[Antennas] A message of explaination

[Harvey&Bessie]

David J. Ring, Jr. wrote:

>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
>
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>
>  
>
To which I say AMEN!
W4TG (1965 Extra + Radiotelegraph 2nd and Radiotelephone 1st)