[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] My journey to /AE

[Kenneth R. van Wyk]

FYI, I posted the following on the Nextdoor Amateur Radio Operators group. Perhaps it will inspire others.

Cheers,

Ken van Wyk
Armata Scientia

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Was it worth it?

Last month, after a lot of study hours, I sat for and passed the Amateur Extra exam. I'm now K0RvW/AE.

It was a lot of work, but was it worth it?

Objectively, the gains from General to Extra are nowhere near as much as the gains from Technician to General. As a General, you have a few minor restrictions on some areas of certain bands. Those restrictions are mainly in the phone portions of the bands.

Once you get Extra, you can then access those previously restricted band allocations. Big deal?

Well, speaking only for myself, if ALL I got was the band allocations, I wasted my time. Yes, I've tuned up those bands and connected around. It's not some über secret fancy area where only the elites may gather. (ANYONE can listen, after all.)

But I for one got a lot more from it than just the band allocations. Studying forced me to focus on things that are helpful as an amateur operator. My academic background is mechanical engineering, and while we did take a single electrical engineering course in the ME curriculum, it was pretty light weight and not very practical to my world today.

I learned a lot about antenna theory, radio propagation, circuit design -- not that I'm about to go out and design/build my own transceiver -- and so on.

Was that worth the effort? It was to me. Your mileage may vary, but if you're a General and want to up your game, I'd certainly suggest it.

I love the motto Armata Scientia. It is Latin for "armed with knowledge". /AE might not open up the skies magically for you, but it will certainly provide you with useful knowledge. It's up to you how you apply that knowledge.

I'd do it again (but I'm glad I don't have to).

73 de K0RvW


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