acorns mighty oaks grow.

Article Source: http://www.retirementlivingarticledirectory.com

(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, and the priesthood. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will interest everyone. This article may be freely reprinted so long as all copyright attributions, and the full content of this resource box are included. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com

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