The Arrl Extra Class License Manual

I haven't taken a upgrade exam since 1984 so I was a bit intimidated with the prospect of another FCC Exam. I researched the Web for information about where to find the most complete study guides for the Extra exam. I actually found the Question Pool on the Web, but I didn't just want to "Memorize the Test" as some have done in the past. I wanted the reasons for the answers and to refresh my now Older mind. The ARRL Study Guide was Very Thorough and yet to the point. The sections were broken up nicely so you can study each section and take a break. The question pool is in the back of the book and the answers reference the page in the study guide where its reasoning comes from. Perfect for me! It was an Excellent Review of some material and a Great Teacher of the New material that I had to learn in order to upgrade to the highest class in amateur radio. I Passed, Thanks to the ARRL Extra Class Study Guide. Kevin KA1KOJ

Now that there's no longer a 20 wpm code requirement for Extra, there's very little reason why almost any ham with some good basic math skills can't upgrade, given a book this good. All it takes is reading the book and flipping to the questions to check your understanding of the material as you finish each section. I found it took me about a week to do that and I passed with just one mistake (which kills me because if I'd taken more time, I should have gotten that one, too!) I found the book quite logical, well-written and very methodical at explaining the material. I only spotted two minor errors: A garbled explanation of DeMorgan's Theorem as "logic polarity" on page 7-5, and the schematics of three oscillators on page 7-42, each with two connections to Vcc but none to ground. The whole point of the book is to help you pass a multiple choice exam where all the questions are taken from a fixed pool and everyone knows what they are. But the book nicely avoids the trap of simply helping you memorize the answers and focuses instead on explaining the concepts so that when you read a test question, you're capable of doing whatever calculations are required and you know why one specific answer is the best. The only places where I felt the author might have offered a little more discussion were in presenting the formulas for second and third-order intercept points on page 4-22 (it took me several hours to figure out where these came from!) and in the section on phased vertical antennas (page 9-20), where you're given 15 charts to memorize but little explanation of how you might intuitively figure out what shape to expect as an alternative to the rote memorization. I recommend this book. Go get your Extra!

Other books do not zero in on exactly the material you need to pass the exam and do not cover areas of the broad knowledge of amateur radio trivia you need to pass the exam. Using this book and the practice exams available, you can review your strengths and weaknesses, and go to other reference material to deepen your knowledge. Caution: There may be upcoming changes in the question pool that may make this book obsolete in the future.

Some of the material in this book is actually more difficult than the questions on the test I took, but I think that's a good thing. The book goes through by each group and subgroup that is tested on the Element 4 Exam, explaining all potential items that could be covered on the test. It reads like a textbook, and it seemed to be free of errors and is very understandable throughout the book. I read through the entire book once, then reread some of the harder sections a few times. I used no other books or CDs, and took practice tests online at sites like qrz.com and eham.net until I got a consistent pass rate. Within three months of passing my Elements 1, 2 & 3, I took the Element 4 and passed with flying colors (missed only 4 questions out of 50).

I bought the three Wolfgang's Books, Now you're talking! the General Class and the Extra Class License Manuals, I took my Techenician and Morse code Exams in October, 2002 and I had a Perfect score, and on the 15th of December 2002 I took both the General as well as the Extra and in both exams I had a Perfect score 100%. I think the results speak for themselves!!