XYL to Amateur Extra

From XYL to Amateur Extra in 6 months

In December 2014 my husband got his ham radio Technician's license. A new hobby for him or an extension of his existing hobbies it didn't matter. He studied from a couple of websites and self-taught himself and all I had to do was sit back and support it. A few months later he passed his General and made that look easy too. I can't remember quite when but he quickly became involved with EmComm- Emergency Communications and was soon attending meetings of our town's Emergency Management Team. He learned about RACES and ARES and shelter drills and made new friends.

Two years later, in May 2017, we ventured out to one of the biggest hamfests in the country- Dayton Hamvention. We'd seen the videos on YouTube but it was in a new location so it was new to everyone on some level. We took our daughter out of school for a couple of days and embarked on the road trip to Ohio. I was an XYL and until Dayton I was okay with that.

At Dayton I saw high school kids with robots, I saw AMSAT, weather balloons, and thousands of people young and old, men and women involved with ham radio. I quickly got tired of being the XYL along for the ride and decided that I would get my Technician's license too. I was tired of being Mrs. KC1CXX or KC1CXX/XYL. I wanted to be my own person again. We also have a daughter and I felt it was important as a role model to her to show that this old lady could still learn new things, even STEM things which are not my strong-suit.

Summer passed and my self-study methods were not progressing quickly. Then our local ham radio club, which my husband is a member of, offered a free class at night for 2 weeks. Tuesday and Thursday nights for 2 weeks with an exam on Saturday at the end. Normally I am not a night person at all but it was only 2 weeks. It seemed do-able. The class was in October so after the first week of class we went to NEARFEST in New Hampshire. I was still the XYL but I was only a week away from my test. The day before my test my daughter had a school curriculum day which was a lucky break for me. It gave me extra study time.

For the Technician's exam I used the following resources to study:

The free 2 week class offered by the class. (They charged only $15 for the exam).

A free app on my phone. I used Ham Test Prep. I used it every day at  least once/day sometimes more.

Hamexamonline.com

Hamstudy.org

I read the ARRL book! This worked well with the class too because for the class they expected us to read certain chapters before each class. It kept me on track but was a challenge.- I actually bought the book in June.

ARRL book- http://www.arrl.org/shop/ARRL-Ham-Radio-License-Manual-3rd-Edition/

The tests are pass/fail. I didn't get the best score in the class but I did well enough to pass it.

The next test that the club offered was only three weeks away. Most of the people in the Technician's class thought that was too soon to attempt to pass the General but I liked the idea of moving up quickly and getting the test done. No class this time but lots of encouragement from the club members, my husband, and the online community.

For the General's exam I used the same resources as before except I didn't have the class. I had the ARRL book for the General exam, the same app on my phone, and the same two website to learn from.

ARRL book- http://www.arrl.org/shop/ARRL-s-General-Q-and-A-5th-Edition/

The night I took my General exam my husband passed his Amateur Extra! That was exciting. We both took our tests that night and we both passed. For Christmas I got him a mobile rig for his car and I applied for a vanity call sign for myself. My vanity came through December 27th.

The next challenge was the Amateur Extra. Now it had taken my husband almost three years to go from Technician's to Amateur Extra but I didn't want to wait that long. I wanted to get this done and become a V.E... a Volunteer Examiner. (You can be a V.E. With a General but it was my choice to wait.).The next test by the club's V.E.s was at the end of February. I thought I had a lot of time to prepare.

I started the same way as I did before. I quickly found out though that on this level the Hamexamonline website only lets you go through fifty questions. If you want more then you have to pay. I didn't want to pay so that website dropped off my list pretty quickly. The other thing I found out was the ARRL book for this level is huge and it put me to sleep. It put me to sleep time after time. Finally I asked my Twitter followers for suggestions. They recommended Gordon West's book and the NoNonsense book so I bought them both.

