Becoming a VE

At JawnCon 0x1, Amateur radio licensing exams were provided with a one day crash course by KB6NU. I was asked to help with the license exams, but I had not done the work to become a VE. I had not done the work to become a VE, because I didn't see the value in it.

But that is the value. I've cleared the line of being a curmudgeon in Amateur Radio. In my opinion, if you have made it to the point where you are the curmudgeon, it's imperative upon you to make sure that the pipeline for future curmudgeons exist and that you participate in it.

When I took the amateur radio exams, it was all through the ARRL VEC. I did not like certain aspects of that VEC, but I didn't really understand that others existed. It was also long ago on sheets of paper with overlay templates for answers.

First, the Laurel VEC is much closer to where I stand philosophically on the process of doing ham exams. Making the testing process free lowers the bar to entry to not being financial, but shown capability.

Second, the collection of tools from Signal Stuff, including hamstudy.org and the https://exam.tools are vastly streamlined method of managing the process of testing and producing paperwork. At this point, I don't think I would agree to be a VE for a session not using exam.tools.

There's another step in here, where I move up the chain from being a VE to being the person in charge of all the paperwork. I think I'll eventually make it there, but first I need to find some local VE sessions that I can volunteer at, and get a little more experience with more than one team.

Because sometimes, you have to build the ladder for those that will replace you.