[Elecraft] New Mystery: Copying groups vs plain language text (Rather OT)

[Mike Morrow]

Fred,

The Radiotelegraph Second Class license required send and receive at 20 wpm Plain Language and 16 wpm Code Groups with no errors for one minute during the five minute test.  The First Class license had the same written elements (1, 2, 5, 6) as the Second Class license but the Morse test was 25 wpm Plain Language and 20 wpm Code Groups, plus a six-month service requirement at stations open to public correspondence.  (That "public correspondence" service requirement kept many operators with decades of commercial Morse service from ever getting a First Class license.  However, every maritime Morse station was defined as open to public correspondence even if it was on a freighter and never had any such traffic.)

The rare Aircraft Radiotelegraph Endorsement to Second or First Class licenses required the same Morse exam as the First Class license.

IIRC, the FCC required use of hand copy and straight key for Second Class, but allowed typewritter and bug for the First Class tests.

After I left the US Navy as a submarine officer more than 40 years ago, I decided I'd like to try my hand as a maritime radio officer before that job disappeared.  (I was one of the few Navy people that loved going to sea.) I very much found the seemingly slow 16-wpm Code Group test significantly more difficult for test-taking purposes (when one is still developing skills) than Plain Language.  As few as five errors in the 400 character test could prevent getting the required 80 consecutive error-free characters.  It took me three 400-mile round trips to the Kansas City Field Office, only because of the 16 wom Code Group test.  The 20 wpm Plain Language test (given first) was always child's play.  I know that with practice and a mill an automatic unthinking response soon develops, but I did not get that far.

For many years the FCC waived the Amateur Extra Morse exam for an applicant if he had held a commercial radiotelegraph license.  In the mid-1990s, the FCC started waiving the Radiotelegraph Second Class Morse exams for an applicant holding an Amateur Extra Class license.  That was a very signicicant relaxation of test standards for the commercial Radiotelegraph license, but by then there wasn't much call for the license.

I never did get into Radio Officer work because a few months after licensing a new but permanent medical condition disqualified me from Safety-of-Life-at-Sea (SOLAS) duties.  During Desert Storm/Desert Shield the US began reactivating enough old US-flag merchant vessels that one of the Radio Officer associations solicited license holders for a short paid training program and employment as new Radio Officers.  Even 30 years ago there weren't many newcomers interested in starting a obvious dead end career, but 15 years earlier I'd have sent in my application if medically qualified.

WRT Phil's comments below, it surprises me when hams claim adamantly that their Morse test was code groups.  I attribute that to fading memory.  Similary, it was recently stated that a Broadcast Endorsement was attained after earning the Radiotelephone First Class license.  The Broadcast Endorsement was granted only to Third Class license holders to show that the announcer (with Third Class license) also had knowledge to serve as transmitter attendant (with Broadcast Endorsement) at small broadcast stations.  Memory plays tricks on us old people. :-)

Mike / KK5F

-----Original Message-----
>From: Fred Jensen <k6dgw at foothill.net>
>Sent: Apr 30, 2020 12:35 PM
>
>Why were code tests with groups almost always at a slower speed than 
>plain text?
>
>I had to copy 5-character groups at 16 [I think], and plain text at 20 
>[I also think ... might have been 25, it was a very long time ago] for 
>the 2nd Telegraph.  I've never sat a military circuit to copy groups, 
>all my experience with groups was practice, the test, and WX reports 
>which sort of approximate groups.  However, I find groups to be easier 
>copy than plain text, especially on a mill of teletype tape perforator 
>keyboard.  The transition to "Ear-to-Fingers" mode with nothing passing 
>through brain is almost instantaneous and permanent for the duration. 
>With plain language text, I'll sometimes rouse from that state, try to 
>make sense of what I'm copying and have to catch up.
>
>Just curious, lots of folks here here have copied groups for a living 
>and might know the answer.  Incidentally, Jettie Hill, W6RFF [SK], once 
>told me that in WW2, he had to learn to sight-read inked tape at 45 or 
>50 WPM.  I think that would have caged my eyeballs. [:=)
>
>73,
>Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
>Sparks NV DM09dn
>Washoe County
>
>On 4/30/2020 9:36 AM, Phil Kane wrote:
>
>> On 4/29/2020 10:31 PM, Edward R Cole wrote:
>>
>>> CW test had been downgraded to a multiple question exam about plain
>>> language text message vs the five mixed character groups back in Detroit.
>>
>> The ham CW test was always plain language text.  5-character groups were
>> only for the Radiotelegraph CW exams.
>>
>> 73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
>> Elecraft K2/100   s/n 5402