The New Ham & Elmer1 MeetingThere are certain things every radio amateur should know. Most new hams don't start out knowing those things. Licensing classes generally don't teach them. Classes and other "get your license" materials, like videos and study guides, tend to focus just on what you need to know to pass the exams. That's fine. It is, after all, a license to learn. And even many hams who have been licensed a long time may not know some of those things, either because they never learned them or because they haven't been active for a long time and the world has changed. To fill that gap, RARS runs a New Ham & Elmer Meeting every month on the same night and in the same location as the General Membership Meeting.2 The objective of the New Ham Meeting is to teach recently licensed and previously-licensed-but-lapsed hams the practical skills that every competent and courteous radio amateur should know. Topics include
We tend to repeat topics every twelve months or so, so "new hams" can start attending at any time during the year and still get the full curriculum and can catch any topics they missed the next time around. 1. An “Elmer” is an experienced amateur radio operator who mentors other radio amateurs in his or her fields of expertise. See here for the origin of the term. 2. For the history of our New Ham & Elmer Meeting, and our suggestions on how to run one if you're a member of another club looking to start one yourselves, please see here. |
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