ARRL Certification and Continuing Education course registration

Is that course is usefull and most design oriented?

I had my degree in Electronics and I wish to develope my design skills.

Is that course usefull to me ?

ARRL is the American Radio Relay League and it is the US National organization of Amateur Radio Operators. Do not confuse the word Amateur with skill level and knowledge. Many Amateur Radio operators are also professional engineers, technicians, and designers. Some of the courses would be appropriate for someone with basic electronics knowledge wishing to expand their knowledge base, especially with a slant towards Radio Frequency (RF) communications, data transfer, and control.

I have not taken any of these courses personally, but as a graduate engineer and a licensed Amateur Radio operator, here is my take on the courses listed:

The ARRL Ham Radio License Course (EC-010), would be good for someone with little or no knowledge of electronics, especially if you want to pursue an FCC Amateur Radio license in the USA.

Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Level 1 (EC-001), would deal mostly with the operational aspects of Emergency Communications, especially operating methods, message handling, equipment selection, facilities, protocols, intra-agency interaction, etc. This would likely NOT include any electronics design.

Radio Frequency Interference (EC-006), would be aimed at problems of RF signals from different radio/television/data services interfering with each other and what methods, operational and electronic, could be used to reduce or eliminate such interference. Again, not likely much in the way of electronics design, except possibly information on RF filtering and tuned circuits. The pre-requisites include have an amateur radio license with High Frequency (HF, or shortwave) priveleges and an HF transceiver. This would be more of a practical methods course.

Antenna Design and Construction (EC-009),...well, the name pretty much says it all.

Analog Electronics (EC-012), should be a pretty in-depth look at analog (non-digital) circuit design. Would probably be a good refresher if you already have a background in electronics. Might show you a few things in RF design if you did not previously have a background there. The description says it has 16 units and most lessons include a design problem and optonal construction project.

Digital Electronics (EC-013). Should be a fairly up-to-date look at digital circuits and digital devices, especially how they might be used in RF applications. Of all the courses, this would likely be the one of most interest to someone looking to expand his electronics knowledge, unless you already had a strong digital background. Then it would likely be only a good refresher, with maybe an interestingly new slant towards design with RF considerations in mind. This is from the course description:

"In 16 learning units the student will learn about Basic Boolean, Basic Gates, Flip-Flops, Counters and Shift Registers, Latches, Buffers and Drivers, Encoders and Decoders, Parallel Interfaces, Serial Interfaces, Input Devices, Displays, Logic Families, Microprocessor Basics, Connecting to Analog Electronics, Understanding Data Sheets and Design Resources. Most lessons include a design problem and optional construction project."

Depending on what your degree is, and what classes you studied to get your degree, it may or may not. I think these classes are designed for non-professional "Hams" to learn about Electronics.

The digital electronics section for example, includes stuff I learned as a sophomore in college (back in the '60s).

Now if you are a BSEE or equivalent (and new) and want to get into the nuts and volts of the stuff, it might be beneficial to you... I say this due to the descriptions from #1.

If you know the complexities of the fast fourier transform (including the spectral folding involved, and the factor of power of two)... then this will do nothing for you... This is getting into HEAVY engineering and mathematical stuff. The classes will not give you a MSEE.

BUT!! If you would like to meet some great people, get into ham radio. Hey!! It is alot of fun. Maybe that is why I am still doing it after 50 years.

73's de

Bill NW7L

Bill wrote

BUT!! If you would like to meet some great people, get into ham radio. Hey!! It is alot of fun. Maybe that is why I am still doing it after 50 years.

73's de

Bill NW7L

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follow this links to see some of the fun

http://www.intio.or.jp/jf10zl/

http://www.nitehawk.com/rasmit/ws1_1.html

www.issfanclub.com

http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/ariss/

http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/index.php

http://eme.dokidoki.ne.jp/photo/7k3lgc/index.html

http://www.nlsa.com/

www.qrz.com

www.eham.net

and one more link if ur new to this great hobby (service)

http://www.hello-radio.org/