Last July, the National Council of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (NCVEC) released a new question pool for General Class license examinations. Shortly after, the ARRL (and others) came out with a new license manual. That meant, of course, that I had to come up with a new outline for my General Class license course.

The new outline is below. One thing I notice about the new manual is that it seems to be better organized than the previous one. I would have organized Chapter 4: Components and Circuits a bit differently, but overall, I like this manual better than the old one.

WEEK 1
Introduction

• Why get a General Class ticket?
• Text: The ARRL General Class License Manual, ISBN 0-87259-996-5
• KB6NU’s No-Nonsense Study Guide

DC Circuits - Section 4.1

• voltage
• current
• resistance
• Ohm’s Law

AC Waveforms - Section 4.1

• peak voltage
• peak-to-peak voltage
• RMS voltage
• wavelength
• frequency

Power - Section 4.2

• deciBels
• peak envelope power (PEP)

WEEK 2
Circuit Components - Section 4.3

• circuit parameters
• resistors
• inductors
• capacitors
• transformers
• vacuum tubes

Series and Parallel Circuits - Section 4.3

• Kirchoff’s Laws
• capacitive reactance
• inductive reactance

Impedance - Section 4.4

• resonance
• impedance matching

WEEK 3
Solid-State Components - Section 4.5

• diodes
• transistors
• integrated circuits
• microprocessors

Practical Circuits - Section 4.6

• power supply circuits
• batteries, alternative power
• connectors

Test Equipment - Section 4.7

WEEK 4
Amplitude Modulaton, Angle Modulation - Section 5.1
Digital Modulation - Section 5.2
Radio Building Blocks - Section 5.3

WEEK 5
Transmitters - Section 5.4
Receivers - Section 5.6
The HF Station - Section 5.7

WEEK 6
Antenna Basics - Section 6.1
Dipoles, Ground Planes, and Random Wire Antennas - Section 6.2
Yagi Antennas - Section 6.3
Loop Antennas - Section 6.4
Specialized Antennas - Section 6.5
Feedlines - Section 6.6

• standing wave ratio (SWR)
• impedance matching
• losses

The Ionosphere - Section 7.1
The Sun - Section 7.2
Scatter Modes - Section 7.3

WEEK 7
Basic Operating Procedures- Section 2.1
Digital Modes - Section 2.2
Nets and Emergency Operation - Section 2.3
Regulatory Bodies - Section 3.1
Licensing Rules - Section 3.2
Control Operators and Their Responsibilities - Section 3.3
Technical Rules and Standards - Section 3.4

WEEK 8
Electrical Safety - Section 8.1
RF Exposure - Section 8.2
Outdoor Safety - Section 8.3
Exam Review

I’ll be adding more detail to the outline as I go along.