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

[Mike Everette]

I too remember the code test for the Extra as being the same tape they used later for the 2nd Class Radiotelegraph.  It had stuff about the sinking of the Titanic.

When I took my Extra, I had to take not only that but also the Advanced, AND the General as I held a Conditional Class because I had lived about 10 miles further than the distance limit from the "nearest examining point" when I upgraded from Novice.  

The first thing the examiner, Russ Banks, W4FAX, did was give me the 20 wpm code test (!!).  Then, the General written exam, which I passed.  All the while Russ wandered over to check on me often, mumbling "Ah ain' NEVER seen a Conditional come in voluntarily to be tested..."  I took the Advanced written, with more mumbling and over-the-shoulder scrutiny from Russ.  Passed that... then came the Extra, which compared to the Advanced test, was a gift.  Passed it too.  But when I started to leave, Russ stopped me.  "Wait a minute.  I ain't given ya a code test for the General yet!"  

"But... but... I passed the Extra code test..."

"SIDDOWN!"

I did.  

Russ ran the same tape, at 13 wpm.  I copied the whole thing flawlessly.

He didn't even look at it!  "G'wan, you're through!"

I was the last person out of the examing room that day.

73

Mike
W4DSE

--- On Fri, 12/21/12, Mike Morrow <kk5f at earthlink.net> wrote:

> From: Mike Morrow <kk5f at earthlink.net>
> Subject: [ARC5] US Morse Exam History...Commercial versus mateur (OT)
> To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net
> Date: Friday, December 21, 2012, 4:17 PM
> 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
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