[Elecraft] 20 WPM

[Mike Morrow]

>>I had to get a new 2nd Telegraph a few years back and the FCC
>>gave me 20 WPM credit -- not for having had a prior 2nd Telegraph
>>but for having had an Amateur Extra since before 1980-something!

But the FCC accepting a ham 20 wpm test result, even one from the 1950s, as qualifying one for the Commercial Radiotelegraph license Morse exam was a really bad joke.

The real commercial second class code exam required receiving and *sending* at least one minute of perfect copy in a five-minute session at 20 wpm plain language *and* 16 wpm random code groups.  That 16 wpm random code group test is for most folks far far harder than the plain language test.  In five minutes you hear 400 random characters, including numbers and punctuation (count as two characters).  You can flunk the random test if you have as few as six copy errors out of 400, if the errors are spread out such that you have less than 80 consecutive characters correct.  Been there, done that!

Mike / KK5F