An Instructor’s Guide for Using the Gordon West

Extra Class
Amateur Radio FCC Element 4 Study Manual
Valid July1, 2012 to June 30, 2016
 Teaching the Top License!
A mateur Extra Class, FCC Element 4, is the highest ham radio operator’s license, and YOU
ARE GOING TO TEACH IT!

You don’t need to be an electronics engineer to teach Extra Class. Some Extra Class instructors
may only have the General license, and there are some Extra Class instructors who are college
professors with NO ham ticket!

As an amateur radio Extra Class

instructor, you have several talents all
rolled up in one – interpreter, promoter,
topic expert, motivator, and, most
important, a classroom leader.

One of your jobs as an Extra Class

instructor is to keep your students ON
TRACK. This guide closely parallels my
2012 to 2016 Extra Class Element 4
“Gordo green book”. All of the Extra
Class questions have been reorganized into
Tom W6WC photo like-topic groupings, and this will cut your
teaching time in half. The reorganization also fits nicely into 12 evening sessions, or a 3 day
course offered Friday through Sunday.

Teaching your students to pass the Extra Class examination will turn you into an
INTERPRETER, rather than an instant expert on everything technical! In fact, you might very
well have some specific topic technical experts as part of your ham radio club, and even as class
members in your upcoming sessions!

You’ll do fine with Rules and Regulations, skywaves, and working satellites. What? You’re
not a satellite expert? Your radio club likely has an AMSAT person who would love to spend a
few minutes in your classroom!

Not into digital protocols for APRS? No problem – as an interpreter, get with some APRS
gurus in your club, learn some new technology, and then “translate” this information to your
students, along with a live-action demo.

The more live-action demos you can provide in class the easier it will be to teach some of
these more complex subjects. If a student asks for an explanation of the phase angle and
scientific calculator keystrokes, and you might not have that on the tip of your tongue, simply
thank that student for a great question and assure him you will bring in an expert to fully explain.
The students will appreciate your honesty, and EVERYONE realizes there is no such thing as an
Extra Class operator who truly understands EVERYTHING detailed in the book.

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 2

 In my Extra Class book, I show all the problem solving techniques. This will satisfy the
majority of your students and I always keep a copy of the American Radio Relay League’s
Handbook with me as a ready reference for after-class questions.

I also recommend Basic Electronics, by McWhorter

and Evans. This fully-illustrated, 224-page, big-print
textbook is available through The W5YI Group. Basic
Electronics offers detailed illustrations and practical,
worked-out examples that demonstrate circuit
applications, adding more background to my Extra Class
Element 4 Amateur Radio license preparation manual.
Basic Electronics also includes quizzes and questions for
additional student homework to enhance your students’
understanding of some of the more difficult material
included in the Element 4 Question Pool.

As you probably know, there’s nothing like “hands-

on-ham” to get students excited about our hobby. Demos
are the key to lively classroom sessions that get your
students talking on-the-air, learning about how radios
work, or understanding the fundamentals of electronics.
I want to recommend another excellent book to you that you can use as a “lab book” to help with
your classroom demonstrations. It’s Getting Started in Electronics by Forrest M. Mims, III.
You can obtain a copy from The W5YI Group, the same place where you can purchase copies of
my Extra Class book for your students. You’ll see some of the nifty experiments from Forrest’s
book here in my Instructor’s Guide, and it will help you put on memorable demonstrations in
class that will bring understanding to your students of some of the electronics involved in our
hobby.

Our thanks to Forrest Mims for his permission to use some of the illustrations from his book
in this Instructor’s Guide. Please note, all of the material from Getting Started in Electronics is
copyright  1983 and 2000 by Forrest M. Mims, III, and may not be used without permission.

Good news – I have prepared pre-study homework pages in the back of this Instructor’s
Guide that you may reproduce and give out before your class sessions. Having your students
work the pre-study material before class begins makes teaching Extra Class even easier!

This Instructor’s Guide also tells you where you can purchase our books at an instructor’s
discount, and how to obtain free additional training materials when you purchase books for your
students. These materials could be frequency charts, manufacturer catalogs, graduation
certificate masters, and maybe ham wall maps.

Best success to you in teaching Extra. If you get in a jam, or your students have a specific
question, I come with the book – call me during the day at 714-549-5000 and I’ll be happy to be
part of your upcoming Extra Class course.

Gordo, WB6NOA
Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 3
 How This Instructor’s Guide Is Organized
A fter 40 years of teaching ham radio classes, I can tell you what works and what pitfalls to
avoid. Some are real classics! In this Instructor’s Guide for the 2012-16 Element 4 Extra Class
question pool, I am going to share with you every teaching secret I know. Here’s how we are
going to teach you, THE TEACHER:

Weekday Evening Classes or Weekend Seminars? ...................................... page 5

Go It Alone or Team Teaching? ................................................................... page 7
Advanced Promotion Before the Course Assures Big Class Size ................ page 8
Classroom Tips for Teaching Success .......................................................... page 9
Now It’s Time for Your Homework!............................................................ page 11
Extra Class Instructor Course Outline .......................................................... page 14
Demos & Props / Show & Tell Will Make Your Classroom Lively ............ page 16
Resources ...................................................................................................... page 23
An Invitation to Sit-In & See for Yourself ................................................... page 26
2012-16 Extra Class Student Pre-Study Q &A.............................................Page 28

THE REAL LEARNING STARTS HERE

Do you know where the real learning of ham radio occurs? If you think it happens in your
classroom, you are partially correct. But the real learning of amateur radio occurs ON THE AIR.
That’s why the live demos in class are so very, very important. It exposes your students to the
fun and excitement of live ham radio in action.

For your students, the real learning occurs when they begin operating over the airwaves.
Encourage your General Class students to try more things than just FM repeaters – IRLP,
Echolink, tropo ducting – encourage your students to get active with their current General Class
privileges!

To encourage them on their preparation for Extra Class high frequency operation, my Extra
Class book contains a one-hour “On The Air” audio CD. This audio CD includes all of the
excitement found on the Extra Class high frequency bands. Your students will hear all of the
worldwide radio sounds that await them!

UPGRADE TO EXTRA CLASS

Your upcoming Extra Class course is
specifically for General Class operators with
a valid General Class license. General Class
is a prerequisite. This makes your ham radio
orientation easy – hopefully, all of your
students have been on the air, and already
understand what ham radio is all about!
Remember, getting the Amateur Extra license
to operate on ALL THE BANDS is really like
getting a license to expand your ham radio
knowledge and skills! You’re role is to help the
students get started!

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 4

 Weekday Evenings, or Weekend Seminars?
W hat is the best time to have your amateur radio Extra Class course? A 12-week class gives
you plenty of time, and 9-week classes fit well into community college curriculums. A weekend
class is my ultimate favorite, but it only works when you use the tricks I’m going to share with
you on how to get the students working their pre-study homework ahead of class. Let’s review
the pros and cons of each approach to scheduling your classes:

WEEKNIGHT CLASSES

It takes about 30 hours to completely cover all 702 test questions in the new Element 4 question
pool. When you review my book, you’ll see that I have taken the 702 total questions and
reorganized them into 16 topic groups. By doing this, the question pool is now much more
manageable, and all 702 Q & A’s can be covered during 8 to 12 classroom sessions, each about
4-hours long, meeting once-a-week in the evening. Good class hours are 6 to 10 pm, but
students may vote for 5 to 9 pm as an alternative.

If you offer a weekly Extra Class upgrade ham class course that may last up to 12 weeks, the
first week’s session may be devoted to the ham radio introductory chapters, and the final week’s
session for the actual Element 4 exam. Twelve classes held once a week for 4 hours will require
minimal homework or pre-study on your student’s part. I’ve found that most students taking a
12-week course only do a minimal amount of homework before each class session, so the real
learning only takes place in the classroom.

The 12-week class will result in an approximate 50 percent attrition rate. If you start with 30
students, you’ll be lucky to end up with 15 graduates. You can be the best instructor in the
world, but keeping your students on a 12-week schedule is next to impossible with everything
around them changing on a daily basis. So be prepared to lose half of your students if you decide
to hold a 12-week course.

WEEKEND SEMINARS – FRIDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY

The most popular courses I teach throughout the country continue to be my 3-day weekend
seminars. They begin Friday afternoon and evening, Saturday around 8 am and go ‘til 6 pm, and
resume on Sunday from 8 am to test-taking around 5 pm, with graduation at 7 pm.