Gordo’s book- https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/094505386X/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The No Nonsense book- https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1530908671/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

ARRL book- http://www.arrl.org/shop/ARRL-Extra-Class-License-Manual-11th-Edition/

The two books are very different. Gordo's book is basically the 712 question pool. If you aren't into the websites or the apps or you just prefer paper this is a great resource. The NoNonsense book is more explanatory. The questions are all there but they are in the text. Like the ARRL book they are harder to pull out. You'll probably learn more though. I mostly used Gordo's book after I had read the No Nonsense book.

At the end of February I took the exam with my local club's V.E. Team..... and I failed “miserably” to quote one of the V.E.s . I saw questions there that I had not seen on the practice tests and I knew I was in trouble as soon as I started the exam. It was a good lesson though. I went back to hamstudy.org and I used the “flash card” mode to go through each element, question by question, until I had seen EVERY question on the exam. Then I practiced, practiced, and practiced. Eventually I was scoring on the low end of passing. The exam has 50 questions and you need 37 to pass. On the practice exams I was scoring 38-41. Not great but a decent chance to pass the test on March 10th. That's right.. I had less than 2 weeks between the two exams. The March 10th exam was not my local club but another club with V.E.s I had never met before. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. My family and I arrived at the hamfest where the exam was being held about an hour before the exam. Plenty of time to walk the vendors, enter a raffle, and meet up with friends.

This V.E. Team used Laurel which has an electronic component that the ARRL VEC doesn't have, or at least I hadn't seen. I took the test on a Saturday and my results were on the F.C.C. Database on Monday!

So now I've got my Amateur Extra. I've joined the YLRL- the radio league for women. I've joined my local club of course, and we've got some hamfests on the calendar of course.

After  my A.E. upgrade showed up in the FCC database I applied to become an ARRL V.E.. I got my certification just in time to help with our club’s April exam. It was a lot of fun, and hard work, to help our club’s spring technician’s class students. One student even passed his General that night.

Short reflections as a birthday approaches

 

Short Reflections as a birthday approaches

A recent conversation with a friend of mine joked about how we survived the dangerous playground equipment of our childhood. In the 1970s and before these merry-go-rounds were common on school yard playgrounds. You don’t see them much anymore.

Yesterday while driving to the grocery store I realized that I pass by this one quite frequently. It’s still there and still in use. Not at a school but at a small community store. It got me to to thinking about how we never really know what is going to be important later on in life. Memories from our childhood stick with us longer than we would ever expect. 

Perhaps memories from that guy we dated in high school and would like to forget have stayed with us longer than we would like them to as well. It surprises me when I look back on my life what I have managed to remember and what I have to be reminded of. I have a birthday coming up in a few days and that often puts me in a reflective mood. Many of my ex-boyfriends have witnessed this process in years past, in my teen years and early 20's especially perhaps. March brings spring and birthdays and a sense of winter ending. It means moving forward and it also gives me pause to look back.

 So that merry-go-round from the playground at my school in second grade is probably long gone now. The school building itself is gone although I guess the baseball field may still remain. The scar I gave myself on that thing one day at recess I still have these many years later. It’s my front teeth. Yes it’s true I never had braces even though I needed them. Beyond that there are memories though in my two upper front teeth. One of them is chipped. That’s from the merry-go-round. One day at recess I was on the merry-go-round safely inside the bars. A frisbee went past, close by, and I forgot where I was and tried to catch it. Hard black pavement was around the merry-go-round and when I tripped over the bar and landed on the ground I broke my tooth. My mother didn’t come to get me at school and I had to ride the bus back to the bus stop and then walk home before she took me to the dentist. The dentist thought it would look more natural if he didn’t fill it in all of the way. So there’s some filler, or there was, just so I didn’t cut myself on the sharp edge but the chip remains to this day.

Somehow I had a way of hurting my face. That same school year I got a fat lip when a heavy door, a fire door, was released by the kid in front of me and I failed to catch it with my hands. No permanent damage on that one.

