BE Informed No. 10.1 Thought to be the instructions thought
to have been adopted.
INSTRUCTIONS TO THE
QUESTION POOL COMMITTEE
of the
NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF VOLUNTEER EXAMINER
COORDINATORS
Adopted: July 24, 2009
1.0 SCOPE
1.1 Introduction
The National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators ("NCVEC") is an unincorporated assemblage of
independent organizations, which exists for the purpose of furthering the Amateur Radio Service. VECs must cooperate in maintaining
question pools, one for each class of amateur operator license grant. Drawing from these pools, each written question set
administered to an examinee must be prepared by the administering VEs according to instructions from the coordinating VEC.
1.2 Background
For an FCC new license grant and for each upgrade in operator class, the applicant must
pass, or otherwise receive examination credit for, certain written examination elements. These written examinations
must be such as to prove that the examinee possesses the operational and technical qualifications required to perform properly
the duties of an amateur service licensee consistent with the license grant for which they are making application. The
FCC rules, however, are silent as to the purpose of each class. The privileges of these classes, moreover, are all very
similar. They are largely the result of rulemaking initiated within the amateur service, apparently with little or no
regard to their affect upon the question pools. The QPC, therefore, shall rely upon the following policy in maintaining
the series of graduated question pools:
1.3 Intention
It is the intention of the NCVEC that the question pools be maintained in a manner fully compliant with the FCC rules.
Further, the NCVEC intends to fulfill its obligations in a responsible manner so as to enable the amateur service community
to preserve a high level of legitimacy for its radio service. The NCVEC also recognizes that the question pools are
widely used as training aids by those persons preparing for the examinations.
1.4 The QPC
The NCVEC carries out its obligation through an established Standing Committee. The
instructions herein establish the process for maintaining the question pools by the established Standing Committee of the
NCVEC, the Question Pool Committee. The QPC is instructed to carry out certain duties, as specified herein, necessary to maintaining
one question pool for each written examination element.
2.0 APPLICABLE DOCUMENTS
2.1 Document list
The following documents, of most recent date of issue, are applicable to this document:
2.1.1 Communications Act of 1934, as amended.
2.1.2 Title 47, Code of Federal Regulations ("47 CFR"): Part 0 Commission Organization;
Part 1 Practice and procedure; Part 2 Frequency allocations and radio treaty matters; general rules and regulations; Part
17 Construction, marking and lighting of antenna structures; Part 97 Amateur radio service; Part 214 Procedures for the Use
and Coordination of the Radio Spectrum During a Wartime Emergency.
- 2.1.3 FCC-issued Public Noticesapplicable to the Amateur Radio Services and to the VEC system.
- 2.1.4 INSTRUCTIONS FOR VOLUNTEER EXAMINER COORDINATORS, as adopted annually by
NCVEC
2.2 Prevailing documents
Except where specifically noted herein, when conflict exists between this document and
one or more of the applicable documents of paragraph 2.1, above, the provisions of the applicable documents shall prevail.
3.0 QPC ORGANIZATION
3.1 Composition
The QPC Chair, and Members shall be elected by the VECs each year at the annual conference
of the NCVEC from a slate of candidates nominated by the VECs. Their term of office ends with the election of the Members
for the subsequent term.
3.2 Qualifications
3.2.1 The QPC Chair and each Member shall hold a current FCC Amateur Extra Class operator license grant.
3.2.2 The QPC Chair and each Member shall hold accreditation as a VE from at least one
VEC.
3.2.2 The QPC Chair and each Member shall hold:
(1) A working understanding of all FCC rules and subject matter consistent with the
basis and purpose of amateur radio as contained in 97.1
(2) A basic
knowledge of the technology sufficient to make meaningful those FCC rules and good amateur practices and standards
(3) A reasonable comprehension of the most-widely accepted good amateur practices and
standards of the amateur service community;
3.3 Management
The
Chair, QPC, shall provide overall direction to the activities of the QPC, including question pool revision planning, scheduling
and reporting.
3.4 Reporting
The Chair, QPC, shall report
directly to the Chair, NCVEC.
4.0 INSTRUCTIONS
4.1 General instructions
The QPC shall compile as necessary the required question pool documents.
a) Schedule for release of question pools.
