[CW] FCC TESTING

[George, W5YR]

When I sat for the First Phone in Syracuse, NY back in 1952, the RI up
front was giving a code test to some commercial RT applicants. Almost
without thinking, virtually everyone of us sitting at the back of this
large room started copying down the code! The sound had a distinct echo to
it considering where we were sitting, but it was readable.

Evidently, this is a common happening since the RI came back after the code
test was finished and collected all the copies that we First Phone guys had
written!

Fortunately my Extra code test in 1954 was with headphones and I even got
to adjust the volume! I hadn't worked any CW since 1949 so I was a little
rusty. The RI let me listen to the code for about 5 minutes to see if I
thought I could still copy 20 wpm. I thought so and away we went. No
problem - like riding that bicycle, I guess.

For any newcomers, "RI" stands for Radio Inspector - an old, old term of
endearment (from the 20's or 30's) for the FCC representative usually found
in a white truck going around and checking commercial and amateur stations
for violations, etc. It became fairly common practice to refer to any of
the FCC folk as "the RI."

73/72/oo, George W5YR - the Yellow Rose of Texas         
Fairview, TX 30 mi NE of Dallas in Collin county EM13qe   
Amateur Radio W5YR, in the 56th year and it just keeps getting better!
QRP-L 1373 NETXQRP 6 SOC 262 COG 8 FPQRP 404 TEN-X 11771 I-LINK 11735
Icom IC-756PRO #02121  Kachina 505 DSP  #91900556  Icom IC-765 #02437


Donald Chester wrote:
> 
> >From: "David J Ring Jr" <n1ea@arrl.net>
> 
> >I have heard the story about the "evil" FCC man who reverberated the
> >morse off of warehouse type of walls being "like radio" but that isn't a
> >fair
> >test.  Very Very few of the commercial operators could copy a
> >reverberated CW signal like that.  That only happens when having Long
> >Path and Short Path (or some type of multipath) and it TERRIBLE to
> >copy.
> 
> Sometimes during aurora flutter it sounds like that.  I don't think the old
> radio inspector meant that code over the radio was going to sound anything
> like code over a speaker in the marble-wall building.  He just meant that as
> the code was muddled up in that room, it gets about as muddled up over the
> air due to QRM, QRN, QSB, poor sending, weak signals and all else that makes
> copy difficult.  It was a real "test" to copy code under adverse condx.
> When I took my Extra, I was the only applicant for 20 wpm, so I got to sit
> right in front of the tape recorder, about a foot away from the speaker, and
> reverb wasn't a problem.
> 
> Don K4KYV