[Boatanchors] Ham exams.

[Ken]

Hi Fellows,

Bringing back old memories by all the comments prompts me to add my
thoughts!
I was Ham licensed April 1938 and Commercial Radiotelegraph November 1938.
Back then, there was no such thing as "Multiple Choice Exams"! That is
almost
like giving the applicant the license without him knowing anything about
radio!
No kidding, anyone who can memorize questions and answers, not knowing
anything about radio can pass the exam. The answers are there before him!
I don't remember how long it took me to complete the ham exam, but the
Commercial Radiotelegraph took me almost two days to complete! No
kidding! But, I made 91.6 %. I had the good fortune of attending a Maritime
Radio School in New Orleans taught by a retired maritime radio operator.
In those days, you had to know Spark, Electric Arc and Vacuum Tube
Transmitters! Even tho Spark and Arc were outlowed for normal
communications, the new requirement for ships was not only to convert
to vacuum equipments but provide a separate emergency transmitter and
receiver. The I.T.U. (International Telecommunications Union of which
the U.S.A. is a signatory nation) allowed the shipping companys to
retain their old spark or arc transmitters to serve as the emergency
transmitter and had to have its own battery bank. The Spark or Arc
transmitters
were legal in actual emergencies.

By the way, don't scoff!, the emergency receiver was a crystal receiver with
a galena crystal and catwisher detector assembly. While south of Iceland
during WW2 in the winter and at night, I picked up several AM broadcast
station on the east coast comfortable earphone volume. With the long
inverted L antenna and the steel hull of the ship in salt water for a ground
it was good reception. And, a ship in distress only needs to communicate
with ships within range to render help.

Excuse this Ancient Mariner Sparks for sounding off!
Take care,

Ken   N5CM


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