The big selling point for the weekend Extra upgrade ham radio seminar is your students think
that in just one weekend they will end up with their license. And they do. But what they might
not factor in for this weekend class will be the pre-study you begin to send them before class.
Weeks before. Sometimes months before!

The pre-study is not hard, and you will see it in the back of this Instructor’s Guide. The
pre-study gets the students to study ahead of time, and leads them by the hand and pencil through
their regular Gordon West Extra Class book, looking over all of the 702 questions in a
reorganized 16-topic program. We give them the actual page number and sometimes the actual
question number to fill in the blanks on their home-study. They think the home-study is so easy
that they indeed get totally through it before the class begins. You have now successfully trained
these students to pre-study ahead of time and get a big jump on classroom instruction.
Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 5
 The attrition rate you can expect in a weekend 3-day seminar-style course should be less than
10 percent. You also will draw much larger numbers of students to the weekend seminar
compared to the 12-week community college or ham club format. I went from evening classes at
12 to 15 students per class all the way up to an average of 75 students for each weekend course
for the entry-level Technician class license. Upgrade weekend classes for Extra Class average
more than 50 students. For the Extra Class, now that there’s no longer any code test, I usually
end up with 30 to 40 in the weekend class.

The biggest thing for you to promote about the weekend class is that the upcoming course is
absolutely not a “cram class.” Make sure everyone knows that you are teaching ham radio, not
just teaching the 702 Q&As in the scrambled Element 4 question pool. If you were to try to
teach the 702 questions in numerical order as originally presented by the Question Pool
Committee, it might take you THREE WEEKENDS to complete a successful seminar! But by
following the 16 logical topic groups in my book, you can easily teach the entire 702 question
pool in a weekend if you stick to the time line presented here in your Instructor’s Guide.

PRE-STUDY FOR WEEKEND SUCCESS

The popular weekend class should be preceded with student pre-study homework. Students are
expected to sign up well before the class, and you will send them pre-study, fill-in-the-blank
homework before the big weekend seminar. The students will fill in the correct answer from
what they read in my 2012-2016 Extra Class book. The questions in the pre-study homework
precisely follow the reorganized Q&As as presented in my Extra Class book.

Pre-Study Q&As that guide students using my Extra Class book and/or my exclusive audio
theory course on 6 CDs is included at the end of this booklet, starting on page 29. Feel free to
copy these Pre-Study Q&As and pass it out to your students. It is written for the weekend
seminar, but can easily be adapted as homework for a weeknight 10 to 12 session course. The
pre-study assures that students will open up the book ahead of time. The students will not need
to search for any answers – almost all of the pre-study topics illustrate what pages the material
may be found in my Extra Class book, plus the Basic Electronics book.

In addition to the fill-in-the-blanks home-study

workbook, I also expect the students listen to the 6
audio CDs that I have recorded that cover Extra
theory. While the audio course is “extra credit,” it
increases their enthusiasm for the class, and tunes
them in on what to expect when they begin operating
on the air. When the students listen to the audio
course, it really brings ham radio TO LIFE!

And be sure your students play the audio CD in the front of their Extra Class book. It will
really give them a preview of the fun that awaits them on the worldwide HF bands.

You may wish to have your students study the computer course that also is available from
The W5YI Group. The computer course carries my same description of the correct answer, and
some students prefer to study at their computer rather than simply read the book.

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 6

 When your weekly or weekend students hit the classroom, you will know immediately which
students will be passing the examination with flying colors because they are the ones who have
worked their home study ahead of time. A few might not have any home study completed at all,
so you may wish to reschedule them for a different class at a date in the future – or at least warn
them that without home study the weekend class probably won’t be a success for them.

WEEK NIGHTS, WEEKENDS, OR BOTH?

So you need to make a decision – are you going to teach a relaxed 10- or 12-week evening series
of ham classes, or are you going to do a one weekend seminar based on home study ahead of
time? If you are looking to attract and graduate a larger number of students, I guarantee that the
weekend seminar is a great way to go.

Or, do as I do, teach both – offer the traditional 12-week evening course with your local
community college or ham club, and then have a few one-weekend licensing seminars for those
who can’t take 10 or 12 weeks out of their busy schedule for a once-a-week evening class.

GO IT ALONE OR TEAM TEACHING?

T o be a great instructor, you must have plenty of
pizzazz and presence. It takes a lot more than in-
depth knowledge of amateur radio to make you a
good presenter. You need to learn how to read your
students, and how to get them involved in the
material. That’s why the props and demos we’re
soon to talk about are so essential.

If you plan to do the weekend class all by yourself, you better be in great physical and mental
shape. By the time Sunday evening rolls around, you’ll just about collapse from the frenetic
effort required to teach so much material in so little time.

In this Instructor’s Guide, I will soon be showing you how to make the complex simple.
We’ll talk about a light bulb beginning to glow, or getting two of your in-class engineers to
figure out why in the world the magnet that you dropped through the hollow aluminum tube
defies the law of gravity and makes an ever-so-slow exit.

I encourage you to have additional help in the classroom, especially if you’re doing one of
the 3-day marathon sessions. But team teaching is a lot like acting on stage, and you need a
script to follow in order to keep the class on schedule and make sure you cover all the material.
If you select a good teaching partner, make sure they use the course outline following the book
as their guide. You can split up the topics to be covered between you. That way you each can
devote more energies to fewer topics. The result will be a better course for your students, and
less work for you! Also, you can recruit help from any one or two other hams to put on a couple
of special demos that illustrate important material.

But a word of caution – you need to carefully choose your assistant instructors because even
the most knowledgeable technical ham may not have the skill to “read” their audience and will
put them into nod-off land. The well-meaning, overly-technical ham will go on and on and
Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 7
on, instantly zapping your teaching time line, and it will take you the rest of the class session to
catch up. Don’t let this happen! While it’s great to explore the fascinating world of PSK-31, and
while it would be fun to do a one-hour presentation on this new frequency saving digital mode,
keep in mind that there may be only two questions out of 702 on this subject and, unfortunately,
you can only give it a couple of minutes and encourage students to stick around after class and
watch a live PSK-31 demo take place.

Advanced Promotion Before the Course

Assures Big Class Size
I t pays to advertise! You know that, of
course. And if you want to attract enough
students to your ham radio class, you need to
get the word out.

Here’s a sample flyer that has been

successful for me in promoting ham classes.
Please feel free to use any of the wording
that you like to help promote your upcoming
class. If you have a local ham radio dealer
near you, they will probably be more than
happy to put your class flyers right up front.
Remember, everybody who graduates from
your class will be wanting to buy ham
equipment, and I always recommend going
to a local dealer that is helping support your
class.

If you are teaching your class for a

specific audience, such as boaters, emergency
squads, pilots, RVers, or model airplane
flyers, each of these organizations usually has
specialty stores that would probably be more than happy to help promote the class. And don’t
forget to put a notice on their websites or in their e-mail newsletters.

Once you set your class date, please contact The W5YI Group Ham Instructor program to let
them know your schedule. Many times prospective hams call the W5YI-VEC asking where
there might be a class, and they’ll recommend your class to students calling from your area.

Go to: [Link]
To register your upcoming classes on the W5YI website

Let local amateur radio clubs know you are teaching a class for Extra. Often, they will have
students to send you! Clubs also can help get the word out, and every ham club loves to see
more members join up, and more upgrades hit the airwaves. So regularly work the clubs,
support what they are doing, and you’ll probably find they will support you in a big way!

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 8

 Classroom Tips for Teaching Success
W here you hold your class depends on many factors.
The organization that is sponsoring you may provide the space.
You may have to ask the local school for a classroom. If
you’re doing a weekend seminar and are attracting students
from a wide area, you may want to find a hotel with meeting
rooms, food service, and hotel rooms for those students who
want to stay overnight.

SETTING-UP YOUR CLASSROOM

Try to select a classroom that will allow you to gain access to

an outside area to set up some simple HF dipole and HF
vertical antennas. This allows you to go on the air during classroom sessions, which
dramatically spices up your teaching with on-the-air demos.

I prefer to run the coax out windows where there’s absolutely no chance that someone might
trip over the cable. Be careful to never create a hazard by running the coax where someone
might trip. Make sure no one can get anywhere near any antennas that you plan to transmit on.
Also, make sure that you don’t put up any antenna that has protruding metal spikes that could
catch on clothing or cause injury to a student who doesn’t see it in the evening. SAFETY is your
most important consideration when laying out your classroom demos.

