Well this is it. The course is finished and all of the scheduled exams are written.
Congrats to all who passed their respective examinations! Ken and Kirk wrote the advanced exam and passed, so they join the fraternity of advanced licensees. And Ean met his objective of passing the Basic exam with honours!
I’d like to take a moment and thank the club and all those individuals who made this year’s session such a great experience:
- Our fearless leader, Ernie (VE3EJJ) whose wisdom and patience has no bounds. This man is truly dedicated to the hobby and offers an incredible wealth of information. Every week I would look forward to spending an evening with Ernie, and I would relish the opportunity to chat with him after the class.
- Darin (VE3OIJ) whose humour and technical sophistication are a perfect match for the format of the course. I was really pleased to see a familiar face when I showed up to the first lecture, and truthfully a bit sad to see that Darin wasn’t a “full time” instructor for the course. I hope that in the future he might consider wearing the instructor’s cap – he’d do a great job of it.
- Bob (VE3SUY) is a gentleman and a scholar who lends his unique expertise in electronics to the course in a fantastic manner. There were many times when Bob would offer up a subtle snippet of wisdom that would be easily lost in the complexity of his profound understanding of the material. I often kept my pen ready for these hidden gems.
- Michael (VE3QMC) whose expert discussion of the regulatory material made 25% of the Basic exam more accessible to the radio amateur neophyte. Michel would come prepared to answer some tough questions and was always willing to offer multiple explanations of his answers.
- Ralph (VE3BBM) provided us an insight into the nature of EMC and interference issues, helping to underscore the importance of understanding this often confusing topic. It was very nice to have such expertise on-hand to speak with us.
- Michel (VE3EMB) who taught us the basics of digital communication modes in amateur radio. This topic was of particular interest to me because of my love of computers, and so it was nice to have an expert in the field give such a great lecture.
Now that the course is finished, I will not know what to do with myself on Tuesday nights. For months now, I had the radio course to look forward to! I suppose it is now time to look for something to fill that void. Its sad really. I think that I’ll ask about auditing next year’s course – I really am that big a nerd!
73 to all, and thanks for reading!
James
James,
I wish I had known you were blogging the course — I would have followed. I am glad to hear of the class successes, and certainly hope to see most/all of you at field day! Thank you for your kind words about the course. Ernie passed the results along and mentioned your blog.
I am involved with amateur radio here in Sidney, BC particularly with PEMO (Provincial Emergency Measures Organization — this is earthquake country) and SPARC (Saanich Peninsula Amateur Radio Club). Unfortunately, I do not have a station here nor in Ottawa due to condo restrictions. I get my techie fix here by giving talks on various topics, such as the history and theory of Fullerphones (not quite radio, but a very clever invention during WW1 (or more correctly, the Great War), RFID tag systems, microcomputer design and programming etc. While I have a FT101 out here, it isn’t conducive to portable operation!
I too look forward to next season of Tuesday evenings. After about 20+ years of the course, I suffer withdrawal for the first few weeks in Sidney!
Your worked examples book is great! Ernie and I would benefit from a session from you of entering schematic diagrams and formating formulae. (OK, word check apparently never took Latin in school).
The XYL and I are off to China before returning to Ottawa.
See you all when the creek goes down (around the end of May).
73 de Bob VE3SUY
PS I was unsuccessful in finding your email address (tried @RAC.CA).
It would be my honour to have of my material appear in the OVMRC Rambler.
May I please have your permission to publish this post in the OVMRC Rambler?