[ARC5] US Morse Exam History...Commercial versus mateur (OT)

[Mike Morrow]

Ken wrote:

> 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.

Aye, there's the rub!  That commercial telegraph examinee was less than
half-way past the Morse testing required for the commercial telegraph license,
with a much more difficult part (for most) yet to come.

The commercial Radiotelegraph Third and Second Class licenses has had the same
Morse exam requirements since the mid-1930s, requiring both of two very different
tests administered in this order:

A.  20-WPM Plain-Language Including Punctuation 
Five minutes copy with one minute (100 consecutive characters) perfect copy.
Five minutes send with one minute (100 consecutive characters) perfect copy.

       PLUS

B.  16-WPM Five-Character Alphanumeric Random Code Groups 
Five minutes copy with one minute (80 consecutive characters) perfect copy.
Five minutes send with one minute (80 consecutive characters) perfect copy.

Most find the 20-wpm plain language test to be child's play compared
to the 16-wpm code group test.  Five errors in an otherwise perfect copy
of the the 400 characters sent can be enough to cause failure.  There's no
way to look at what has been copied to correct or complete the copy.  Code
group copy, even at a 16-wpm snail's pace, can be rather difficult until
one becomes an unthinking copy machine automaton who automatically and 
reflexively can write/type the correct character.  Typewriters and speed
keys were not allowed for these exams unless the 25-wpm plain language/
20-wpm code group tests were being taken for the First Class license or
the Aircraft Radiotelegraph (Element 7) endorsement.  Semi-auto keys
and typewriters were limited to only the 25-wpm portion.  Sending
20-wpm faultless code on a straight key isn't much fun, even for the
required five minutes.

I personally would prefer to take several plain language Morse exams
at 30 wpm rather than one code group exam at 15 wpm if code group perfect
copy is required.  I made more than one 480-mile round trip to the Kansas
City FCC office before I passed the code group test, yet never had the
slightest difficulty with 20-wpm plain language test given just before
it.  I'd have loved a modern MFJ-418 Code Tutor for code group practice
on the long drive up to KC! :-)

Extra Class ham Morse exams have *always* been far less taxing.

Originally (1951 and later):
20 WPM Plain Language Including Limited Punctuation 
Five minutes copy with one minute (100 consecutive characters) perfect copy.
Five minutes send with one minute (100 consecutive characters) perfect copy.

Over the years by the mid-1960s, some FCC examiners "unofficially"
dropped the sending test for the ham tests.

In the late 1970s the FCC changed the passing criteria, basing it
on ten fill-in-blank questions rather than on "one minute perfect
copy".  The text was in typical ham QSO format, and the sending test
was officially dropped.  In the early 1980s, the FCC further altered
the exam to ten multiple-choice questions where the correct answer to
each question required knowledge of two items from the sent text.

In the early 1990s, the FCC reduced their work-load required for the
rarely administered commercial Radiotelegraph Third and Second Class
license Morse exams by allowing credit for the commercial Morse
exams if a ham Extra was held.  This was a gross drop in the standards
formerly required for a commercial telegraph license.

I dropped my Radiotelegraph Second Class license after that, even
though a couple of years earlier I had received a solicitation
from a US maritime radio operator union in response to reactivation
of some US commercial maritime assets that needed US radio officers.

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

That must refer to the written exam.  The *total* Morse exam process was
always much less difficult for the ham Extra exam.

The written exams for the commercial telegraph license (elements 1, 2,
and 5 for the Third Class, plus element 6 for the Second and First
Class, plus element 8 for the Ship Radar endorsement) were not terribly
difficult, but they were quite different in flavor from ham Extra
and even the commercial radiotelephone exams...much older and almost
totally vacuum-tube or earlier technology.  When I took my telegraph
exams 32 years ago, the exam for advanced radiotelegraph (element 6)
was dated twenty years before that.  Ten of its 100 questions required
schematic drawing/completion and short written answers.  There was very
little solid-state exam matter, and there was even some exam material
on crystal receivers for emergency use found in old marine radio
installations.
 
It's been a really long time since ham written exams were anything
but all multiple-choice questions.  The subject matter for the ham
written exams was much more contemporary.

73,
Mike / KK5F