Here’s a great trick I want to share with you. This is how I 3 Demo Tables
have the students seated within the classroom. I always prefer
that students sit at a table. But if the 6-foot or 8-foot tables are Instructor (That’s you!)
horizontal to the instructor, this means you can only get a ☺
maximum of 3 students per table.
☺ ☺☺ ☺☺ ☺
Turn the tables vertical to you, as shown, and put 3 ☺ ☺☺ ☺☺ ☺
chairs on one side and 2 on the other to accommodate 5 ☺ ☺ ☺
students. If you have 3 rows of 3 tables per row, try putting
3 chairs on one side, and 2 on the other for an 8-foot table, ☺ ☺☺ ☺☺ ☺
or 2 and 2 for a 6-foot table. You’ll be surprised how many ☺ ☺☺ ☺☺ ☺
more students you can pack into a very small room without ☺ ☺ ☺
them feeling overcrowded. Leave enough room in between
the rows of tables so you can easily walk up and down ☺ ☺☺ ☺☺ ☺
between the tables, looking over their shoulder to see how ☺ ☺☺ ☺☺ ☺
well your students are doing. ☺ ☺ ☺

I usually have three 8-foot tables up front for my demo gear. I call it my “show and tell”
stuff, and it is one of my biggest successes for a class that everybody talks about. Bringing loads
of demo gear allows you to pass around 2 or 3 small audio transformers at the same time. Then
2 or 3 resistors at the same time. Three coils, 3 transistors, 3 chips, 3 pieces of coax cable – you
get the idea – every time you talk about something electronic in class, start the demo gear
moving up and down the tables.

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 9

 Now, beside the insides of a radio in a
gazillion pieces all kept in plastic bags and
marked so they can inspect everything, make sure
you have a worldwide radio to let your students
listen in on all of the excitement that is out there.
This radio goes to live outside antennas, and this
further adds to the excitement of your ham class.
The more stuff you have, and the more live
demos, the more students are going to hear
about your technique of teaching, and they will be waiting in line to sign up for your next class!

In the Resources section of this Instructor’s Guide, I show you listings of web addresses
where you might contact amateur radio manufacturers and bring in colorful wall charts. These
wall charts will help dress up your classroom and allow you to point things out so everyone can
see. In addition to the wall charts, The W5YI Group may include maps and frequency
charts with each textbook you order from them. This way you can lay the charts out for each
student when they first enter the classroom on day one. Visually, this adds excitement when they
come in to take their class and see that they already have things waiting for them right at their
seat.

NAME TAGS

Here’s a sample of a stick-on student name tag. This is

another great icebreaker! In very large letters, print each
student’s first name and call sign on their tag, and have
them wear the tag for the first few class sessions.
Remember that the first impression you make is always a
lasting one, so you want to make your first class session a
rousing success. This means make all students feel
comfortable, and the big name tag certainly helps.

And I give out an inexpensive ribbon to those who

successfully pass my course and get their license. It may
seem “corny” but it works. Everyone relaxes and has a
good time!

As you get close to your first class session, contact your

students via e-mail, letter, or phone, and double check that
they know exactly when the class is scheduled, and where
the class is going to be held. Go over every detail
including parking. Double check to see if you might have some handicapped students who may
need a special parking spot, or special accommodations to the classroom.

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 10

 Now It’s Time for Your Homework!
B efore I start you out with your class outline, we need to make sure you are absolutely up to
date on all that has changed in ham radio over the last couple of years. In my Extra Class book,
I bring everyone up to date on a little ham history, privileges your students will earn, preparing
for the class, taking the class, and ultimately passing the final exam. So instructors, the
following is YOUR homework assignment before we begin to teach Extra class.

Your assignment:

Begin by listening to the one hour audio CD that

accompanies your students’ Extra Class book. There are
some exciting sounds that you may wish to play in class as
part of your demonstrations.

READ & REVIEW PAGES iv AND SKIM CHAPTER 1

These first pages will help motivate your students to follow a logical study plan to ultimately
obtain their amateur license using their book and working with you, their instructor.

Next, skim Chapter 1 on pages 1 through 8. Chapter 1 briefly describes to your students the
excitement awaiting them as Extra Class ham radio operators, the need for an FCC license, and
encourages them to join a club, read magazines, and get an Elmer to show them the ropes.
Chapter 1 fully explains all of the frequencies they will earn with their Extra Class license that
they will achieve in your upcoming class. Chapter 1 has some excellent band plans that illustrate
all of the excitement on the popular HF bands. Since YOU have already been on the air, you can
skim the privileges, but please note that on page 2, I show them all of the new frequencies they
will earn in an easy-to-read table. Combine this with the frequency charts that accompany each
book you are bringing in for your students, and you’ll have no problem showing them all of the
“radio real estate” they will soon gain as a new Extra Class operator!

Your assignment:

CHAPTER 2 IS IMPORTANT FOR YOU! A LITTLE HAM HISTORY

I suggest that you carefully review this important chapter to better understand all of the changes
to our current amateur radio service. By thoroughly understanding the ham radio history you
will get a broad perspective on how relatively easy it is for your new students to pass their Extra
exam and get on all the HF airwaves. This chapter may help you better understand some of the
resentment felt by our senior hams who complain the testing process is not tough enough –
certainly not like the old days when they HAD to learn Morse code.

And this is why we suggest you teach a little bit of CW in the classroom – a little code
instruction will satisfy some of our senior hams who might worry that we are simply teaching the
test and skirting the code issue. Once they see the work that you’re putting in to your teaching in
the classroom, and they hear the dits and dahs, they will probably join you as a guest instructor.
This is good!
Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 11
 Your assignment:

CHAPTER 3 GETS YOU READY TO TEACH THE COURSE

Chapter 3 – Getting Ready for the Exam, is another important chapter for you to know and
understand before you start your class. In this chapter, I topically describe to the students the
yearly update process of individual amateur radio question pools. I advise the students that an
older book with the old question pool will not reflect the new updated Extra Class question pool,
valid 2012 through 2016. Let them know that many questions are asked two and three times
over with slightly different wording. This means they are only studying around 300 question
topics.

Page 16, Table 2-1, shows the new Element 4 syllabus, total questions in each sub-element,
and the number of questions taken from each subelement to make up their 50-question exam.
Many students will be worried that the electronics portion of the test will be tough for them – but
if they look at subelement E7 in this Table, they’ll discover that only 8 test questions on their
upcoming exam will be taken from this subelement. They’ll breathe a sigh of relief!

Your assignment: Turn to page 18

WHY I REORGANIZED THE QUESTION POOL

Pay careful attention to pages 18-20. This explains why I decided to reorganize all of the Q&As
in the new 2012-16 Element 4 pool into the 16 logical topic groups. Here’s some background.

Each of the three amateur radio question pools is developed by the National Conference of
Volunteer Exam Coordinators’ Question Pool Committee. The abbreviations are “NCVEC” and
“QPC.” When the QPC developed the new 2012-16 Element 4 question pool, it was after the
Federal Communications Commission “re-farmed” the high frequency bands, allowing for
expanded voice privileges and the re-defining of CW/data frequencies. This was also after the
FCC released its Rule Making that eliminated the Element 1 CW test requirement. These recent
FCC actions have ALL been accounted for in our new Extra Class 2012-16 training manual, and
this Instructor’s Guide for teaching Extra Class.

The Question Pool Committee also eliminated older Extra Class questions that were no
longer valid with new technology. The QPC also ADDED new Extra Class questions to better
reflect the new technology in high frequency ham radio communications. This makes this new
question pool FRESH, and that makes it easier for you to teach!

The new question pool, consecutively numbered by the QPC, continues to present an
illogical grouping of similar questions, separated throughout the pool. As one example of our
reorganization efforts, several questions on DATA were originally grouped in both Subelement
E2, Operating Procedures, and over at Subelement E8, Signals and Emissions. In my new Extra
Class book, I have grouped DATA questions together in digital operating, placing all questions,
one after another, for easy teaching.

Each question and answer choices in the book is followed my upbeat description of the
correct answer. And NEW in this book is another terrific study aid – the correct A, B, C, or D
answer is listed at the END of the description, not tipping the student off BEFORE reading the
Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 12
description! This way, your students will read the entire description of the correct answer, and
then verify that the correct answer they chose is, indeed, the correct answer on the exam.

Are all of the 702 questions in the book? Absolutely! Look at page 270 and 271, and see the
cross-reference of the QPC question order and the specific page where it appears in the book.
And a quick glance at our page numbers in this cross- reference will clearly show you our unique
reorganization of the entire question pool was needed!

