My wife got me hooked on the better made HP calculators and RPN back in 1979. I used my old HP-33e from that era this last week on my general exam. It looks like with the push to use this standard TI calculator for the extra exam I will have to go back to my TI days. I do wish at least that their keyboards were better.
John, if you can work log and basic trig functions on that HP-33e, you're all set. The main reasons I "push" the TI-30XS are 1) It's commonly available at a reasonable price -- usually around $20, $15 during back-to-school sales -- and 2) the multiview display really makes things clear, at least for many people. And, frankly, the books would get impossibly unwieldy if I included step-by-steps for several different calculators. Congratulations on passing General, and enjoy the journey toward Extra! 73 DE AF7KB
AF7KB Fast Track Thanks much. I’m playing around with this TI 30xs ... if only they built them like they used to. My HP and the RPN entry make it uniquely easy to do rectangular to polar coordinate conversion; potentially bypasssing some of the arc tangent stuff . Do you think this is worthwhile for the extra exam (and for life’s great antenna challenges in general ) ? Or should i buckle down and do the trigonometry .
At our little company, we're deep into "whatever works." If you already grasp polar/rectangular conversions, I predict you won't be terribly challenged by the math in the Extra course. Really, aside from one formula with arctan and another with cosine, I'm pretty sure it's all add/subtract/multiply/divide/square root. Truth is, one could probably ace the exam with a calculator from the Dollar Store if they memorized the answers to the phase angle and power factor questions. So I'd say, by all means, use the calculator you know and with which you are comfortable. That course is challenging enough as it is without adding more challenge. We didn't get into this hobby to suffer, and we don't think anyone else should either! 73 DE AF7KB
Hi, Dan. The TI36x Pro looks like a great calculator. It includes some calculus functions that are handy if you're doing calculus, but unnecessary for the ham exams, if those are your focus. We built all our ham math teaching materials around the TI-30XS because it's widely available, affordable, and "exam legal" for everything from the ham exams to the GMAT and more. It also doesn't hurt that we have software from TI that lets us reproduce the 30XS screen and keys!
My wife got me hooked on the better made HP calculators and RPN back in 1979. I used my old HP-33e from that era this last week on my general exam. It looks like with the push to use this standard TI calculator for the extra exam I will have to go back to my TI days. I do wish at least that their keyboards were better.
John, if you can work log and basic trig functions on that HP-33e, you're all set. The main reasons I "push" the TI-30XS are 1) It's commonly available at a reasonable price -- usually around $20, $15 during back-to-school sales -- and 2) the multiview display really makes things clear, at least for many people. And, frankly, the books would get impossibly unwieldy if I included step-by-steps for several different calculators. Congratulations on passing General, and enjoy the journey toward Extra! 73 DE AF7KB
AF7KB Fast Track Thanks much. I’m playing around with this TI 30xs ... if only they built them like they used to. My HP and the RPN entry make it uniquely easy to do rectangular to polar coordinate conversion; potentially bypasssing some of the arc tangent stuff . Do you think this is worthwhile for the extra exam (and for life’s great antenna challenges in general ) ? Or should i buckle down and do the trigonometry .
At our little company, we're deep into "whatever works." If you already grasp polar/rectangular conversions, I predict you won't be terribly challenged by the math in the Extra course. Really, aside from one formula with arctan and another with cosine, I'm pretty sure it's all add/subtract/multiply/divide/square root. Truth is, one could probably ace the exam with a calculator from the Dollar Store if they memorized the answers to the phase angle and power factor questions. So I'd say, by all means, use the calculator you know and with which you are comfortable. That course is challenging enough as it is without adding more challenge. We didn't get into this hobby to suffer, and we don't think anyone else should either! 73 DE AF7KB
Have to put up my TI-89 for the Extra Test, however, I'm starting to like the 30sx
Thoughts on the TI36x Pro?
Hi, Dan. The TI36x Pro looks like a great calculator. It includes some calculus functions that are handy if you're doing calculus, but unnecessary for the ham exams, if those are your focus.
We built all our ham math teaching materials around the TI-30XS because it's widely available, affordable, and "exam legal" for everything from the ham exams to the GMAT and more. It also doesn't hurt that we have software from TI that lets us reproduce the 30XS screen and keys!
Bought the General Math & a TI 30XS - Don't want to be a "PermaTech"!!