Australian Ham Radio Discussion Forum ( AHRDF )

( From: WIA NATIONAL NEWS FOR WEEK COMMENCING JULY 28 2019  )

The VE Exams Australia Session held for the first time in Osborne Park, Perth this month was a success.

As there is a requirement for three Volunteer Examiners to be in attendance at any exam session the following ARRL Volunteer Examiners Chris VK3FY / W3YM, Nik VK3FE / K3FV and Di VK4DI /AG5JI had flown in to run to the session.
Four local candidates had registered to take their exams.

The final outcome of the exam session, was that one new technician, one new general and two new extra class licences will be issued to the candidates.

All candidates were already licensed VK6 amateurs.

These candidates have all expressed an interest in becoming Volunteer Examiners, and lengthy discussions took place after the exam session on this very topic by all the candidates.

Additional discussions relating to the integrity of exam sessions (having three VE present), the uncomplicated exam process, and the fact the results are known immediately concluding each exam element.

VE Exams Australia will be conducting another session in VK6 in the near the future.

Interested in sitting a US licence exam and in VK3?
Next Victoria Exam Session will be held at Eastern & Mountain District Radio Club on AUGUST 10

This has been Chris VK3FY/W3YM for the VK1WIA National News Broadcast

Editors Note : Following the VE Exams held up at the Sunshine Coast on 22nd June and successful candidates having applied for VE status, there will soon be the possibility of more VE Exams being held in SE Qld ..   Exam dates and locations will be notified as soon as they are known. Start studying..
Doug VK4ADC / KX4SX

Not sure if there was a mention of the cost for these exams previously, but I think it may be a cheaper option into getting a VK call via the reciprocal license arrangements.

And somewhat faster.

The USA licence exams themselves currently cost $AUD22 to contest for 'a session' via VE Exams Australia.  https://veexams.com/

A session (for someone who doesn't currently have an FCC-issued licence) starts with..
a Tech exam which requires a 74% pass mark before the..
a General exam which requires a 74% pass mark before the..
Extra Class exam which requires a 74% pass mark.

Failure to achieve 74% in any exam means you can't move on to the next grade exam.
In essence, you can contest the 3 exams in the one session for the $22 fee.

The exams are graded within a few minutes so the candidate is aware of the results immediately.

The answer sheets plus results are sent to the ARRL express and takes only 1 day for the FCC licence issue after arrival there. In my case, I did the exam on a Saturday and had a FCC-issued Extra Class callsign (for 10 years and free of charge) by the following Friday morning.

There is currently a 'hold' by the ACMA on issuing reciprocal-based licences but I would guess that there would still be a callsign-selection fee (AMC charge) plus an initial licence issue fee (ACMA).

Most Aussie candidates seem to already have VK callsigns so it isn't necessarily an entry-way in to a VK callsign bypassing an AMC-based exam.

From what I have seen of the WIA papers over my 11 years as an Assessor, probably similar level in the electronics aspects.  The FCC Rule 97 is a lot more specific than the Aussie LCD in some ways but it is what you make of it.

One difference is that the FCC, via their VEC groups, have publicly available question pool documents with ALL of the questions and ALL of the answers. If your memory is really good, you could 'parrot' the answers to pass. With good technical knowledge to draw from, it would be a lot easier. Hell, it definitely is - I essentially did it that way.

I wrote some code that is available at https://www.vk4adc.com/web/software-proj...m-software and it could reveal what you want to know. It is essentially some Trial Exam software that allows you to just work your way through the 3 grades using software on your PC under Win7 or later.  It is about to be updated so that it has explanations available for those who want to use it more as a study application - but that hasn't happened quite yet - I have been busy the last month or so researching and typing the details for the answer support.  Basically finished that yesterday after pounding the keyboard a lot.  The new version (V1.1.0.1) should be up in the next week or so after being tested on a few different monitor resolutions..

Personally I found it was a good learning experience ( method ? ) to get more "up to date" with today's techniques even if I never get on-air with the USA callsign.  I have applied to be a Volunteer Examiner and am awaiting a reply from the ARRL, due anytime.

Not sure of why the change happened but it seems....

Australian & US Amateur Radio Exams - Amateur Radio Licence Exams at https://vea.org.au/
has replaced the original 'veexams.com' web address.


The Facebook group has also been changed to Public mode and is available at  VolunteerExaminersAustralia or 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/VEAExams/

Version 1.1 of my FCC Trial Exams software is now available for download from https://www.vk4adc.com/…/55-vk4…/189-fcc-trial-exam-software

The difference in V1.1 is that there are answer details for every question in the Tech, General and Extra Class pool files IF the user wants to use them to learn from. The calculation questions are all worked through, Rule 97 extracts are provided etc.. My aim was to make it an all-in-one for would-be's to study from.

I am the only one who can edit the 'answer texts' (encoded files) so if you do find something radically wrong in an answer, please let me know and include the question code eg G7A03 . I have spent over a month researching and typing answers for the 1500-odd questions and it is quite possible I have errors still in there. Have a look and let me know of any bugs etc.. Email me direct or PM me.

Have a look - it won't cost you anything to try it out.
Doug VK4ADC / KX4SX