I have been using this rearranged teaching technique for the last 40 years – going all the way
back to Novice class – AND IT WORKS! This rearranged question technique also allows you to
bring in additional books to further illustrate a specific topic. Best of all, you won’t need to jump
around in your training materials because I have grouped all of the 16 logical areas together.
And I purposely don’t blow our students away by starting out with Ohm’s Law. I get them
baited and on the hook by first reviewing all those questions dealing with the excitement of high
frequency operating on their new Extra Class frequencies.

TEACH YOUR CLASS BY THESE TOPIC AREAS

Don’t skip around in the book – I have completely minimized the need to do that in THIS book.
Look again on page 19 and go with the flow of this logical instruction method. This is the same
order that I use to present the material in my audio course, and our computer course includes my
fun explanations from the book. My book, the audio course, and the software are available
through The W5YI Group Instructor Program, and for a discount, too.

Now check out our cartoon friend Elmer, who provides numerous
Elmer Points in shaded boxes surrounded by a CW border. This breaks
up the copy and adds a smile to your instruction. Elmer and his Points
add important substance to specific questions in the pool. Then check out
WEBSITE RESOURCES, also in a shaded box, specifically for you and your
students to obtain additional information with accurate www web
locations. These web addresses will assist you in some simple homework
assignments for once a week classroom sessions.

So please trust me on this one. I’m out there teaching these classes all
over the country, and the reorganized questions are a much more logical
way to instruct your students. Stay with the book, page by page, no
jumping allowed!

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 13

 Extra Class Instructor Course Outline

T he course outline you are about to read works for both the weekend seminar as well as 10-
and 12-week evening classes format. The course outline specifically parallels my Extra Class
book for 2012-2016. I rearranged all of the Q&A in the new question pool into 16 topic groups
based on how you should teach Extra class, presenting the material in a logical order and making
it easier to learn!

If your students are using another book, the Q&A won’t be in the same order as they
are presented in my topic groups, and the “other book” students will quickly get lost.

As a professional instructor yourself, I value your comments about where a couple of

questions might be moved around to improve the presentation of the Q&A. We can do this
easily when we next reprint our book, so let’s hear your suggestions. If your suggestions make
the book, I will acknowledge you up front in the beginning of the book, too!

Here are the 16 topic areas, grouped into class sessions, based on a 12 week course. You may
combine groups for a shorter class schedule. You should be able to cover all of the topics
included in each group during the course of a 3 hour session.

Session No. Topic Areas Pages to Cover

1 Amateur Extra Class – The Highest Grade License v through 20
2 FCC Rules and Regulations 21 – 38
3 Skywave Propagation 39 – 54
Space Communications 55 – 66
Video Modes 67 – 76
4 Digital and Computer Operations 77 – 88
Modulation 89 – 108
5 Amplifiers and Power Supplies 109 – 120
Receivers and Filters 121 – 138
6 Oscillators and Synthesizers 139 – 148
Mid-Course Review 21 – 148
7 Circuits and Resonance 149 – 181
8 Circuit Components 183 – 193
9 Logic and Counters 195 – 204
OpAmps and Solar 205 – 212
10 Test Equipment 213 – 218
Antennas 219 – 236
11 Feedlines and Safety 237 – 260
12 Element 4 Exam Session and Graduation

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 14

DO SOME MORSE CODE

On February 23, 2007, the FCC eliminated the

requirement of passing a Morse code test. And
now that classroom testing for the CW test is no
longer required by the Federal Communications
Commission, guess what? YOUR STUDENTS
WILL WANT TO LEARN MORSE CODE!
They no longer fear the dreaded Morse code tests
at the end of the class sessions, so now their
minds are wide open to learn Morse code. Give
them code practice! This will make them better
hams when they get on the HF airwaves. If Cub Scouts can do code, so can Extras!

In each class session, begin teaching Morse code on a straight key or electronic keyer. This
introduces your students to the new sounds of dits and dahs and they will actually enjoy code
practice in class. Follow the exact progression of learning Morse code characters on my
exclusive CW audio CDs from W5YI.

You might even generate a simple fun Morse code “Graduation Test” at the end of the Extra
Class course:

VVV VVV THIS IS AN AMATEUR RADIO MORSE CODE TEST. IF YOU CAN
COPY WHAT I AM SENDING, STAND UP AND TAKE A BOW.

When you do the code in your classroom, you should try to use multiple speakers throughout
the room to minimize echoes. Use an electronic key, and key-in the code yourself. This allows
you to make dramatic pauses between hard letters, words, sentences, and allows you to re-enter
any code character that you see your students might be missing. Don’t just play code cassettes
or a computer code program. Do it live yourself for maximum effect.

I also recommend you do some code over 40 meters, asking the other station to please QRS
so that your students may write down what the other station is sending. This is another great
way to keep excitement at its peak in your classroom.

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 15

 DEMOS & PROPS / SHOW & TELL
WILL MAKE YOUR CLASSROOM LIVELY

Y ou know that a picture is worth a thousand words – and a hands-on demonstration is a lot
more fun and memorable than a straight “talking heads” lecture. Now let’s take a look and see
what graphics, demos, and props you can build into each of my 16 topic areas. Here’s a host of
“show and tell” ideas – keyed to the topic areas in my book – to help make your classroom
session lively, memorable, and fun!

When you start to figure our your classroom

demonstrations, review the Forrest Mims book Getting
Started in Electronics. It is full of fun experiments that
will help you get your points across, especially when it
comes to helping your students understand the
fundamentals of electricity, electronics, and how
components work.

Also review Basic Electronics, and keep your ARRL

Handbook available as a student classroom reference.

Rules & Regulations (pages 21 - 38)

♦ Show a sample copy of a CSCE
♦ NCVEC form 605
♦ Old Callbook
♦ Copy of Ham license
♦ FCC Rulebook, CFR 74, Part 97 (available in quantity discounts from the W5YI Group)
♦ Show an active Log book and a computer Log of the World
♦ Show an OO postcard
♦ Quick demo of Fox-hunting
♦ Talk about satellite and space shuttle programs
♦ Discuss third party rules
♦ Review regulations for operating in a foreign country
♦ Show VE credentials
♦ Show a properly filled-out CSCE
♦ Explain penalties for deliberate VE misconduct

Propagation (pages 39 – 54)

♦ Start out by tossing 10 or 15 foam fuzz balls around the room, illustrating radio waves
traveling through the air.
♦ Describe the velocity of radio waves, and then describe frequency and wavelength.
♦ Use a plastic slinky to better illustrate frequency and wavelength. Have a student pull it apart
for longer wavelength, and have another student measure frequency by how many
oscillations in one second.
♦ Use an adjustable tone generator to illustrate audio and radio frequencies.
♦ Use a guitar or other stringed instrument to illustrate frequencies.
Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 16
♦ Review manufacturer color frequency privileges charts.
♦ Listen to signals on different bands.
♦ Show HF, VHF, UHF on the board.
♦ Make contacts on 40 or 20 meters.
♦ Have students identify wavelength when looking at a radio’s frequency.
♦ Bring in a radio-controlled model boat or car. Show them how the model turns and
maneuvers via radio control. You don’t necessarily need to be on 6 meters to illustrate radio
control, but have a separate receiver to tune into the actual sounds that the radio-control
transmitter may send to the model airplane or boat.
♦ Bring out those soft fuzz balls and start throwing them around the room. This will get
everyone’s attention to what radio waves may be doing all around them.
♦ Bounce the fuzz ball off the ceiling to illustrate skywaves, and roll it on the floor to show
groundwaves and ground-wave obstructions.
♦ Bring out a prism to illustrate refraction of wavelengths as seen in different colors of
sunlight.
♦ Tune into WWV at 18 minutes past the hour for solar report.
♦ Tune into skywave comms on HF.
♦ Tune into groundwave signals on HF and 2 meters.
♦ Reverse binoculars held over a white sheet to show sunspots.
♦ Illustrate minimum ionospheric activity just like minimum temperatures just before dawn as
you wear a very heavy coat.
♦ Tune into HF CW to illustrate what a beacon may sound like.
♦ Look for beacons on 10 meters and 15 meters.

Space Communications (pages 55 - 66)

♦ Hand out AMSAT brochures.
♦ Show satellite passes on your I-Pad.
♦ Show and Arrow handheld satellite antenna.
♦ LISTEN to a satellite pass.
♦ Play EME audio from the On The Air CD.

