One of our (AARC Jr.) top four radio events will take place this weekend - The Maryland QSO Party.

It's a pretty civilized event in that it takes a mandated 12-hour break. The contest starts at Noon on Saturday and stops at Midnight. The contest resumes on Sunday at Noon and stops at 8:00pm on Sunday.

In 2004 AARC Jr. took First Place in the Club Category. Since then the "professional" contesters decided jump in and they've won the category the last three years and we've placed 2nd twice and third once during that stretch.

1. This year’s Field Day was very interesting on several levels:

A. Having a theme was a great idea and generated a lot of interest and excitement and injected additional fun into our Field Day event. (Thanks Tom!)

Here is the outline of the Extra Class License Manual.

Just like with the Technician (HRLM) and General (GCLM) there are additional on-line resources organized by chapter at: www.arrl.org/eclm/

Chapter 1 – Introduction (Non-testable)

1.1 The Extra Class License and Amateur Radio
1.2 Extra Class Overview
1.3 The Volunteer Testing Process

Chapter 2 – Operating Practices (3 questions on the exam from this chapter)

2.1 General Operating
2.2 Digital Mode Operating
2.3 Amateur Satellites

Hi

Here is the syllabus for the new Amateur Extra Class license manual. I'll publish the chapter outline later.

1. FCC Rules – 6 question

a. Operating Standards
b. Station restrictions and special operations
c. Station Control
d. Amateur Satellite service
e. Volunteer examiner program
f. Miscellaneous rules:

2. Operating Practices and Procedures – 5 questions

a. Amateur radio in space
b. Television practices
c. Operating methods, Part 1
d. Operating methods, Part 2
e. Operating methods, Part 3

3. Radio Wave Propagation – 3 questions

The ARRL has started shipping the new Amateur Extra Class License Manual containing the material for the new Element 4 question pool (Amateur Extra Class) www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=1352#top You can order the manual from the ARRL (Toll-Free 1-888-277-5289) for $24.95 plus tax and shipping and handling. Or you can order it through the club at a discount. Contact Bob/K3REM (k3rem@verizon.net) or Bob/AA3RR (aa3rr@verizon.net).

Saturday, April 12th, 2008 marked an historic event at the Anne Arundel Radio Club's clubhouse when the two youngest Volunteer Examiners (VE) accredited by the Laurel amateur Radio Club Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (Laurel VEC) and maybe the USA, and the oldest VE accredited by the Laurel VEC and maybe the USA, took part in the AARC's regularly scheduled Amateur Radio License Exam session.