The standard date for question pools to be released into public domain shall be on or about December 1st
of the year prior to the pool becoming effective for use in examinations.
4.2 No favoritism or discrimination permitted
The QPC shall not engage in any favoritism toward, or discrimination against, any person
or organization engaged in the writing, production, publishing, distributing, or selling of materials to the amateur operator
examination preparation market.
4.3 Specific written approval required
The QPC shall not represent the NCVEC nor undertake any initiative in their behalf, beyond the instructions herein,
without specific written approval from the NCVEC.
5.0 DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS
The QPC shall consider reporting of license privilege usage prediction for each operator
class to establish factual supporting data obtained by FCC licensing statics, conducting surveys, analyzing questionnaire
responses and conducting personal interviews.
5.1 Syllabus
Each
question pool shall be derived using the following 10 main topic subjects:
1 - Commission's Rules
2 - Operating Procedures
3 - Radio Wave Propagation
4 - Amateur Radio Practices
5 - Electrical Principles
6 - Circuit Components
7 - Practical Circuits
8 - Signals and Emissions
9 - Antennas and Feedlines
10- Safety
Under each of the 10 syllabus sections there shall be an adequate number of subtopic
subjects that directly relate to the main topic. Each question shall be derived from the main topic or subtopic subject matter.
5.2 Question Pool Cycle
The QPC may make suggestions to the NCVEC for changes to the Question Pool Cycles as maybe necessary to comply with
effective dates of FCC rule makings that might cause a change or impact the cycle period of any one or all question pools.
The current
established Cycle is:
Element 2 - July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2010
Element 3 - July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2011
Element 4 - July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2012
Any change to the Question Pool Cycle must be agreed upon by the NCVEC and public notice
made 90 days prior to the effective change.
5.3 Solicitation of Questions
Using the question pool syllabus, the QPC shall solicit input to question pool content and questions from VEC organizations,
Volunteer Examiners, amateur radio organizations, qualified experts in applicable fields, the general U.S. amateur radio population,
or any other sources that they find useful. Individual contributors should be very active in the hobby of amateur radio with
a thorough knowledge of the subject matter being proposed to be included as part of the question pool.
5.4 Consistent Terminology
The QPC shall maintain consistent and correct usage of terms and
phrases in the writing of questions. The terminology employed in Part 97 shall be the standard. The use of standard
terms and acronyms that are widely known and understood in the amateur radio industry is permitted. Questions should be worded
in clear and simple language appropriate with the main subject matter. Slang should be avoided that would obscure the
meaning of a question or response.
5.5 Number of Questions
The QPC shall review and refine each question prior to it being incorporated into a pool. The QPC shall make every
effort to ensure that all questions are written clearly and that there are no confusing or ambiguous questions or answers.
Question format shall be standardized with 4 multiple-choice correct answers.
Each pool shall contain a minimum of 10 times the total
number of questions on the exam as defined by FCC 97.503 Element Standards:
5.5.1 Element 1: 350 questions for a 35 question exam concerning the privileges of a Technician Class operator license.
5.5.2 Element 2: 350 question for a 35 question exam concerning
the privileges of a General Class operator license.
5.5.3 Element
3: 500 questions for a 50 question exam concerning the privileges of an Amateur Extra Class operator license.
5.6 Suggest answers
The QPC shall include appropriate suggested answers in a four option multiple-choice
format. There shall be one, and only one suggested correct answer. There shall also be three plausible and incorrect
distractors.
5.7 Validatation of the Questions
Prior to
public domain release of each question pool, the QPC shall submit the question pools to the NCVEC for review and comment.
Prior to public domain release the QPC shall encourage the VECs to evaluate the questions pools for clarity, accuracy and
relevancy of the question and to recommend revisions to the Chair of the QPC in a timely manner as defined by the QPC.
5.8 Release of Question
Pools into Public Domain
The release date shall be on
or before December 1st of the year prior to the date of the pool as defined by the Question Pool Cycle in 5.2.
5.9 Question
Deletion After Pool Release
When there is a need to delete
any question from a question pool after release, a 90 day prior public notice shall be made by the QPC before the question
is mandated for removal from use in VEC examinations, however the QPC shall encourage the question is to be removed as soon
as possible.
January 4, 2010
Supersedes all prior versions