Video Modes (pages 67 – 76)

♦ Explain the difference between analog and digital modes
♦ LISTEN to an analog ATV signal.
♦ Show ATV reception
♦ Show CRT.
♦ Show CRT vs. LCD display.

Digital Modes (pages 77 – 88)

♦ Bring in your lap-top computer with an HF radio on an outside antenna. Tie it in with a TNC
(terminal node controller), my favorite is the SCS PTC2 Pro. Dial the radio around for
incoming computer signals, watch the TNC decode it, and then watch the faces on your
students!
♦ Illustrate simple data using CW and a flashing light.
♦ Tune around the band, best on 20 meters, listening to RTTY, AMTOR, PACTOR II, PSK-31,
CLOVER, and any other digital mode including CW.
♦ Log onto APRS and show them live positions coming up on local maps.
Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 17
♦ Check into a repeater with IRLP and place a call to a
ham in a different portion of the world. Be sure to set
this up ahead of time to offer a no-problem, no-
surprise connection. In other words, stage your
operating well ahead of time to insure everything
goes smoothly between your computer, your students,
and the outside world of radio!
♦ Play audio recordings of actual space contacts –
including satellite, space shuttle, and International
Space Station (these are all on my audio course.)
♦ Show QSL cards.
♦ Play some of the sound tracks from the audio CD
included with the book.

Modulation (pages 89 – 108)

♦ Bring in and turn on, older tube radio
♦ Show off new transistorized HF radio
♦ Open up radio and show various transmitter stages
♦ Transmit into dummy load and show modulation on an oscilloscope
♦ Demonstrate oscilloscope patterns
♦ Show a small tube RF amplifier
♦ Show individual crystal elements
♦ Show tube set loading into an antenna
♦ Demonstrate dummy load and watt meters
♦ Talk about dangers around high voltage amplifiers
♦ Demonstrate a spectrum analyzer.
♦ Demonstrate oscilloscope modulation waveform.
♦ Demonstrate Peak reading wattmeter.
♦ Show high pass and low pass filter elements.
♦ Show a small duplexer.

Amplifiers and Power Supplies (pages 109 – 120)

♦ Bring in a small tube amplifier.
♦ Bring in a solid-state amplifier.
♦ Demonstrate a filter capacitor and WARN of danger.

Receivers and Filters (pages 121 – 138)

♦ Open up HF tube radio and show receiver section
♦ Show receiver in a solid state HF radio
♦ Demonstrate digital signal processing
♦ Demonstrate different filters
♦ Demonstrate notch filter
♦ Show how to read an “S” meter
♦ Demonstrate the use of a signal tracer

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 18

Oscillators and Synthesizers (pages 139 – 148)
♦ Demonstrate oscillators with a pendulum
♦ Show off vacuum tubes
♦ Demonstrate transistorized transceivers
♦ Do voltage checks on transistors
♦ Demonstrate light emitting diodes
♦ Show an LCD display, and let it bake in the sunlight
♦ Show off a binary counter chip
♦ Bring in a programmable scanner to demonstrate memory

Circuits and Resonance (pages 149 - 181)

♦ Show off antenna traps.
♦ White board impedance demonstrations.
♦ White board Polar Coordinates demos.
♦ Small vs. Large antenna coils and Q.
♦ Show filter networks within a rig.
♦ Grain of wheat bulb to demonstrate time constants from a charge capacitor.

Various Electrical Principles

This is the section of the course where the Mims
book will be very helpful to you!
♦ Colored water and clear tubing makes for
some great safe demos. The water is voltage;
squeezing the bulb creates current; and a kink
in the clear tubing illustrates resistance.
Drive a little paddle wheel to show power.
Here’s an illustration from page 14 of
Mims’s book showing how you might build a
model to demonstrate electricity
fundamentals.
♦ A volt meter and an ammeter.
♦ Describe current and light up a 12-volt
light bulb. Courtesy of Forrest M. Mims, III
♦ Show off an inverter, and then show off a power supply.
♦ Show off / illustrate a multimeter – both digital and d’Arsonval (needle).
♦ Show fuses good and bad, and meter them in the resistance mode to check.
♦ Spark a fuse to blow it on purpose (Mims book, pages 24-31)
♦ Work with several needle-type multimeters (Mims book, page 26)
♦ Pass around DC power supply filters.
♦ Show current flow with a 12-volt bulb and a diode in series, passing and blocking current.
♦ Talk about the dangers of electrocution with current flowing from your fingers and out
through your feet when doing the laundry in the garage (Mims book, page 19).
♦ Work the Ohm’s Law formulas on the board, and illustrate with a simple 12-volt DC light
bulb.
♦ Pass around various resistors, and talk about resistor color code although it’s not needed for
the exam (Mims book, page 28-31). Demo the effect of a fixed resistor and 12-volt light
bulb.
Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 19
♦ Plenty of little batteries (Here’s an
illustration from page 16 in Getting
Started in Electronics for a lemon
battery project that’ll get kids really
excited!)
♦ Pass around schematic diagrams of
equipment and have them identify
components.
♦ Demo a variable resistor on the 12-volt
light bulb with current flowing through Courtesy of Forrest M. Mims, III
both.
♦ Illustrate capacitors and spark a big electrolytic carefully. See Mims book, page 32, for how
to make a capacitor with aluminum foil and waxed paper.
♦ Show off a variable capacitor.
♦ Show off coils. (Mims book, pages 38 – 39.)
♦ Demonstrate the power of a coil by dropping a rare earth magnet ball down the end of an
aluminum tube, only to see the ball slowly float down as Lenz Law impedes the physical
flow of the ball’s energy.
♦ Pass around transformers. (Mims book, pages 40-41.)
♦ Pass around diodes and illustrate diodes.
♦ Pass around transistors and large-scale integrated chips.
♦ Pass around switches.
♦ Have plenty of goodies to pass around.
Instead of just talking about a component,
show them what it looks like and feels by
passing them around. When everybody has
one component, go around the room and do
a spot quiz to see if they can identify what
that component is, and what it does! Courtesy of Forrest M. Mims, III
♦ Buy Forrest Mims’s book Getting Started in Electronics! It’s a gold mine of ideas to
demonstrate and teach electricity and electronics!!

Components (pages 183 – 193)

♦ Teach students how to read the schematic on page 129
♦ Pass around resistors, capacitors, switches, and transformer
♦ Teach resistor color code
♦ Teach to solve resistors in series and parallel
♦ Teach to solve capacitors in series and parallel
♦ Teach to solve inductors in series and parallel
♦ Demonstrate reactance with a permanent magnet down an aluminum tube
♦ Show off torroidal inductor
♦ Demonstrate SAFELY a live step up and step down transformer with a volt meter
♦ Show inside of radio and placement of coils

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 20

Logic (pages 195 – 204)
♦ White board time for digital logic.
♦ Hand around small logic components and ICs.
♦ Demonstrate a marker generator.
♦ Show a frequency counter in action.

OpAmps (pages 205 – 212)

♦ White board time for OpAmp gain.
♦ Show OpAmp filter network.
♦ Demonstrate a photo cell.
♦ Demo an OPTO-Coupler and Optical Shaft Wheel.

Test Equipment (pages 213 – 218)

♦ Demonstrate a spectrum analyzer.
♦ Show a logic probe.
♦ Demonstrate a frequency counter.
♦ Demo a bench oscilloscope.
♦ Demonstrate needle and digital volt meters.

Antennas (pages 219 - 236)

♦ Start by making a simple dipole for 10 meters.
♦ Have students build their own different dipole
on different bands.
♦ Have students build a quarterwave ground plane
for 10 meters using soda cans as a vertical, and
then use an MFJ SWR analyzer to the results
after the coax has been soldered.
♦ Use a soft, inflatable ball to demonstrate
antenna radiation patterns.
♦ Bring in a guitar or ukulele to demonstrate resonance.
♦ Bring in parts of a multi-band vertical to demonstrate traps and capacity hats.
♦ Use a flood lamp to demonstrate directional antennas.
♦ Use a light bulb to demonstrate omni directional antennas.
♦ Bring in old TV antenna and demonstrate
director, reflector, and driven element -
CAUTION: PUT RUBBER BALL ON ALL
ELEMENT ENDS TO PROTECT EVERYONE
AROUND.
♦ Show off an automatic antenna coupler in action.
♦ Demonstrate a center-loaded, high-Q, mobile
antenna system.
♦ Pass around a balun.
♦ Show a corroded antenna connection.
♦ Discuss and demonstrate safe soldering
techniques (Mims book, page 98) Courtesy of Forrest M. Mims, III
♦ Demonstrate directivity of a halfwave dipole.