Some people ask me about the gap between my teeth. The gap between my teeth is because my frenulum was removed a couple of years before I fell on my face. That was done because my mother thought it should happen. While I was healing from the procedure I took another hit to my face when my foster brother and I were playing outside. He hit me with a stick and knocked my stitches out. I remember bleeding for a long time after that and having to go to the hospital. I’m not sure if the gap would have been smaller if that hadn’t happened. I will never really know why my mom wanted that procedure done in the first place. I was only about six years old at the time. My memory is more of the stitches being knocked out than the original procedure. By the time I was old enough for braces, it was the 1980s, my mother was divorced again for the final time. She didn’t have the money for braces and my father’s insurance didn’t cover it. It just wasn’t an option. I knew it then. It wasn’t a matter if I needed them or not. It wasn’t something that could happen.

I’ll close this off with a final thought. I never know what someone’s story is. I don’t know what they are carrying today, or what they survived yesterday or twenty years ago. I try to be kind. I don’t always succeed. I’m human. I’m broken. I’m not perfect.

Nolan Neal

 

Like millions of other people I have been watching "AGT"- "America's Got Talent" for the last few months. (Has it really been that long?) One of my favorite performers was Nolan Neal, a country music performer from Nashville, Tennessee.  He got booted this week and a lot of people (mostly women I think) were sad about that. We cast our votes to try to "save" him but it wasn't enough. He took the loss with grace and immediately went to social media to thank his supporters.

The next day I went to the internet and started looking him up and listening to his other music. He had said on AGT that he had an album out. He had a recording contract at one point but addictions took their toll and he lost his chance at the big time. He's starting over.  Another thread that resounded with the audience was that he had lost his father to suicide, which in turn fueled his downward spiral.

So over on YouTube I found his album "The Wire" and I quickly went through the playlist that Jackie Smith put together.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChSjI3A6PFex47Pgf3BAb4A

This featured his music from his album "The Wire" These were uploaded five years ago.

There are several good songs on here besides these two and I considered myself "hooked" so I went looking for more. The big hit he had on AGT was "Send me a Butterfly"

It wasn't until after this that I realized he'd also been on "The Voice" a few years ago and song some covers including "Tiny Dancer" that people really seemed to like. I didn't have tv back in those years so I missed it. Here's the video clip though maybe.

So he's been on "The Voice", he's had a recording contract, he's by his own admission been around the block a few times. He's more organized than I thought he was. I kept diving into my Google searches and learning more. On AGT he talked about "it was my dad and me growing up.." and I thought his mom wasn't in the picture. Wrong. He's very close to his mom. She's still around. He wrote a song and dedicated it to her. He's also married and has two kids, AND he's a grandpa. A little on the young side to be a grandpa but you know... that's life. I'm not here to judge. What struck me though was that on AGT he painted a picture in my mind as being solitary and single. That's not the case at all. He's a happily married man with a good family life and a cute dog. I guess writing music about heartbreak and depression is what pays the bills though so that's what he sings about.

Another thing I learned after poking around is that he signed with producer Desmond Child in January 2020. This AGT thing is just part of a carefully planned agenda. He's got a website of course and he's all over social media. His website sells his music and also merchandise. You can buy cds, face masks, t-shirts, and more...

Shoppers go here-  https://nolannealmusic.com/collections/all

For his full website go here-  https://nolannealmusic.com/

Oh and his last name is really Seals. Nolan Neal Seals.  Not that it matters but it helps connect the dots if you are reading some of the interviews and stuff.

I know he doesn't need any help from me to get the word out about his gift in music but if you happen to like country music then look him up. If you really want to help him out then buy something from his website. I'm still working on that last bit myself.

Good luck Nolan wherever this adventure takes you next!

Does anyone blog anymore?

  I haven't posted here in more than a year. While my mother was dying I switched to posting more on my other blog- https://waitingfortheothershoetofall.blogspot.com/  because I was trying to keep everything about her stuff in one place.

The View from Lake Wyola doesn't change much and I haven't been posting from photos from there in a long time. I have posted a few occasionally on Facebook or Twitter but I haven't kept up with them in a blog in a long, long time.

So I've spent a few minutes today tweaking the layout a tiny bit here and there just because.

