[RVRC] Remote Drive-up VE Eam session

[drumor at optonline.net]

More Amateur Radio Exam Sessions Engineering In-Person, Remote Solutions

As some states further relax restrictions imposed to minimize the spread of
the COVID-19 virus, additional teams of ARRL Volunteer Examiner Coordinator
(VEC) volunteer examiners (VEs) have conducted successful sessions. On June
13 at the Clark Township Municipal Building, the Electronic Technology
Society of New Jersey (ETSNJ) held its first exam session since February,
with help from several other clubs. With COVID-19 precautions in place, the
June session was held outdoors.

"We had to have two sessions, because we had 20 candidates on our waiting
list," said Larry Makoski, W2LJ, a member of the Piscataway
<http://www3.arrl.org/nl/al/image/VE-Testing-During-COVID-19-at-Clark-NJ-1.j
pg> Amateur Radio Club. Drew Moore, W2OU, was the ARRL VEC liaison. "We had
the candidates line up their vehicles on one side of the parking lot.
Directly across from them were the vehicles of the VEs. They were given the
option of taking the exam inside their vehicle, or if they wanted, they
could bring a chair and clipboard and take the exam in front of their
vehicle. Each vehicle was checked for compliance as we collected exam fees
and checked photo IDs."

Makoski said social distancing was maintained, and face coverings and gloves
or hand sanitizer were the order of the day. "We communicated with the
candidates via a low-power FM transmitter tuned to 88.7 MHz or thereabouts,
and they could hear us on their FM broadcast receivers inside their
vehicles," he explained.

All went smoothly, and the weather cooperated. "Everyone who came walked
away -- or should I say, drove away -- with either a new Technician-class
license or an upgrade," Makoski said. A vacant seat was left for VE Bobby
Cure, W2REC (SK), who had succumbed to COVID-19. "We tried to honor his
memory by making him present in spirit," Makoski said.

VE teams from the Tri-County Radio Club, the Raritan Valley Radio Club, the
South Plainfield Amateur Radio Club, the New Providence Amateur Radio Club,
and the Fair Lawn Amateur Radio Club pitched in to help.