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 21

♦ Show antenna modeling on your computer.
♦ Bring in a small cubical quad antenna.
♦ Illustrate polarization with wire and an automatic HF antenna tuner.
♦ Talk about the little rubber duck antenna.
♦ Show off various sizes of coaxial cable.
♦ Use a watt meter to illustrate coax cable losses.
♦ Show off parallel conductor and twin-lead.
♦ Illustrate standing waves with a rope.
♦ Show a standing wave ratio meter.
♦ Determine SWR on a student-built HF antenna.
♦ Show off hard hat and safety glasses and a climbing belt.
♦ Demonstrate grounding techniques and ground foil.
♦ Demonstrate green wire on a 3-blade plug.
♦ Show off component hit by lightning.
♦ Walk outside and spot high-voltage, unprotected power lines.
♦ Show off old unsafe leather climbing belt.
♦ Show off old rusted turn buckles.
♦ Show off one way to launch a non-conductive line over a tree.

Feedlines and Safety (pages 237 - 260)

♦ Turn on a flood lamp or auto headlamp and have a student come up and feel the warmth. If
they touch it, they will get burned. This illustrates a basic principle of radiation.
♦ Talk about the handheld and show keeping the antenna away from your head.
♦ Go outside and examine a mobile vehicle installation for safe placement of the HF antenna.
♦ Talk about microwave ovens and what they do to food on the inside.
♦ Use the microwave oven to illustrate duty cycle.
♦ Work the charts in the book, going over controlled and uncontrolled environments, pages 201
– 203.
♦ Give them questions on the charts in the
book that are different than the actual book
questions.
♦ Discuss safety when working with
electricity.
♦ Reinforce all test questions dealing with
personal operator safety around transmitting
antennas.
♦ Bring in various coaxial cable segments and
parallel conductor feedlines.
♦ Demonstrate an antenna analyzer.
♦ Demo an electric Smith Chart.
♦ Hand out blank Smith Charts for calculations. Courtesy of Forrest M. Mims, III
♦ Demonstrate a 10 or 24 GHz dish system (on receive only!!).

Remember – EVERYONE loves the excitement

of live ham radio demos! They are the key ingredient
for a successful, memorable ham radio course!!

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 22

 Resources
S o, where do we get all of these materials to put on a class and do these different demos?
Chances are, you probably have a bin full of “stuff” that would make great demo items. If you
invite your ham friends to help with the class, you will find each may have a specialized area of
operation, and they would love to bring that particular demo into the classroom. You can’t do it
all yourself – get your ham pals to bring in their specialty gear and talk about their operating
modes!

GORDON WEST BOOKS, AUDIO CDs, & W5YI SOFTWARE PACKAGES

AT AN INSTRUCTOR DISCOUNT:

The W5YI Group (800-669-9594, or [Link]) distributes all of the Gordon West
amateur radio study materials for the Technician, General, and Extra class licenses. They offer a
special Instructor Discount Program to ham radio instructors registered with W5YI. Here’s a
summary of the products:

Technician Class, General Class, and Extra Class study manuals. Each book
contains the exact questions and answers used to make up the exams, plus
explanations of the correct answers. The books also contain a great deal of
additional information on ham radio, including frequency privileges, list of
VECs, and much, much more.

Educational Book & Software Packages. W5YI also has each book
packaged with Windows software that allows students to study the Q & A at
their PC and take practice exams. The software scores their exams showing
where they are weak and need more study. Gordo’s educational, fun
explanations and keywords appear when a student answers incorrectly. Each
package includes a free copy of W5YI’s FCC Part 97 rule booklet.

Audio Theory CDs for each license class recorded by Gordon West. Each set
of CDs (4 each for Technician and General, and 6 for Extra) discusses the
theory covered in each FCC exam element. They are a great way to get the
students to pre-study and listen in on the excitement of ham radio for their
upcoming class. All of the theory CDs contain live sounds of radio, plenty of
sound effects, and Gordo’s humor to keep students playing the CDs over and
over again.

Code CDs. Teaching the code? If you're planning to teach Morse code, Gordo has an in-depth
set of 6 audio CDs that students love because of the humor that is on them – they make learning
the code fun. I also have a 2 CD code teacher. As an instructor, you may also use these cassettes
to play over the airwaves, especially on the 2-meter band. All of the code characters are sent
Farnsworth method at 15 wpm character rate, spaced to 5 wpm word rate.

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 23

EXOTIC DEMO TOOLS & PROPS
If you are not into building your own plasma tube, or your own Tesla coil, two commercial
educator/experimenter companies have you covered big time: Information Unlimited Amazing
Devices ([Link], 800-221-1705) and Edmund Scientifics
([Link], 800-728-6999). Visit their websites and give them a call to order
items. They have assembled systems or kits for Tesla's, levitation, induction and conduction,
spark gap, neon tube conductor analyzers, and a host of other “eyeshocking” devices that are
relatively safe around your students, yet will have everyone coming back for a second look. One
device, called the phaser tube, allows me to show conductivity by having students joining hands
in series and watching the neon tube begin to glow further and further up as better contact is
made. Another good prop is the Tesla coil, but keep in mind this device has plenty of high
voltage around it. Always take your high-voltage demos off-line when teaching a class for kids –
they are indeed curious!

Free With Each Book Purchase:

FREQUENCY CHARTS, WALL MAPS, GRADUATION CERTIFICATES,
DISCOUNT COUPONS & MORE...
Order your books through The W5YI Ham Instructor Program and they will include as
much material that they may have on hand.

To order the Gordon West Extra Class book, go to

[Link] or call 1-800-669-9594
To register as an instructor or to have your class posted on our website, go to:
[Link]

In addition, here is a listing of various manufactures, dealers, and others that may supply you
with materials that contain excellent illustrations and simplified technical explanations to help
with your demonstrations.

Aluma Towers lightweight tower catalogs [Link]

Amateur Electronic Supply full ham catalog [Link]
CQ Communications promotional copies of CQ [Link]
Gap Antenna Products catalog on vertical antennas [Link]
Ham Radio Outlet full ham catalog [Link]
ICOM America band charts [Link]
Kenwood USA frequency charts, maps, catalogs [Link]
LDG Electronics automatic antenna tuner charts [Link]
MFJ Enterprises catalogs on all sorts of accessories [Link]
QSLs by W4MPY sample QSL cards [Link]
QSLs by KB3IFH sample QSL cards [Link]
Radio Works antenna catalogs [Link]
Universal Radio 100-page full ham catalog [Link]
W5YI Group VEC info / License prep materials [Link]
W & W Associates battery catalogs [Link]
Yaesu Electronics frequency charts, world maps [Link]

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 24

We’ll be happy to supply you with band plan
charts, grid square maps, manufacturer’s
discount coupons, and more for each of your
ham class students when you order your
student’s study manuals from The W5YI Group.

A special word of thanks to Yaesu,

Kenwood, and Icom for their continuous
free classroom materials with our books
to instructors in support of the Gordon
West / W5YI Ham Instructor Program!

When your students graduate, I

want to know about it! I have a
very nice certificate suitable
for framing (below) – plus free
ham operating materials from
equipment manufacturers. All I
need is a large, self-addressed
envelope with 12 first-class
stamps inside for each student
to cover postage and handling,
and I’ll send one their way.
They can write me at:

Gordon West Radio School

2414 College Drive
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 25

 AN INVITATION TO SIT-IN & SEE FOR YOURSELF
N ow that we are at the end of this Instructor’s Guide for you, the instructor, on how to teach
an upgrade ham radio class, allow me to invite you to sit in on any one of my ham classes
throughout the country – or any of the seminars that I present at hamfests or club get-togethers.
Feel free to adopt any of the demos that I do, and please share with me any demonstrations that
you have developed so I might adopt them myself and pass them on to others.

Also, beginning on the next page, is my Pre-

Study Q&A for the 2012-16 Extra class. Feel
free to make copies of it for your students!
You can use it for the weekend seminar format,
or you can adapt it as homework for a
weeknight course. If you can get your students
to pre-study your classes will be much more fun
with more time for demos, and you student pass
rate will soar!

