Pull Up a Chair: How I Built Ask Elmer

In ham radio, an Elmer is the experienced ham who helps a newcomer get on the air, answering questions, explaining the hard parts and talking them through a first contact.

Ask Elmer is my attempt to put that into a website: a study site and workbook for the US amateur radio license exams, with animated lessons, a grandfatherly narrator and a few games to keep it fun.

Why build it at all

When I got into ham radio, there was no one place that was easy to read, explained things and showed me the rest of the hobby. I got interested after randomly finding a YouTube video of Josh from Ham Radio Crash Course showing how to send an email wirelessly, without Wi-Fi. I was hooked on that fact alone. So I started searching for everything and discovered a multitude of things along the way. To study, I read parts of a book and used an app to memorize the questions. That worked for me.

My nephew was also interested in the hobby, so we decided to study a bit together and take the test at the same time. I passed, but my nephew didn’t fare so well. Memorizing a question pool isn’t intuitive or captivating without some background in electronics or radio. I wanted to change that for anyone curious about the hobby.

Other study apps showed me the test prep was doable, since the entire question pool for each exam is published openly. However, nothing in those practice apps explained the concepts to me, and every question sat out of context. You’re left piecing it together from a dozen sources, or from a book that may teach things in a different order.

Books are the traditional way in, but for beginners they can feel dry and overwhelming. So I had a vision of a simple narrated lesson for every question, one that gives it context you can relate to.

Finding the name

I originally set out to build a general study app, with ham radio as one of many topics. The working names, like StudyLoop, fit that idea.

The deeper I got, the clearer it was that this had to be more than another study app or test prep site. It was becoming a workbook of projects, topics and tools, and the study app names no longer fit.

Then “Ask Elmer” clicked. It fit ham radio, and it said what I wanted the site to be: a patient, trusted source for people starting their ham journey. Everything I built after that followed that principle.

Building it with AI

I’ve used AI for over a year at work and at home, from small modules that automate hex conversions and checksums to converting whole touchscreen interfaces to HTML. It has improved dramatically in the last few months, but it still needs exacting specifications. AI can’t build without a blueprint. You have to be that blueprint, or provide it.

The study app was originally meant to take any subject, write a lesson plan and create multiple-choice questions. But I wanted a proof of concept first, and the ham radio exam was the perfect test: a finite question pool, all of it public.

After a long weekend I had a basic webpage that showed multiple-choice questions and let you pick an answer. I thought we were halfway there. Nope. That was about 1% of the work. What I really needed was a site that could build and update:

• Question pools, as they change every four years
• Narrated lessons and skits
• Games, tools and other modules
• Checks that all of it stays accurate and easy to understand

Consistency was the hard part. Every answer was checked against the official answer key, every calculation was checked in code, and the lessons went through several rounds of independent review against FCC and NCVEC sources. A licensed ham still needs to read it all, so the content is going out to other hams and instructors for a second look.

And guess what? We’re still not done. But we’re close enough for people to get a real sense of the site and help improve it for the community and future hams.

Meet the cast

Lessons need a teacher, so Elmer got a cast for intros, reviews and skits. Elmer, an old-timer, narrates the lessons, and his buddy Gus and granddaughter Penny join him.

When a character gets something wrong in a skit, it’s slapstick for a laugh. The teaching itself stays correct.

For the General course the cast grows up a bit, with new adult characters around the radio club, since General students usually aren’t kids anymore.

If the fun isn’t your thing, you can turn off the videos, or use a streamlined study mode where you only get a lesson after you miss a question. Even without the videos and games, the site’s learning metrics still help make sure you’re ready for the test.

More than test prep

Radio is signals bouncing off the ionosphere, waves on a wire and satellites crossing the sky, so the lessons needed to move. Each of the roughly 70 concepts got an animated explainer, with radios, towers and signals moving across the screen while Elmer talks you through it.

The more I built, the more useful Ask Elmer became beyond the test. Reference material, life on the air, a Morse trainer and antenna building guides are all things I wish I’d found in one place when I started. So they went in:

• The arcade: Morse copy and send, solar-cycle band hopping, a 3D VHF fox hunt, satellite tracking and a “cut to resonance” antenna game. Pass a section and Elmer gives you a task that unlocks the next game.
• The workshop: antenna builders and shack calculators you’ll use after you pass.
• On the air: ten lessons on what to do once you’re licensed.
• A readiness view: shows which topics you’ve nailed and which need another pass before test day.

Beyond flash cards

I think our hobby has a great opportunity right now to become better than ever. New radios, innovations and makers are creating a great space to learn and explore, from 3D-printed accessories to compact QRP radios like the QMX to handhelds modified for CW, which have built a cult-like following among BKG members. There’s never been a better time to get more people involved.

For over a decade, I’ve designed and implemented classroom technology that supports many different teaching approaches. Education has largely moved from chalkboard memorization toward student-centered, active learning, and that’s part of what I want Ask Elmer to bring to ham radio.

We’re building a teaching model for clubs that teach classes to members, new members and the public. Use it however you like, but our vision brings a few modern ideas to a live ham radio class:

1. In-class or online learning on any platform.
2. Instructor metrics showing which topics need the most review, for the whole class or each student.
3. Live, anonymous phone voting, in class or online, so everyone can review together.
4. A hybrid flipped classroom. Students work through subelement lessons at their own pace, the class reviews the concepts they missed, and the rest of the session goes to a hands-on project.
5. A way for students to ask an instructor directly for help.
6. Gamification for game-based learning.

What’s next, and how you can help

More videos are on the way for the General and Extra courses, and we’re still perfecting the tools for clubs to teach classes live and online. We’re also building more ways for experienced hams to share what they know.

If you’re a club, an instructor or a Volunteer Examiner, I’d love your help:

• Apply for beta access, then send ideas, gripes and corrections through the on-screen robot for our team to review or fix
• Try the lessons and tell me where they’re unclear or wrong
• Let me know if your club would teach a class with it
• Support us by buying me a coffee

Ask Elmer is our way of contributing to the advancement of the radio art. Pull up a chair, and let’s get you on the air.

73,
Ted, N0TNT