Hi Grant et al,

 

Thanks for the feedback. We appreciate the nice words about the new Tech Q & A book.  We also introduced the new Practice Exam Software in this edition.  We are all pleased with that product and we believe that it will make a real difference in exam preparation of our members.

 

 We will review your suggested modifications for the Web site.  As you probably know, we hired Dewey Rykard, KI4RGD, in Educational Services, Debra Johnson’s Department, about a month ago to provide additional instructor support.  Dewey will be doing more work on the instructor portion of the Web site, so we welcome any constructive feedback.  If you don’t object, I will forward your suggestions to both Debra Johnson and Dewey since they manage the content in this area.  Debra is out on vacation for a few days but she will contact you directly about your suggestions when she returns.

 

With regard to your questions about the Instructors Manual, yes, it is coming out 6 months after the Ham Radio License Manual (HRLM). The Instructors Manual is not usually this delayed.  We are sorry if this is has been a problem for you and your concerns are valid.  A number of factors contributed to the delay this time. 

 

·         First, we are using a new author, Jeff Cantor, K1ZN.  Jeff is an established author of instructional and educational books and an active Amateur. Mark Spencer, the previous author, notified us that he did not want to author another edition. It took us awhile to locate another author with both the Amateur Radio and the instructional background to complete this project.

 

·         Since we hired a new author, we took the opportunity to do some re-thinking about the book. Based on instructor’s comments, the structure and content have been modified, so that much of this edition will be new material.  It will be more focused and cover only the Technician License. We made this change because the combined General and Technician Instructors Manual got out of sync with the question pools that were changed in different years.

 

·         We do not publish the Instructor’s Manual until after we have prepared the HRLM.  We need to make sure that the content is consistent between the two because The Instructors Manual’s content is based on the HRLM. The author of the Instructor’s Manual usually does not begin final writing until the HRLM is finished.

 

·         For your information, the total distribution for the Instructors manual is listed below.  The free distribution is for instructors under the Instructor Discount Program,

 

Year

Total Distribution

Sold

Free Distribution

2007

                           1,053

                               769

                               284

2008

                           1,172

                               804

                               368

2009

                               702

                               468

                               234

 

 

 

·         To compare, we sold over 21,000 copies of the HRLM in 2009 and 22,500 in 2008.

 

·         There has been an announcement of the Instructors Manual delay on our Web site located here. 

 

Since we will have an established author and a published model/template to follow for subsequent editions of the Instructors Manual, we should be able to get future editions out the door quicker than this one.

 

73,

 

Harold

 

 

 

Harold Kramer, WJ1B

Chief Operating Officer

ARRL -the national association for Amateur Radio

225 Main Street

Newington, CT 06111

(860) 594 -0220