All of my theory books, audio theory CDs, code CDs, and the W5YI computer programs are
available at a discount to you. We offer you these discounts because you are our most valuable
resource for the growth of Amateur Radio, the Elmer/instructor. Get all of my materials at a
discount, and use any small amount of profit towards continuous improvement of your
presentations and classes. If you are teaching for a club, the club may want to purchase the
materials and offer them to the students as a group discount. Or it may want to use the profits to
help pay the cost of conducting the classes, or to pay the classroom or testing facility fee.

If you have your own ideas on what should be in the

three amateur radio question pools, feel free to send me
your revised Q & A’s. Become an active contributor to
future question pools that are revised every 4 years.

Work closely with your local amateur radio dealers.

They can assist by providing space for your class
announcements, as well as providing demo gear during
your upcoming course. Chances are, when you start
turning brand new licensed students over to them, they’ll
want to provide a lot more for you in appreciation of what
you are doing to help ham radio grow.

Remember – teaching ham class is supposed to be fun for

you, too! The more excitement you generate, the more fun
for everyone!!

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 26

 Finally, don’t hesitate to call me personally and share with me your comments on what we all
may do to better our ham radio presentation to students throughout the country. I can be reached
Monday through Friday, 10 am to 4 pm Pacific time, by calling me at 714-549-5000. Say hi to
my wife, Suzy, N6GLF, too. Or write me a note at:

Gordon West Radio School or you may e-mail me at:

2414 College Drive WB6NOA@[Link]
Costa Mesa, CA 92626 or [Link]

So what are you waiting for? Start looking over my Extra Class book, play the CDs from
my audio course, be sure to listen to the “On The Air” CD included in my book, create your
home study pre-course workbook, and let's get started with your upcoming ham radio class. I'm
right here with you!
73
Gordon West
WB6NOA

The natural curiosity of kids makes teaching them ham radio

particular fun. Adults. RVers. Boaters. Hunters. There’s
something for everyone in our Amateur Radio hobby. And the
rewards for you – the instructor – are tremendous as you help
our hobby grow!

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 27

 Gordon West’s Pre-Study Q&A for the
2012-16 Extra Class Course

W elcome to your EXTRA CLASS Element 4 pre-study homework. The upcoming class
is absolutely NOT a “cram session” followed by the test. Rather, your upcoming class
will take your textbook questions and answers and relate them to the real world of ham radio
operating, as an upgrade from General Class to EXTRA CLASS!

This pre-study Q&A assignment is straight out of our Gordon West Extra Class book, valid
July 2012 through June 2016. The fill in the blank questions in this pre-study guide follow the
exact order of the Gordon West book. Questions have been rearranged for easier concept
learning, and we even give you page numbers and audio CD references to quickly spot the
correct answer.

We also reference technical questions that are detailed in the Basic Electronics book, which
may be part of your course or ordered directly from the distributor 1 800 669 9594 (developed
and published by Master Publishing, Inc., McWhorter and Evans)
You can also take practice exams using The W5YI Group HamStudy computer software
specifically developed to go along with my book.

This pre-study homework is fill-in-the-blank. Your actual Element 4 written examination

will be multiple choice – all the easier.

Begin reading over your Extra Class book and start filling in the home study answers. Also
consult Basic Electronics (which we will abbreviate BE), and we give you page numbers to find
the answers. Be sure to bring your completed home study notes to the first class session.

Good luck with your study! I hope to hear you on the Extra Class airwaves very soon!!

Gordon West
WB6NOA

To order the Gordon West Extra Class book, go to

[Link]
or call 1-800-669-9594

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 28

EXTRA CLASS PRIVILEGES (pages 1 – 8)
1. X refers to the Gordon West Extra Class book. BE refers to the optional Basic Electronics book. Got both?
________________________________________
2. On which bands do you gain 25 kHz window of exclusive CW privileges at the bottom of each band?
_____________________________________________
3. When you get to Extra, you gain _______________kHz of additional voice and data privileges?
4. On 75 meters, your Extra Class voice privileges, not shared with other operators, are from __________MHz to
_____________MHz?
5. On the popular 20 meter band, Extras have non-shared voice privileges from _____________MHz to
_______________MHz.
6. As an Extra Class operator, you may test for all levels as a V_______________ E________________.

HAM RADIO HISTORY (pages 9 -14)

1. How many hams in the U S A? ______________________________________
2. How old is the amateur radio service? _________________________________
3. In 1979, what test was eliminated for operation above 30 MHz? ____________
4. In 2007, what test requirement was eliminated for high frequency licensing?
____________________________________________________________
5. When did Volunteer testing begin? ____________________________________
6. Which test element is Element 2?______________________________________
7. Which element is Element 3? _________________________________________
8. Which element is Element 4? _________________________________________
9. May an applicant go from Technician to Extra without taking the General Element?
__________________________________________________________

GETTING READY FOR THE EXAM (pages 15 – 20)

1. How many test questions are on upcoming Extra Class Element 4 exam? _______
2. Answer ___________________ or more correctly, and you pass!
3. Confirm: Is your General Class license is current? ___________________________
4. Important: When you pass your Extra Class exam, the license term still remains the same – you DON’T
automatically get 10 more years before renewal. Check your General license renewal date. This is when your
new Extra Class renewal is due. Luckily, no re-test is required!
5. What does Extra subelement E9 cover? ____________________________________
6. After my rearrangement of topics, how many topic areas are there? ___________
7. OK, I scrambled the question numbers – where will you find the cross reference? p___________________ to p
______________________? Hint: back of the book!
8. If you haven’t already, its time to play the audio CD in the front of the book. Did you play it?
________________________________________________________

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 29

RULES AND REGULATIONS (p 21 – p 38)
1. When operating USB, how close to the top of the band may you operate? ______
2. How much power output on 60 meters? _________________________________
3. How much power output on 30 meters code and data band? _________________
4. With an Extra ticket, you gain authority in most ___________________countries.
5. Where is line A restriction for portions of 70 cm? _________________________
6. What type of control for a common repeater up on a mountainside? ____________
7. Where may repeater operation take place on 10 meters? ____________________
8. Minimum age limit to become a Volunteer Examiner? ______________________
9. What is issued to an examinee after passing a test element? __________________
10. Fraudulent exam results might cost a VE team their own ___________________?

PROPAGATION (p 39 – 54) BE (p 108 -119) Take the quiz for extra credit!
1. What are the two fields in an electromagnetic wave? _______________________
2. What is the polarization of an antenna whose ELECTRIC field is perpendicular to the surface of the earth?
______________________________________________
3. Which ham band provides great DX for nearly 24 hours? ___________________
4. Twilight conditions between two distant stations may lead to fantastic DX, called _________________
_________________ propagation?
5. Best band for a meteor scatter contact? __________________________________
6. What’s that “horn” you see in the sun photo on p 47? _______________________
7. A VHF/UHF contact, sometimes lasting for days between stations separated 2000 miles over the ocean is called
____________ ____________________________?
8. You tune in on a DX station on 14.120, who indicates they are listening “up 35”. Where should YOU transmit?
________________________________________

SATELLITE AND SPACE COMMUNICATIONS (p 55 – 66)

1. Which class of amateur license allows satellite communication? ______________
2. What band do you receive on for satellite mode V/U? ______________________
3. Why does a satellite signal tune in higher as it is coming up toward you from the horizon?
__________________________________________________________
4. What type of satellite appears in one steady position in the sky? ______________
5. Where might you find CW and data moon bounce communications on 2 meters?
__________________________________________________________________
6. The best time to complete a moon bounce contact is when the moon is at
_________________________________________________________________?

