Element 2 is the first rung on our three operator class ladder.  Section 97.507 requires that each Element 2 written question set must be prepared by a VE using questions taken from this pool.  The purpose of a pool is to provide uniformity in the examination questions regardless of where they are administered.  A pool should address key matters that enable our VEs to determine if an examinee does - or does not - possess the operational and technical qualifications required to perform properly the duties of an amateur service licensee.  It is not intended to be the all-inclusive learning tool.    

   First and foremost, a working knowledge of the pertinent FCC rules is fundamental to operating an amateur station properly. Also required is an understanding of our good amateur and good engineering practices, along with a grasp of the related technical rudiments sufficient to make those rules and practices meaningful. 

   Missing from the new pool, however, are questions on the meanings of certain basic technical terms necessary to understanding the applicable rules.  Amateur operators must comply with these rules in order to perform their duties properly.  There is also a discomforting emphasis on matters minutiae at the expense of the essential.  Knowing what the terms PEP (absent) and ERP (absent) as used in the FCC rules mean, for instance, is considerably more important to performing properly the duties of an amateur service licensee than simply knowing that a special event station call sign has a single letter for both the prefix and the suffix (T1C01) or that contesting involves contacting as many stations as possible during a specified period of time (T8C03).

Examinees:  Your first step toward gaining access to some extremely valuable radio spectrum by becoming a FCC-licensed amateur operator is to pass a question set prepared and administered by a VE team.  It will consist of 35 written questions taken from the Element 2 question pool.  It will be prepared by uncompensated volunteer examiners and administered by a VE team.  Although you can miss up to 9 answers and still pass, you will actually need to know more.  Prepare yourself carefully for your examination session.  Join a training class and study a training manual.  Use the pool only to check on your progress.  To simply memorize enough correct answers from the pool to squeak by the examination is to shortchange yourself of the opportunity to gain important knowledge that will enhance your ability to earn the respect of our amateur service community and become a more valuable asset to our country. 

   Become familiar with the FCC rules for our amateur radio service.  They can be downloaded from the GPO website, accessible through http://www.w3beinformed.org/. If your interest is emergency communications, please read BE Informed No. 44.  Ask your VEs for help with any questions that you don't understand.  Thank them for volunteering their talent and time for you.

   Your administering VEs may require you to sign a statement certifying that I have read and WILL COMPLY with Section 97.13(c) of the Commission's Rules regarding RADIOFREQUENCY (RF) RADIATION SAFETY and the amateur service section of OST/OET Bulletin Number 65.  Read and understand pages 15-18 of OST/OET Bulletin 65 and Section 97.13(c).  To accomplish this, you will need to know the definition and meaning of the terms ERP, PEP, W, watts, occupational/controlled MPE limits, general public/population/uncontrolled limits, and certain generic equations described in the Bulletin.  The wavelength bands of most concern to human exposure are authorized to stations having a Technician Class control operator: the 10 meter HF band and all of the VHF bands.  If the PEP input to the antenna exceeds 50 watts on any of these bands, the licensee must perform a routine RF environmental evaluation.  If it indicates that the RF electromagnetic field could exceed unsafe limits, the licensee must take action to prevent human exposure to such RF electromagnetic fields.   

   Good luck with your examination!

