[Elecraft] OT: Decoding high speed CW

Wed Mar 30 19:29:28 EDT 2016

People seem to be confusing US Ham and Commercial license exams. 

Fred is right, the COMMERICAL RadioTelegraph license back then had code groups was well as plain text according to my memory and ex-FCC man Phil's (K2ASP) comments. 

I believe Phil said the code groups were 16 wpm while the plain text was 20 wpm for the 2nd Class license. 

All I remember 59 years later was sweating perfect copy of the code groups! I had to retake the 2nd Class COMMERCIAL license exam in the early 1990's after letting my original expire but cannot remember if it had both or just plain text. After "pounding brass" for 60 years I was a bit more sanguine about the test by that time. 

My Novice 5 wpm and General 13 wpm tests in 1952 were plain text as was my Extra test at 20 wpm in about 1972. But those are AMATEUR license tests, not commercial. Those tests required solid copy of at least on minute on paper as well as sending to the examiner's satisfaction on the straight key at the FCC office. 

I believe near the end of the Amateur CW requirement all the applicant had to do was receive the CW message and answer some multiple choice questions indicating they generally understood what was sent. By then the exams were administered by VECs and many of them were not proficient in CW anyway. 

73, Ron AC7AC

-----Original Message-----
From: Elecraft [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Don Hall
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2016 3:26 PM
To: k6dgw at foothill.net; elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] OT: Decoding high speed CW

I took four exams from 1948(Class C) given by W5CEO through 1952 at the FCC Office in Dallas(Extra). None of these were code groups.
73  Don  K5AQ 

    On Wednesday, March 30, 2016 5:18 PM, Fred Jensen <k6dgw at foothill.net> wrote:

 Just for my own edification, were code groups ever part of the commercial exams?

It's been nearly a lifetime, but I sat for the 2nd Telegraph in 1956 [I was almost 16], and I vaguely think I remember two parts to the code element -- plain text and groups.  I also very vaguely think I remember the speeds were different [20 and 25?  or maybe the other way around? 
or maybe not].

It was an accident.  I intended to sit for the Extra since I had just passed the 2 yr service requirement and got to the FCC in the morning just before the telegraph exams.  The Extra was in the afternoon.  He told me to fill out the app and if I passed I'd get credit for the telegraph element on the Extra.

I was closest to that intimidating Boehme tape reader with the "steam gauge" speed dial, and ... not making this up ... the examiner had garters on the sleeves of his shirt and a green eyeshade.  I passed, he gave me the written exam ["What's to lose?" he said] which I passed exactly.  Lots of M-G set questions which I didn't know, but using maritime circuits for code practice paid off in operating knowledge I guess.

I'd appreciate actually knowing if groups were part of the exam since I can't trust my memory.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the Cal QSO Party 1-2 Oct 2016
- www.cqp.org

On 3/30/2016 12:49 PM, Mike Morrow wrote:

>> Code groups were never part of ham exams at any speed.
>
> Exactly!  Yet some report, even here in the past few days, that their 
> ham Morse exams were random character code groups.  Thanks for 
> information to the contrary that can be neither doubted nor disputed!
>
> 73, Mike / KK5F
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