[CW] One Day to Extra Class

Sun, 21 Apr 2002 14:49:53 -0500

Patrick's contrast of FCC Office testing with VEC testing is quite funny, and I
share his disdain for making special claims about the "good (or bad) old days."
We're all hams here, until SK.

But as one of those who is definitely from the good (or bad) old days, and can
therefore make some comparisons, it seems to me his characterization--minus the
hyperbole--is a perfectly fair representation of how we FELT and ACTED when we
faced FCC Examiners in District Offices (was my Examiner really minus an eye and
missing three fingers from his sending hand?), and very different from how most
SEEM to feel and act when taking a test given  by the local club at the YMCA.

I've spent my entire adult life in higher education, and have no hesitation at
all in saying that a Ph.D. oral exam loses hands down in terror to sitting, in
one's youth, for General or Extra before one of those "old" fiftyish WW II naval
and military techs who used to staff FCC Field Offices.

Tks Patrick!  73 to All!

Patrick wrote:

> Oh great, here we go. I predicted this years ago. We won't stop with
> demanding to know if a person took the 20 wpm test. We will demand to know
> if the op took the test at the FCC Office. I can hear it now. "The only real
> hams are the hams that took the test at the FCC building. The one that was
> 5,000 miles from my home, and for some reason was in a place where it always
> snowed and was uphill both ways. Not the warm and friendly VEC place where
> the nice guys gave you the test and for a deposit of $10.00 and a wink would
> just give you your license.
>
> I know all the stories. "That mean old FCC Examining Engineer held a gun to
> my heard and told me that if I made one mistake in my copy he would blow my
> brains out, and send my family to a Gulag in the Soviet interior. He then
> made me copy the code with one hand because I had to listen to the code
> record by holding a hand rolled paper cone with a needle stuck in it up to
> my ear with the other." Then, I had to construct an entire Class A amplifier
> and invent a particle beam anti missile device from a lump of coal.
>
> 73, Patrick AC6YD
>
>  -----Original Message-----
> From:   [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]  On Behalf
> Of Gerry Maira
> Sent:   Saturday, April 20, 2002 4:16 PM
> To:     CW Reflector
> Subject:        Re: [CW] One Day to Extra Class
>
> I think there should a way to distinguish the "old" extras and generals from
> the new, 5
> wpm folks. I think a very good way to do this would be to require a "5"
> after the number
> in the callsign. For instance KA2MGE as 5 wpm general or extra would be
> KA25MGE. After
> taking an optional code test (13 wpm for general or 20 wpm for extra) I
> could drop the 5
> from my call sign. Extras would also have to pass an old-style written test
> to lose the
> 5.
>
> It sure would make it easier to tell them apart, especially on phone. You
> wouldn't have
> to wait and see if the op gives his "first personal", describes his "working
> conditions", shows poor operating practices or a complete lack of technical
> knowledge.
>
> I should add that this is a joke - some of the 5 wpm guys might not realize
> it.
>
> 73, Gerry KA2MGE
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"There is no end to what you can accomplish
if you don't care who gets the credit."