Hi, I wanted to let you know that the new ARRL Instructor's Manual for Technician Class License Courses is now available. Mark Spencer wrote the book. You should be receiving your copy shortly. I discussed this book in my December Inside HQ column in QST. The Manual's organization and content was based on the work of the Educational Materials/Methods Task Force. The Task Force included Joyce Birmingham, Shelly Bloom, Steve Ford, Twila Greenheck, Joel Hallas, Debra Johnson, Mark Spencer, and Rosalie White. Debra led the Task Force that was an outgrowth of the Growth Task Force initiative. We also incorporated input from the instructors themselves. We conducted an on-line survey asking them about their requirements and needs. Over 800 instructors responded to this survey with valuable inputs and comments. The Manual itself is divided into Sections that correlate with The Ham Radio License Manual (HRLM) so that instructors can use the HRLM together with the Instructor's Manual as an integrated instructional system. Each Section contains detailed Lesson Plans including Learning Objectives, Study Materials, Equipment and Materials requirements, Recommended Instructional Strategies and Suggested Classroom Activities. The new book also contains a guide on preparation to teach amateur radio written by Peter Kemp KZ1Z as well as practice exams and Lesson Plans for CW instruction.

From the survey, we also heard loud and clear that our instructors want interactive and graphic materials included with the manual. Therefore, the book comes with a CD that has complete PowerPoint Lesson Presentations for each section, ExamWin Software for practice tests, and files of the graphics in the HRLM. To give you an idea of the type of material that we have included, I am attaching one of the sample Lesson Plans.

An instructor using this book and CD with the HRLM has a complete and comprehensive Technician Class licensing course available to them. The course also correlates with the On-Line Technician Licensing course. This curriculum alignment between all of our Technician Licensing products provides uniformity of curriculum and more uniformity of instruction in the field. We are all proud of this new book. We believe that it will make a difference in the quality of our instruction. Thanks again to all who were involved in its production. 73, Harold . Harold Kramer, WJ1B Chief Operating Officer ARRL - The National Association for Amateur Radio 225 Main Street Newington, CT 06111 860 594 0220 www.arrl.org/ hkramer@arrl.org