Construction at UMass - Student Union

I haven't kept up with my blogs at all and I certainly haven't kept up with construction on campus. I've seen a lot of people taking pictures of the construction at the Student Union though and I thought maybe it was time I did a quick post of it.

It's supposed to be done by Fall of 2020 so over a year to go. This demolition is just the beginning of what is to come. At least they protected the trees.

Social Media, Ham Radio, and our local club

Our outgoing local ham radio club president asked me to write up something for the summer newsletter about our newest social media endeavors. He also wanted something for newbies in social media. This is the article I'm submitting--

“Social Media and Ham Radio and our Club” by Rebecca Addison, K1BKY

Al asked me to write up something for the “Communicator” about social media on very 
short notice. Social Media covers a lot of territory. Some club members use social media
 and some do not. Those of us who do use it use it in different ways. I am by no means an 
“expert”. I’m just a frequent user.

A quick Google search on “Social Media for newbies” gives back several places to get 
started. Here’s a few from the top of the list:

https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-social-media

https://mashable.com/2012/06/12/social-media-beginners-guide/#8Vy23y15Y8qw

https://buildfire.com/beginners-guide-to-social-media-for-small-business/

To quote from that last link that’s targeted toward small businesses “Social media gives 
you direct access and communication with these potential customers to grow your brand 
with little cost.

Social Media is the fastest way to create awareness. It’s only through social media that a 
post can go viral within minutes, with no restrictions.”

This is a great opportunity for us but it does take work.  We can use social media to get the 
word out about our events and build community with our members.

For a long time we’ve had a Facebook group that has had some activity. We’ve tried to boost
 that recently. In the past few weeks I’ve created a Facebook page also. The group is a good 
place for discussions and community. The page is a good place to post events and
 information.

We also now have a Twitter account. Twitter is more limited because of the character limit. 
For the club it’s a good place to say “Hey we’re doing this… and go to the website for the 
details….”

The ARRL has a social media presence in several places- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
 YouTube, SnapChat, and LinkedIn.

All the “cool kids” use Instagram and Snapchat. I’m personally NOT that cool yet so I haven’t
 taken those on for the club. If you are one of the “cool kids” and want to help let’s talk! We 
could expand our club’s social media outreach to other platforms.

If you happen to have a copy of “Ham Radio for Dummies” 3rd edition, online edition.
 by H. Ward Silver Published by For Dummies, 2018

you can flip to chapter 3 and read about “Finding other hams: Your Support group”. 
(The Umass libraries has the digital edition so if you’ve got a Umass email address you can
 read it online.) I don’t want to quote too heavily but I’ll pull out this

“Social media and blogs

Everything has a presence online, and ham radio is no different. Just search for ham radio
  on Facebook, for example, and you’ll find dozens of possibilities, ranging from
 general-interest clubs to emergency communications to license-exam practice to contesting
 — and more.

Here are two popular streams of information about amateur radio:

• Twitter: twitter.com/amateurradio (@Amateurradio) or search for ham radio topics
   at https://twitter.com/search?q=ham+radio
• Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio and www.reddit.com/r/hamradio”

Personally I lurk on Reddit but don’t post much. Aaron, KC1CXX, posts on Reddit but I don’t
 even know his user name. Reddit tends to be more anonymous than some of the other
 social media platforms. It’s a good place for individuals but I’m not convinced that the Club
 needs to have a presence there.

The author goes on to talk about videos, podcasts, and webinars. We all know about 
“Ham Nation” by now though, don’t we?

From personal experience- The Facebook group has some local interaction. The Facebook
 page helps us to promote the club to people who might not be members. With Twitter we 
can use #Hashtags and reach people who have never heard of us.  I found Twitter to be a 
great source of support when I was studying for my license exams. By using #hamradio 
and #amateurradio I was able to build an online support network that guided me toward 
better study materials and acted as an online support group when I struggled with the Extra
 exam. For me, Twitter and Facebook reach different audiences. Your mileage may vary.

I think that having a solid website is the backbone of our club’s online presence. From that 
we can reach out through social media to draw people in. Think of social media as the 
advertising and the website as the actual storefront. Of course ourselves, our events, and 
our community are the real deal behind it all.

