[Elecraft] Another urban legend: (OT)

[George, W5YR]

 I sat for my First Phone exam at Syracuse, NY, and the room was typical of
older government facilities: high ceilings, hard floor covering, etc. Echo
City!

The examiner started giving a commercial radiotelegraph test at the front of
the room using  a speaker on the tape machine. Those of us taking the
written exams were seated at the back of the rather large room.

As soon as the code started, just about every one of us in the back started
writing down the test! Despite the travel time and echoes, the 25 wpm was
fairly clear to copy.

When it was over, I went back to my exam papers as did the others who had
stopped for some code copying. Next thing we knew, the examiner was walking
back to our group. When he arrived, he put on a big grin and said "All you
Commercial Phone boys who copied that code test, hand me your paper." We
did, as he explained that it happened every time they gave a code test.
Seems like anyone who knows code can't resist copying the test, just to see
if they can.

So echoes and all, I found that I could still copy pretty solid at 25 wpm -
that was back in 1953!  And I still can . . .

73, George W5YR
w5yr@att.net
http://www.w5yr.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Morrow" <kk5f@earthlink.net>
To: "Jim Brown" <jimbrown.enteract@rcn.com>; "Elecraft List"
<elecraft@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 3:57 PM
Subject: RE: [Elecraft] Another urban legend: (OT)


> Jim Brown wrote of old FCC ham exams:
>
> > The code reverberated down the long, cave-like room, and the
> > only guys who ever passed were among those seated in the front
> > row or two. I flunked the test there twice.