Larry D. Wolfgang has been Assistant Technical Editor and then Senior Assistant Technical Editor with The American Radio Relay League, in Newington, CT since June 1981. ARRL is “the national association of Amateur Radio operators”® in the US. During his 34-1/2 years with ARRL, Larry had been the editor of the popular Hints & Kinks column and later the Technical Correspondence column in the monthly membership journal, QST. Larry’s Amateur Radio call sign is WR1B.

When the Federal Communications Commission created the Volunteer Examiner Coordinator system and decided to create banks of questions for the Amateur Radio license exams in 1982, Larry was involved with creating and reviewing questions for the Novice, Technician, General, Advanced and Amateur Extra Class licenses. As this new examination system began to take shape, it became clear that ARRL would need to revamp their license preparation materials. Using his teaching background and credentials, Larry took on the task of heading up that effort. Over the course  of the next few years Larry planned a series of ARRL License Manuals and then edited the existing study materials and wrote new material to supplement the explanations of the material to meet the exam syllabi. The ARRL’s Novice study book, Tune in the World with Ham Radio, became Now You’re Talking! when Novice licensees gained voice privileges on the Amateur 10 meter band. The ARRL Technician/General Class License Manual, Advanced Class License Manual, and the Amateur Extra Class License Manual were the results of Larry’s work.

In addition to these License Manuals, ARRL also produced Morse code training materials (at the time on cassette tapes) for the 5 word per minute, 13 word per minute and 20 word per minute Morse code exams that were a required part of the license exam process. Again, Larry used his teaching experience to create a new series of Morse code training materials, starting with Learning the Morse Code for the 5 wpm exam and then two sets of Increasing Your Code Speed for the 13 wpm and 20 wpm exams. These began as sets of two cassette tapes, but audio CDs were quickly added as that technology became popular.

Larry also worked with an independent vendor to create a computer program to teach the Morse code and then lead right in to higher speed practice.

When ARRL was contacted by John and Martha King of King Schools, best known pilot training programs about creating a series of Amateur Radio License videos, Larry was selected as the technical consultant. Larry spent many hours on the phone with John and Martha, and other Kings Schools staff members explaining the finer points and technical details of the Amateur Radio license exams.