AARC

Saturday, April 12th, 2008 marked an historic event at the Anne Arundel Radio Club's clubhouse when the two youngest Volunteer Examiners (VE) accredited by the Laurel amateur Radio Club Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (Laurel VEC) and maybe the USA, and the oldest VE accredited by the Laurel VEC and maybe the USA, took part in the AARC's regularly scheduled Amateur Radio License Exam session.

Andrew Kelly (K3ASK), who turned 18 in January of this year, and Ryan Rose (AE3RR), who turned 18 earlier this month, and Margaret "Holly" Bevan (N3MB) who turned 92 last month, are believed to be the youngest and oldest VEs accredited by the Laurel VEC and may be the youngest and oldest VEs in the USA on this date.

Holly was first licensed as a Novice through the AARC's Novice licensing course in 1979. She became a VE in 1993. She has been a regular member of the VE Team, serving as it's "Goodwill Ambassador" by greeting every applicant as they come through the clubhouse door and helping them through the registration process.

Andrew became a ham on 13 May 2002 (KB3ICD) and earned his Amateur Extra license in July 2003. Andrew was the first member of AARC Jr (the "Kids Club") to go from Technician to Amateur Extra.

Ryan became a ham (KB3DVA) through the AARC's Novice licensing course in April 1999 and earned his Amateur Extra ticket in April 2004.

Since acquiring their Amateur Extra licenses, Ryan and Andrew have helped with the AARC's exam sessions in non-VE roles which made their transisition pretty uneventful despite the historical implications. Both boys were pretty unimpressed with the hype assoicated with this event.

During the exam session today, Andrew and Ryan graded exams, and with Holly, were certifying VEs on the last successful exam of the session. Who knows... that CSCE could be a valuable collectors item!

Andrew is the son of Steve (K3BAY) and Jackie (K3JMK) and Ryan is the son of Bob (AA3RR) and Brenda (KB3ATI).

Pictures will be uploaded soon!

Here are the test results from this month's test session:

We had 11 applicants show up but only 10 were there for testing. The other was there to get her license renewed.

We administered 14 exams to 10 applicants:

5 Element 2 (Technician) exams with three passes.
The two failures on the element 2 exam were the first in nine AARC exam sessions going back to Aug 2007.
4 Element 3 (General) exams with three passes
5 Element 4 (Amateur Extra) exams with three passes

The exams resulted in three new hams (2 x Tech and 1 x General), 2 upgrades to General, and three upgrades to Amateur Extra. The overall pass rate was 64.3% and the upgrade rate was 70%

Congratulations to:

William Hamilton - New Ham - Technician
David Hardy - New Ham - General
Murray Hunt - KB3LZV - Upgrade to General
Mark Wecht - N3YPL - Upgrade to Amateur Extra
Alan Kealy - KA3KQM - Upgrade to Amateur Extra
Brandon Vier - KD5HDA - Upgrade to Amateur Extra
John Bremer - New Ham - Technician

Questions or comments?

73
Bob/AA3RR