[ARC5] Bash Hams from 1980

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

On 21 Dec 2012 at 13:09, Mike Morrow wrote:

> Regardless of the FCC exam era, it is my opinion that only the Morse
> test represented any achievement in passing a ham exam.  The same
> thing applies to the old commercial Radiotelephone First Class license
> versus the commercial Radiotelegraph license of *any* class, before
> the FCC punted in the mid-1990s by allowing commercial Morse exam
> credit from the far far less strenuous ham Extra Morse exam. 

Well, I don't know about that: sometime in the 1960s, I went over from 
Missoula, Montana where I lived for 30 years, to Seattle, Washington, which 
was our closest "quarterly examining point" to upgrade from my Conditional 
Class license, which I had held since about 1957.

I went into the FCC office as soon as it opened, and took and passed the 1st 
Class Radio Telephone exam in its entirety, the 2nd Class Radio Telegraph 
(again, in its entirety), and since I had a Conditional Class Amateur License, 
the General, Advanced, and Extra exams.

Of all those examinations I took the very most difficult one and the most 
technically challenging was the Amateur Extra.

The 20 WPM code test I took was absolutely identical for both the 
commercial radio telegraph license and the amateur extra. In fact, there was 
a marine radio officer retaking his code test at the same session since he 
had accidentally let his license lapse and had to retake the test. Of course he 
passed with no problem.

When I finally left the FCC office late in the afternoon (as I remember it, the 
office was closing), I had passed all elements and had a splitting headache.

At that time, the exam for Amateur Extra was the most difficult.

Ken W7EKB