Category Archives: Education

License Upgrade Classes

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Are you ready to upgrade your amateur radio license? Jump from Technician to General or, jump from General to Amateur Extra? In order to prepare for your license exam, many of you have asked for educational assistance. To serve that need, we are happy to announce the NCRC’s partnership program with Ham Radio Prep.

Ham Radio Prep is an inexpensive program of classes that get you ready for your license exam. If you follow their program, your success is guaranteed or your money back. We already have a NCRC member who passed both General and Amateur Extra exam on the same day!

As a bonus, because you are a member of the Newport County Radio Club, you’ll receive a 10% discount on any and all purchases you make from Ham Radio Prep (or, World Radio League logbook). See below.

Please look the program over and consider using it when your ready to make you upgrade move! Just click it!

Newport County Radio Club – HRP – Light

Girl Scouts STEM Support Needed

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Hello! We are looking for some volunteers to help with the STEM Fest hosted by Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts on Saturday May 3, 9 am – 1 pm at Camp Cedar Hill in Waltham, MA. The event is for Girl Scouts grades K-12, and no Girl Scout affiliation is needed to volunteer.

We will set up a station where Girl Scouts can learn about amateur radio and send a radiogram to their family, if they choose. It would essentially be a radiogram-centric GOTA station. Specific modes/bands would depend on who volunteers.

There’s a need for two types of helpers:

1. On-site volunteers who could help interact with Girl Scout troops, answer questions about amateur radio, and operate our equipment (or yours) to send radiograms out from the site.

2. At-home volunteers at their home stations during that time who could receive our radiogram messages and pass them further into NTS nets (or deliver them locally, if appropriate).

Please let me know if you are interested, and feel free to pass on this request to others. Constructive suggestions are always welcome.

Thanks and 73,

Jessie KC1SLQ

kc1slq@gmail.com

Amateur Radio Technician Class Begins Tuesday Oct 17th at 6 PM

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**** Due to a lack of registrations, this class has been canceled ***

An Amateur Radio Technician Class will be held ONLINE using ZOOM starting Tuesday October 17, 2023 at 6 PM.  The class is open to the public.  If you are interested, you may register using the link below.

Discover the fun of being able to communicate with fellow Amateur Radio Operators (Hams) in your local community or worldwide without depending on fragile infrastructure like cell phones or internet.  Add Amateur Radio capabilities to enhance other hobbies like hiking or boating, and be able to communicate in times of emergency.

This is an instructor-led course given in six sessions with a FCC required examination on Saturday December 9th. The class is suitable for middle school through adult learners.  Past experience says that 90%+ of the students that participate in the classes pass the exam.  No book is required but a couple of good references are listed below:

  • Gordon West’s Technician Class 2022-2026.  Available at Amazon.com
  • ARRL Ham Radio License Manual 5th Edition.  Available at Amazon.com
There is no fee for the class itself.  There is a $15 fee for the examination, payable when you take the exam, and a $35 fee payable to the FCC for the license itself.

What the heck is that: ÄRTEN™ Workshops Continue …

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The ÄRTEN™ project held it’s fifth bi-weekly workshop on April 3, 2023 at FabNewport.  Project members and students from Pull It Apart! – FabNewport joined in a “What the heck is that?” gameshow to identify electronics gear stored in the hamshack closet at All Saints STEAM Academy.  SPOILER ALERT – from left to right the team identified an antenna rotator controller, a signal generator, a Heathkit® power supply and its matching amateur radio transceiver the venerable HW-101.

Glowing with gameshow success, project members then attempted to integrate an Ethernet-enabled CO2/Temperature/Humidity sensor from TEMCO Controls with a notebook controller.  Unfortunately, the aura of invincibility wore off and attempts to communicate with the device were unsuccessful; no habla IEEE 802.3!   Stay tuned.

ARRL Foundation Club Grant Fuels NCRC VE Sessions

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On March 11, 2023 NCRC held its first Volunteer Examiner licensing session using iPads purchased using an ARRL Foundation Club Grant.  Side-by-each testing during 2022 VE Sessions showed that Apple iPads performed better than Android devices for WiFi network stability and user (test taker) eye strain.

Seven test takers joined the session with two successful upgrades from Advanced to Amateur Extra; three successful upgrades from Technician to General class and one freshly minted Technician.