Volunteer Examiners:  By Public Law 97-259, the United States Congress authorized the FCC to accept your voluntary and uncompensated services for the purpose of preparing and administering examinations for amateur operator licenses.  FCC rule Section 97.503 requires you to administer each written examination such as to determine whether your examinee possesses the operational and technical qualifications required to perform properly the duties of a Technician Class operator.  Encourage your examinees to undergo training prior to being examined.  Simply determining who is lucky at guessing 26 correct answers from given multiple-choices is not the objective of the examination.  One argument for turning the examining system over to you was that you have previously passed the examination that you administer as well as the next higher one; thus qualifying you to clear up right on the spot any misunderstanding the examinee may have.  Personally discuss with each examinee the correct answer to each question missed.  Evaluate frequently the clarity, accuracy and relevancy of the questions and advise your VEC of your suggested improvements.  Although creampuff questions T1C01, T4A11, T8C03, T8CO4, T8C05, T8CO6, TOBO5 and T0BO7 may be of interest to amateur operators, distributing such information on these topics can be done through better means.  They fail to meet the FCC-specified standard of being an operational or technical qualification required to perform properly the duties of a Technician Class operator.  Their inclusion in a question set displaces questions that would otherwise aid you in making your necessary objective determinations.  There are numerous pool questions that do not support the choice of any format other than multiple-choice.  These questions may not be suitable should you administer the examination in some other format.

Instructors and training aid providers:  Explain the meanings of those essential terms absent from the pool: antenna gain, ERP, isotropic, keyclick, km, modulation index, multiplex, nautical mile, PEP, RTTY, sideband, splatter, spurious emission, SS, and W.  Teach the mathematical relationship between frequency and wavelength rather than making it a challenge to the examinee's memorization capability; questions T3B06 and T3B07 address this matter more directly than do questions T1B03, T1B04, T1B05, T1B06 and T1B07.  Emphasize the transmissions that are prohibited.  See BE Informed No. 3 SECTION 97.113 SMELL TEST.  Also explain the limits on third party participation.  See BE Informed No. 7 ALL ABOUT THIRD PARTY COMMUNICATIONS for a tutorial.  Teach the good engineering and good amateur practices that must be known by a Technician Class operator.  See BE Informed No. 30 GEPS and GAPS.

   Teach the five principles for which the rules in Part 97 are designed.  They embody the FCC expectations for our amateur service in places where it regulates communications (Section 97.1).  Also, stress the underlying principle that it is the control operator who causes or allows the station to transmit on highly valuable worldwide-shared spectrum; whereupon the station licensee and the control operator become accountable for assuring compliance with certain FCC rules.  See BE Informed No. 1 W3BE CHECKLIST for help on this.  It rearranges the applicable FCC rules into two lists: those that apply to the station licensee and those that apply to the control operator.  Make clear the distinction between those dual obligations even though they may be carried out by the same person.  An analogy is your driver's license and your automobile license plate.

   Q.  Our VE team reviews the questions with the examinees immediately prior to administering the Technician Class exam.  Recently, one of our students "revolted" and demanded to go straight to taking the exam.  Did we have to comply?

   A. That's your decision to make. The administering VEs are responsible for the proper conduct and necessary supervision of each examination. Section 97.511 says that each examinee must comply with the instructions given by the administering VEs and Section 97.509(c) says that each administering VE must be present and observing the examinee throughout the entire examination. The administering VEs must immediately terminate the examination upon failure of the examinee to comply with their instructions. 

   Q.  Folks in the business of selling amateur radio products want to increase the number of licensed amateurs.  Making the exam easier to pass and revising it frequently is in their best interests.  They do not, therefore, support increasing the number of words and including diagrams in the exam because fewer people might pass and they would not sell as many products. 

   A.  Our VEs and VECs absolutely have no rightful excuse to shape the pools to favor commerce or to manipulate licensing trends.  The new pool contains three basic electrical circuit diagrams.  The VECs obviously now accept that these diagrams and correctly-worded questions are necessary to support our VEs in doing their jobs thoroughly. 

   W3BE-O-GRAM:  Our country can best benefit from a radio service comprised of capable amateur radio operators who have fully proven to our VEs their operational and technical readiness.  No one with a pecuniary interest should be influencing our VECs' question pool maintenance effort.  Unnecessary pool revisions disadvantage our examinees, our VEs and our instructors by rendering obsolete their question sets, training materials and curricula.  In the instance of this Element 2, however, major revision has been long overdue.

  December 22, 2010

  Supersedes are previous versions