[CW] One Day to Extra Class

[Donald Chester]

>From: N2EY@aol.com

>Seems to me that what the "one day extra" class really shows is that the
>tests have been watered down to the point where a reasonably intelligent
>person with a little background can pass them with just a one-day cram
>course.

That's exactly what happened to the old first class commercial 
radiotelephone licence.  It was needed to opreate a broadcast station. 
Station managers didn't want to pay the salary for a station engineer, so 
they started looking for disc jockeys with 1st phones to legally opreate the 
station.  They didn't care if they didn't know a tube from a resistor.

Companies soon sprang up offering cram courses, with money-back guarantees 
if the candidate didn't pass.  These became known as "30-day wonders" in the 
broadcast industry.  I recall that the FCC acknowledged being aware of what 
was going on, and abolished the 1st class phone ticket, along with the 
requirement for any commercial FCC licence to operate a broadcast station.  
Stations no longer had to hire engineers.  They just operated, and now 
mostly depend on on-call "consultants" to repair things when something 
breaks down.  The "chief engineer" at small town broadcast stations is now a 
part of radio  history.  With the new more trouble-free solid state 
broadcast equipment, the FCC feels a resident engineer is no longer a 
necessity.

Don K4KYV

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