Stepping off of the David Duchovny Fan Wagon

I’m sure no one really calls it a “fan wagon” but about a year ago I was really liking 
David Duchovny’s second book, “Bucky Fucking Dent” and I was listening to his first music 
cd quite a bit. His music sounded like a “divorce album” but there were a couple of 
songs I liked. Maybe more. I was disappointed by his second album for some reason. 
I bought it. Listened to it a couple of times and then tossed it in the trunk of my car
 with RIck Springfield’s newest album which I also hated. Rick Springfield’s album 
was just weird in a not good way. It wasn’t the “Jessie’s Girl” kind of stuff that we
 all remember him for.

Anyway I pre-ordered “Miss Subways” because I liked “Bucky F. Dent” so much 
and I followed the fans on Twitter and I followed David Duchovny and his dog on Twitter too.
 Months went by. The book came out and I set it on the shelf for when I had more time.

Well on the 4th of July I finally had more time. Unfortunately I couldn’t even finish the 
first three chapters before I started skimming. I disliked it so much that I didn’t even flip t
o the back to see how it ended. I just didn’t care. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t
 even flip to the back. I unloaded the book at my neighborhood “Little Library” that is next to
 our mailbox.

I hope someone appreciates the book more than I did.

I’m taking this a step further. I’m out of the fandom. I unfollowed David, his dog, and many
 of his fans. I deleted my list of Duchovny fans on Twitter too. I imagine some of them will 
figure it out and unfollow me back if they were even following me in the first place.

Life goes on. I still haven’t finished that Bruce Springsteen book that I started two years 
ago and I’ve got a book I bought super cheap from the bargain bin to read too.

XYL to Amateur Extra

From XYL to Amateur Extra in 6 months

In December 2014 my husband got his ham radio Technician's license.
 A new hobby for him or an extension of his existing hobbies it didn't matter. 
He studied from a couple of websites and self-taught himself and all I had to do 
was sit back and support it. A few months later he passed his General and made
 that look easy too. I can't remember quite when but he quickly became involved
 with EmComm- Emergency Communications and was soon attending meetings 
of our town's Emergency Management Team. He learned about RACES and ARES
 and shelter drills and made new friends.

Two years later, in May 2017, we ventured out to one of the biggest hamfests in the
 country- Dayton Hamvention. We'd seen the videos on YouTube but it was in a new
 location so it was new to everyone on some level. We took our daughter out of 
school for a couple of days and embarked on the road trip to Ohio. I was an XYL
 and until Dayton I was okay with that.

At Dayton I saw high school kids with robots, I saw AMSAT, weather balloons, and
 thousands of people young and old, men and women involved with ham radio. I
 quickly got tired of being the XYL along for the ride and decided that I would get my 
Technician's license too. I was tired of being Mrs. KC1CXX or KC1CXX/XYL. I 
wanted to be my own person again. We also have a daughter and I felt it was 
important as a role model to her to show that this old lady could still learn new
 things, even STEM things which are not my strong-suit.

Summer passed and my self-study methods were not progressing quickly. Then our 
local ham radio club, which my husband is a member of, offered a free class at night
 for 2 weeks. Tuesday and Thursday nights for 2 weeks with an exam on Saturday 
at the end. Normally I am not a night person at all but it was only 2 weeks. It seemed
 do-able. The class was in October so after the first week of class we went to
 NEARFEST in New Hampshire. I was still the XYL but I was only a week away from
 my test. The day before my test my daughter had a school curriculum day which
 was a lucky break for me. It gave me extra study time.

For the Technician's exam I used the following resources to study:

The free 2 week class offered by the class. (They charged only $15 for the exam).

A free app on my phone. I used Ham Test Prep. I used it every day at  least 
once/day sometimes more.

Hamexamonline.com

Hamstudy.org

I read the ARRL book! This worked well with the class too because for the class they
 expected us to read certain chapters before each class. It kept me on track but was
 a challenge.- I actually bought the book in June.

