This Is Why I Keep Producing Study Guides

When I first started publishing my No Nonsense license study guides, there were really only three of us producing amateur radio license study guides: the ARRL, Gordon West, and me. Now, there are many more. If you do a search on Amazon for “Technician Class license study guide,” you’ll see that there are at least a dozen other study guides out there.

As a result, of course, I’m making a lot less money. All these study guides have really eaten into my profits. And, on top of that, I’m a better author and radio amateur than I am a business man.

So, this year, when the NCVEC updated the Technician Class question pool, I seriously debated if I should update my study guide or just get out of the business.

Then, I received this email:

Dan, I very much appreciate your study guides. I have gone through your Tech guide a few times, and a few sections of it several times. I played with CB radio in the ’70’s and have experimented with various commercial and home made antennas for 11 meters and other applications over the years. I used a Radio Shack antenna book as my guide.

Due to the government shutdown I have not been able to take the Tech test since I began my ham study, but I have been able to very successfully pass online practice tests. I have purchased a Yaesu FT 710 radio and have been monitoring mostly 40-meter and 10-meter bands with my home made end-fed, half-wave (EFHW), 40-meter antenna with a loading coil for 80 meters and a 49:1 unun.

I like 40 meters the best, which is why I want to get my General asap. I have used another study guide for General, but found it lacking in formulas and algebraic explanation. Where the other guide left me frustrated and lost, yours clarified concepts that were difficult for me. Thank you.

Well, that did it. After reading this email, I decided that I had to keep doing my study guides. I replied:

Thanks for your kind words. Honestly, it’s emails like yours that keep me doing the study guides. If you have any questions about any of the material, please feel free to contact me. As far as operating goes, I am also a big fan of 40 meters, and because I’m mostly a CW operator, 30 meters. If you ever hear me on the air, please give me a call.

About a week and a half later, I got another email from this fellow titled, “Passed my Tech and General exams this morning.” He wrote:

Your study guides were a great help.  I think I might have gotten 1 or 2 wrong on the Tech exam, but I think I got 100% on the general. I am excited to start working on the Extra Class material to give me more confidence on working on my equipment and exploring the amazing analog and digital electromagnetic world out there.

Then, this morning, I got the following:

I decided to try to apply the information that I have gained so far in your Tech and General study guides and put off Extra until I have more experience.  My fairly extensive work and testing on my home-built antenna systems has paid off.

I have been working on tuning my 40-meter EFHW, and as a result, have made several 20- and 40-meter contacts, with 100 watts, between 200 and 800 miles. The antenna is made of old-schoo,l galvanized, electric fence wire and is only about 10 feet above my deck then 12 feet above the ground. I also have another antenna, which is C-shaped in the loft of my barn.

Both have proven effective. I might try using my metal barn roof as a reflector and string an EFHW above it, as per a suggestion from someone at NOSWR.net.

Thanks again for the courses and moral support. I still feel too much of a noob and outsider to say this, but here goes:   73

To which, I replied:

Hah! I see that you’re getting into the spirit of ham radio. Ham radio is a learn by doing kind of adventure, and I’m sure that all this tinkering with your antenna will certainly pay off in the end. It seems to me that you’ve learned every right to heartily say “73.”

I really love getting emails like this. It makes me feel like I’m really making a difference. So, I guess I’ll be publishing study guides until they pry the keyboard from my cold, dead hands.