TEARA VE Study Guide Errors

IMPORTANT NOTE: The National Conference of Volunteer Examiners (NCVEC) is withdrawing question number T2A02 due to a change in §97.113, effective December 15, 2006. This question should not appear on any test after that date.

And just when we thought the dust had settled, the FCC also announced the elimination of Element 1 (Morse code) as a requirement for licensing effecitive February 23, 2007. This change may mean that other Technician pool questions may be eliminated. However, for now, this is the only question that has been withdrawn. Stay tuned...

It has been brought to our attention that the study guides cannot be viewed using PowerPoint 97 or earlier versions. The guides were prepared using PowerPoint 2003 and have been tested using that software as well as OpenOffice. We'd be interested in knowing if you experience any problems viewing them in any other version of PowerPoint. If you do, the PowerPoint Viewer or OpenOffice software are free alternatives. See the Technician Project's main page for links.

Release 2.0 corrects errors identified in Release 1.0, but alas, some were just not caught! Thanks to all who have taken the time to report the bugs!

The frequency range for the 70 centimeter (cm) band is currently shown as "440 megahertz to 450 megahertz." It should read, "420 megahertz to 450 megahertz."

This is not exactly an error, but when this study guide was saved, it was saved with the "Master View" open. To use the study guide with powerpoint, click on "Close Master View." In OpenOffice.org Impress, click on any slide on the right side to make the Master View go away.

The explanation currently reads, "As frequency increases, the wavelength gets shorter. As frequency decreases, the wavelength gets shorter." It should read, " As frequency increases, the wavelength gets shorter. As frequency decreases, the wavelength gets longer." (Refer back to slide # 97, where we got it right!)

The formula on this slide is given as I = P/V. It should be I = P/E. Note that this is also one that was missed on Release 1 as well.

The third sentence currently reads. "This allows the operator to change frequencies quickly by moving up or down is incremental steps" It should read "This allows the operator to change frequencies quickly by moving up or down in incremental steps"

The first sentence currently reads, "When using a repeater, you should you pause briefly between transmissions..." The second "you" should be removed.

The last sentence currently reads, "You can sometimes here this station all over the dial." This should obviously be "hear" rather than "here."

Regarding "Low-Pass and High-Pass Filters," the slide reads in part, "these filter our RF frequencies above and below a certain frequency." The word should be "out" rather than "our.''

Slide # 132

The first sentence currently reads, "The alternator on a car can generate a “whining” noise that that may be heard on your receiver..." One "that" needs to go!

The last point on this slide currently reads, "You could be in a bad location – this might be under an overpass, or the line of sight to a building could be blocked by a large building." The phrase, "a building" should be replaced with "the repeater."

This slide currently reads. "The one major exception is that you can you use a modified amateur radio transceiver..." The second "you" should be removed.

This slide currently reads in part, "The outer sheath of most coaxial cables black because black..." It should read, "The outer sheath of most coaxial cables is black because black..."

Thanks to David Armstrong!

This slide currently reads in part, "A good rule of thumb for maintaining a safe distance to from a power line ..." The "to" should be removed.

You cannot have a 1 x 1 special event call beginning with the prefix "A". The only 1 x 1 prefix letters available are K, N and W. Therefore, A9Z is not a legal US call sign. See http://www.arrl.org/arrlvec/1x1.html

The US has prefixes AA through AL only. Other countries have prefixes like "A1" or "A3," but all US calls that begin with "A" must be 2x1 or 2x2 calls.

This does not directly affect any question.

Thanks to AC7EL for catching this!

"This concludes Study Guide # 3. Once you are satisfied that you can answer 80% of the questions in this Sub-element, you are ready to move on to Study Guide # 4."

"This concludes Study Guide # 5. Once you are satisfied that you can answer 80% of the questions in this Sub-element, you are ready to move on to Study Guide # 6"

The first line of explanation is in error. It currently reads, "IRLP stands for 'Internet Repeater Linking Project.' " It should read, "IRLP stands for 'Internet Radio Linking Project'."

Study Gude # 8

Slide # 69

The word "Answer" shouldn't be in the slide heading. That slide is the "Question.".

Thanks to Lewis Bayers for catching this!

Slide # 113

The bottom of the slide currently reads:

"This concludes Study Guide # 3. Once you are satisfied that you can answer 80% of the questions in this Sub-element, you are ready to move on to Study Guide # 4."

It should read:

"This concludes Study Guide # 8. Once you are satisfied that you can answer 80% of the questions in this Sub-element, you are ready to move on to Study Guide # 9"

Editor's belated catch!

Study Guide # 9

Slide # 57

234 should be divided by 146 instead of 144. This will give you an answer of approximately 19.2 inches, which is closer to the answer given than 19.5 inches. There was some discussion about which number to use in the explanation for this question.. Question T9A12 was on our mind (calculating the length of a 6 meter dipole). When no frequency is given, and all you have is the band, the best practice is to use the lowest frequency of interest. We applied that same logic to this question, and used 144 instead of 146. However, since the frequency was given in this case, we probably should have gone with 146. Either one gets you a correct answer, but for this question, our way was probably more confusing, and did not really answer the question asked.

Another great catch by Lewis Bayers!

Slide # 138

Reads:

"This concludes Study Guide # 3. Once you are satisfied that you can answer 80% of the questions in this Sub-element, you are ready to move on to Study Guide # 4"

It should read:

This concludes Study Guide # 9. Once you are satisfied that you can answer 80% of the questions in this Sub-element, you are ready to move on to Study Guide # 10"

Thanks to KD5KR for catching this!

“know what your are doing” should be "know what you are doing" or "know what you’re doing."

T0C09 and T0C10 and T0C11 are not explained in the blue teaching slides. The explanations on the answer slides, although minimal, are correct. Slides will be included in the next revision.

If you find any other errors, please report them to normany27597 [at] bellsouth.net.