- 2021 EDIT- the books get updated every 3 years so I have removed the links to the books.-

The tests are pass/fail. I didn't get the best score in the class but I did well enough 
to pass it.

The next test that the club offered was only three weeks away. Most of the people in 
the Technician's class thought that was too soon to attempt to pass the General but
 I liked the idea of moving up quickly and getting the test done. No class this time but
 lots of encouragement from the club members, my husband, and the online 
community.

For the General's exam I used the same resources as before except I didn't have 
the class. I had the ARRL book for the General exam, the same app on my phone, 
and the same two website to learn from.

- 2021 EDIT- the books get updated every 3 years so I have removed the links to the books.-

The night I took my General exam my husband passed his Amateur Extra! That was
 exciting. We both took our tests that night and we both passed. For Christmas I got 
him a mobile rig for his car and I applied for a vanity call sign for myself. My vanity 
came through December 27th.

The next challenge was the Amateur Extra. Now it had taken my husband almost 
three years to go from Technician's to Amateur Extra but I didn't want to wait that 
long. I wanted to get this done and become a V.E... a Volunteer Examiner. (You can
 be a V.E. With a General but it was my choice to wait.).The next test by the club's 
V.E.s was at the end of February. I thought I had a lot of time to prepare.

I started the same way as I did before. I quickly found out though that on this level 
the Hamexamonline website only lets you go through fifty questions. 
If you want more then you have to pay. I didn't want to pay so that website 
dropped off my list pretty quickly. The other thing I found out was the ARRL book
 for this level is huge and it put me to sleep. It put me to sleep time after time. 
Finally I asked my Twitter followers for suggestions. They recommended Gordon 
West's book and the NoNonsense book so I bought them both.

- 2021 EDIT- the books get updated every 3 years so I have removed the links to the books.-

The two books are very different. Gordo's book is basically the 712 question pool. If 

you aren't into the websites or the apps or you just prefer paper this is a great 
resource. The NoNonsense book is more explanatory. The questions are all there 
but they are in the text. Like the ARRL book they are harder to pull out. You'll 
probably learn more though. I mostly used Gordo's book after I had read the 
No Nonsense book.

At the end of February I took the exam with my local club's V.E. Team..... and I 
failed “miserably” to quote one of the V.E.s . I saw questions there that I had not 
seen on the practice tests and I knew I was in trouble as soon as I started the exam. 
It was a good lesson though. I went back to hamstudy.org and I used the “flash card”
 mode to go through each element, question by question, until I had seen EVERY 
question on the exam. Then I practiced, practiced, and practiced. Eventually I was 
scoring on the low end of passing. The exam has 50 questions and you need 37 to
 pass. On the practice exams I was scoring 38-41. Not great but a decent chance to
 pass the test on March 10th. That's right.. I had less than 2 weeks between the two 
exams. The March 10th exam was not my local club but another club with V.E.s I 
had never met before. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. My family
 and I arrived at the hamfest where the exam was being held about an hour before 
the exam. Plenty of time to walk the vendors, enter a raffle, and meet up with friends.

This V.E. Team used Laurel which has an electronic component that the ARRL 
VEC doesn't have, or at least I hadn't seen. I took the test on a Saturday and my
 results were on the F.C.C. Database on Monday!

So now I've got my Amateur Extra. I've joined the YLRL- the radio league for 
women. I've joined my local club of course, and we've got some hamfests on the
 calendar of course.

After  my A.E. upgrade showed up in the FCC database I applied to become 
an ARRL V.E.. I got my certification just in time to help with our club’s April exam. 
It was a lot of fun, and hard work, to help our club’s spring technician’s class
 students. One student even passed his General that night.

Edit on April 6, 2022- I let my membership to YLRL lapse. I'm just not that into gendered clubs.

Also I'm now a Laurel VE as well and my husband has just registered a new VE team so

we will be able to host exams with the help of other VEs. Having both of us as Laurel VEs

means we just need one more person to join us in order to run an exam. Plus of course

we have to have the space. With COVID restrictions still happening that can be challenging at times.