[Elecraft] OT: Decoding high speed CW

[Phil Kane]

On 3/29/2016 6:51 PM, Mike Morrow wrote:

> I passed the Second Class exam almost 40 years ago, but my old study
> books for the exam indicate that the tests listed above were in place
> even before WWII.  AFAIK, the only change occurred in the early 1990s
> when the FCC began giving credit for all of the above if the
> candidate held an Amateur Extra license.  

That credit was only for the code requirements (which I took advantage
of) not for the written elements which were different from the ham exam
elements contents.  The Telegraph exam contents remained the same as
they were in the 60s (or earlier) up until last year, the only change
being was that diagrams no longer had to be drawn after the testing
became privatized.

>That, of course, wasn't even remotely equivalent...I guess the FCC just got lazy.

No comment.  I was a FCC code examiner for three decades and lazy didn't
apply.

> I took several ham Morse exams at the FCC in the late 1960s and early
> 1970s.  Contrary to some claims otherwise, I do not ever remember the
> 13 wpm test being random code groups on a ham exam.  That is far more
> difficult than plain language to a ham new to Morse.

Code groups were never part of ham exams at any speed.
----

73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
Elecraft K2/100   s/n 5402

>From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon