[ARC5] Bash Hams from 1980

[Sandy]

Hello All:

I got my 2nd Class Ship Telegraph license in the late 60's.  One of the
techs were we worked and I who were both General Class Amateurs (My ticket
dates back to 1951 when I took a Novice test, Technician test and the
General in 1952.)  We took the Amateur Extra as a "warm up", as the code
test practically identical to the 20 WPM plain language test of 2nd
Telegraph.  We both passed and then immediately filed to take the 2nd
Telegraph as well on the same day. We were both successful in passing the
three CW tests and the Theory and regulations tests for both Extra and 2nd
Class Telegraph.  In those days the 2nd Telegraph had around a $12 fee for
the test.  If we flunked it we would have had to retake in 60 days or more,
where IF we had flunked Extra code, we could "bone up" and retake the Extra
in 30 days, and if we passed, immediately take the 2nd Class Tests.

We both spent almost the whole day at FCC Field Office New Orleans doing all
that and succeeded the first try.  I still renew my Telegraph license 
although it is, by today's standards, REDUNDANT.

73 to all,

Sandy W5TVW

-----Original Message----- 
From: Kenneth G. Gordon
Sent: Friday, December 21, 2012 12:24 PM
To: Arc5 at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [ARC5] Bash Hams from 1980

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
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