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 30

VISUAL AND VIDEO (p 67 – 76)
1. Amateurs still use analog ham radio TV transmissions. What is the name of the video signal that carries color
information? _______________________________
2. Ham analog video fast scan TV is wide! - ______________MHz . Where on high frequency is a reserved spot
for slow scan television? _________________MHz
3. On older oscilloscopes, if we exceed ____________________ we could cause the cathode ray tube to generate
X-rays.
4. What is the big benefit of a liquid crystal display? ________________________

DIGITAL (p 77 – 88) BE (p121 – 133) Take the quiz for extra credit!
1. What digital mode is common below 30 MHz? ___________________________
2. Which digital mode to transfer binary files? ______________________________
3. What is the formula to determine digital band width? _______________________
4. Watch this level when adjusting PSK31? ________________________________
5. How might we send our position over the air? ____________________________
6. What is the common 2 meter frequency for sending digital position bursts?
__________________________________________________________________
7. Spread spectrum transmissions are allowed above ____________________MHZ?
8. What is the maximum transmitter power for spread spectrum? ___________watts
9. What is the formula for calculating CW band width? _______________________
_____________________________________________________________________

MODULATION (p 89 -108) BE (p115 – 117) try the quiz on p 119

1. What is the formula for modulation index? __________________________________________________
2. What is the formula for deviation ratio? ____________________________________________________
3. What type of wave consists of a sine wave plus all ODD harmonics? ___________________ wave
4. What influences power output measured on your SSB peak reading watt meter? __________ characteristics
5. What is RMS voltage on your wall socket? ____________________________
6. What would be the Peak voltage on your wall socket? __________________
7. What stage can generate an FM phone emission? _______________________
8. How might we generate an SSB phone signal? _________________________
9. What does DSP stand for? _________ _____________ ________________
10. Which components in the upper arm of a filter will create low-pass? ______________________________
11. Which components in the upper arm of a filter will create high-pass? ______________________________
12. What is it called when too close proximity repeaters have signal mixes and create unwanted interference?
______________________________________
13. What are those large cans seen at repeater sites? ________________________

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 31

AMPLIFIERS & POWER SUPPLIES (p109 – 120) BE (p87 – 88, p17 -26)
1. Which amplifier class offers best linearity with least distortion? ______________
2. Which amplifier type eliminates even-order harmonics? ____________________
3. Which amplifier type offers best efficiency, but poor linearity? _______________
4. What is the process for preventing unwanted oscillations in a power amplifier?
__________________________________________________________________
5. What devices do we find at UHF for power amplifier applications? _________________________________
6. What device is used as a stable reference voltage in a linear voltage regulator? _________________________
7. What circuit is shown in figure E7-3? ___________________________________________
8. What is the purpose of a bleeder resister? ________________________________
9. Watch out for this component – it can store a LETHAL voltage, even after the circuit is turned off?
_________________________________________________

RECEIVERS & FILTERS (p121 – 138)

1. Which component in your radio develops the piezoelectric effect? ___________________________________
2. Which filter has no ripple and good attenuation beyond the passband? _________________________________
3. The rearranged formula for determining intermodulation interference, frequency 2?
____________________________________________________
4. Is -174 dBm great or fair for receiver sensitivity? ______________________
5. You SSB voice filter network has this selectivity or greater? __________ kHz
6. Where is most of the noise coming from over your high frequency station antenna system?
_________________________________________________
7. What device provides rectification and filtering of RF signals? _____________________________________
8. What occurs within the mixer circuit if you introduce excessive pre-amplification?
__________________________________________________
9. Noise blankers are good for eliminating this type of interference? _____________________________________
10. What does DSP stand for? ____________________________________________________________________

OSCILLATORS & SYNTHESIZERS (p139–148) BE (p98–100, 153–174

TOPICAL REFERENCE)
1. The oscillator that uses a quartz crystal? ___________________________
2. Common oscillator for VFOs? __________________________________
3. What does PLL stand for? ______________________________________
4. What does DDS stand for? ______________________________________
5. What are the unwanted components of DDS? _______________________

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 32

RESONANCE – Don’t Panic! (p149-181) BE (p54)
E = voltage L = inductance in a coil I = current C = capacitive reactance in a capacitor
1. I an ELI circuit, is it voltage or current LEADING? ____________________
2. In an ICE circuit, does current LEAD or LAG? ________________________
3. When working phase angle questions on the test, most correct answers start off with ______________ degrees?
4. A (+j) reactance is inductive or capacitive? ____________________________
5. A circuit (-j) is capacitive or reactive? ________________________________
6. What coordinate system may display the phase angle of circuits containing resistance, inductance and/or
capacitive reactance? _____________________
7. In polar coordinates, when inductive reactance cancels capacitive reactance, leading only to resistance in series,
what is the phase angle? ______degrees?
8. Formula to determine half-power bandwidth? ____________________________________________________
9. In a time constant circuit, how many time constants for a capacitor to be charged 63.2 per cent of the supply
voltage? _______________time constants
10. What page in the Gordo book allows you to visualize time constants? _______
11. As frequencies increase, RF current flows in a thinner layer of the conductor, close to the surface. What is this
called? _____________________________
12. What is the term for out-of-phase non-productive power within a coil or capacitor? _______________________
13. Formula for computing true power? _________________________________
14. Advantage of a toroidal core inductor? _______________________________

COMPONENTS (p 183- 193) BE (p 59 -84 topically) For extra credit,

complete the quiz for Chapter 4 BE

1. Draw a PNP transistor. _______________________________________________

2. Draw an N-channel dual gate mosfet ____________________________________
3. What diode amplifies and oscillates? ____________________________________
4. Draw a varactor diode _______________________________________________
5. Input voltage to a logic “low” in an old TTL device? _______________________
6. What is a MMIC? ___________________________________________________
7. MMIC devices require ____________________volts?

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 33

DIGITAL LOGIC & OPTOS (p195 – 212) BE (p121 – 150, p193 – 206
topically) Complete quiz for Chapter 11 for extra credit

1. Draw the symbol for an AND gate _____________________________________

2. You can spot an OR gate symbol by a ______________________on its nose.
3. A list of inputs and corresponding outputs for a digital device is called a ________________________.
4. This provides receiver calibration _____________________________________?
5. What does OP-AMP stand for? ________________________________________
6. Formula for the gain of an inverting IC OP-AMP? _________________________
7. Typical output impedance of an integrated circuit OP-AMP? _________________
8. The tuning shaft and LED shine through this device? _______________________
9. What absorbs energy when light shines on a photovoltaic cell? _______________

TEST EQUIPMENT (p213 -218)

1. This instrument shows frequencies on the horizontal axis____________________
2. This instrument indicates pulses in a digital logic circuit. ____________________
3. This instrument measures frequencies. __________________________________
4. An increase in current on an RF ammeter in series with the antenna feedline indicates less or more current to the
antenna? _____________________________
5. What type of meter shows a traditional needle movement? __________________

ANTENNAS (p219 – 236)

1. Do you want maximum or minimum radiation resistance of an antenna? _____________________________
2. What’s missing on an HF quarter wave antenna? _________________________
3. What provides the best RF ground to Earth? _____________________________
4. What provides the best RF ground aboard a sailboat? ______________________
5. What is the approximate feedpoint impedance of a half wave dipole? _________
6. What is the approximate feedpoint impedance of a folded dipole? ____________
7. What antenna has no gain in any direction? ______________________________
8. To improve radiation efficiency of a mobile antenna, add a _____________________ to increase top loading?
9. What antenna might produce patterns seen on page 229? ____________________
10. Increasing the boom length does what for a Yagi antenna? __________________

SAFETY (p 237 – 260)

1. What is one type of matching network to a Yagi antenna? ________________
2. What instrument allows you to test antenna resonance? __________________
3. What is the typical velocity factor of coax cable with a solid polyethylene dielectric? _____________________
4. P. 245, that little bird is sitting on which element of my stacked two meter Yagi? ________________________
5. Which chart allows you to calculate impedance along transmission lines? ______________________________

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 34

6. Why don’t we see more rhombics in downtown neighborhoods? ___________________________________
7. The bigger the dish, beamwidth ____________________________________?
8. What does SAR measure? _________________________________________
9. What type of direction finding requires multiple bearings at multiple locations? __________________________

CONGRATULATIONS ON COMPLETING YOUR PRESTUDY ASSIGNMENT!

Congratulations! You have completed your Extra Class home study workbook assignment.
Don’t worry if there are a couple of blanks in your paperwork. We hope you were able to find
MOST of the answers.

If you have a technical background, the Basic Electronics book goes into great detail in
specific areas of Extra Class study. These specific details may go well beyond the requirements
of your Extra Class exam, but this book should become a handy reference for you.

Bring your completed workbook to your Extra Class session. Your instructor will be very
impressed! If you were able to complete some of the quizzes in the Basic Electronics book,
bring these too – extra credit!

We look forward to hearing of your Extra Class examination success!

When you pass the examination, be sure to send for your FREE graduation certificate and
band charts. Page 272 gives you all the details.

I look forward to seeing or hearing you on the airwaves soon!

Gordon West
WB6NOA

Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 35

 Instructor’s Guide
For the Gordon West 2012-16 Extra Class

Written by: Gordon West, WB6NOA

Edited by: Pete Trotter, KB9SMG

Distributed by:
The W5YI Group, Inc.
Niles, Illinois 60714
800-669-9594
[Link]
[Link]

Extra Instructor’s Guide

Suggested Retail Price
$12.00
Gordon West’s Instructor’s Guide for 2012-16 Extra Class – Page 36