[Antennas] A message of explaination

[David J. Ring, Jr.]

Hello Sean,

I'm sorry that you got that remark.  If it was meant in a mean spirited way 
it should have been made.

There is however another explaination for the remark:  Shock.

I just wanted to explain perhaps why someone would give that comment and be 
shocked.

I think rather than mean spirited the person who said this was in shock or 
let's give him the benefit of the doubt.

Here is why he would have been in shock.

The knowledge required by the Extra class license has always been at the 
expert level - at the same level of testing as commercial radio operators 
which was at the expert level TV and radio stations, radar and so forth.

I know because I tried to take the Extra test in 1967 with the knowledge 
required of a General and reading QST and the handbook from cover to cover 
and most of the antenna book except for the advanced math section.  I 
struggle with advanced calculus to this day.

I was totally unprepared for what was in the test.  The scope of it 
astonished me.  This was an expert's test - at the same level as the 
commercial radiotelephone and radiotelegraph licenses.

Basically the Extra requires you to be an expert on any and all pieces of 
amateur equipment and mode available down to the component level and the 
theory and practice (construction, repairs, maintance and operation).  You 
were tested on everything that there was to be known about the subjects from 
d.c. to microwaves, and every mode type of transmitter and receiver of every 
mode authorized by the FCC and the rules and the regulations both FCC and 
ITU.  The questions could be taken from any portion, so you had to know them 
all.

To learn the subject matter, I basically had to read and understand every 
book published about amateur radio in the United States - including the West 
Coast Handbook - which I hadn't even heard of - which gets even more 
advanced than the ARRL publications.

Even after I did read an understand that, there were about three questions 
which were very esoteric.

To this date with the material required for the Extra, I have never 
encountered a topic in any discussion or in any publication that I didn't 
throughly understand except for the advanced calculus in transmission line 
theory and Fornier transforms.  I know what they do, but I cannot come up 
with the answer by calculus, I can only measure it with equipment, but 
fortunately doing it trumps calculating it.

The morse examination also was at an expert level it was at the same speed 
as commercial operators - 20 wpm English text to be copied by hand and 
legibly to the instructor every character at least one minute.  You also had 
to send perfectly at least for one minute with a hand key at the same speed. 
I can still do 23 wpm even with severe arthritus and severe knucke 
malformation (birth defect).  That also keeps my copying speed at around 40 
wpm on paper with no errors, above 45 I frequently jam the keys.  At 55 wpm 
I can manage to copy about 3/4 of a minute - but with regular errors that 
exceeds the one per minute.  That is a lot of work for me.

I know that the Extra (at least in 1967) was at the same knowledge level as 
the commercial exams because I currently hold the Amateur Extra, first-class 
radiotelephone and first-class radiotelegraph license with radar 
endorsement.

This doesn't seem to be happening today.  My guess it is because successful 
candidates just have to memorize the answers and not study the material from 
which questions were drawn.

In other words:  The knowledge at the expert level which would have produced 
a correct answer seems to be lacking.

Certainly you were tested on radiation patterns, colinear and broadside 
arrays and phasing methods when you took your Extra, weren't you?  I loved 
showing how the tilt angle on rhombics reinforced the radiation from the 
four sides of the diamond.  You remember that, right? It was so cool.

Perhaps you asked a question which showed you didn't know at the expert 
level a subject for which you were tested.

I was shocked when I heard what some Extras know or could do.  First the 
high standards for professional level morse code came down, then the code 
test was changed from pencil copy to multiple choice and later questions. 
The sending test was eliminated.  The result was that people who got credit 
for the Extra code test could barely comprehend 10 wpm.  There even were 
commercial operators who got credit for their commercial ticket (another 
late rule change) from having their Extra.  This fellow couldn't copy 10 wpm 
and couldn't keep a log of the traffic on 500 kHz (required by law).  He 
wasn't at expert's level at all - he wasn't even at the old 13 wpm General 
Amateur Level but due to FCC rule changes, he passed the exam for Extra and 
was granted credit for the entire commercial test - which required copy at 
20 wpm English, 16 gpm (equal to 20 wpm) code groups of random letters.

I don't think the subject breadth of the Extra theory has changed in scope - 
the problem is that people can pass the test without being experts in their 
field by learning the exact questions and answers.

73

David Ring, N1EA