[NLRS] Happy coincidence K0AWU

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

On 4/8/2014 10:30 AM, Bill Davis wrote:
>
>
> This was "too good not to post". I have been chasing the ARRL
> Centennial stations for the last couple of months. Week before last I
> complained to Gary W0GHZ that one of the stations was operating in
> the Advanced/Extra portion of the band. Gary's response was, "Bill,
> why haven't you upgraded?". I did not have a response.

Back in the day we started (you were 15 months before, but a year older 
for that first license) there was no benefit to the Am Extra other than 
some bragging rights. The FCC was not even moving at a snail's pace 
taking typically 10 weeks after the test administered (and graded) by 
their district engineer to issue the license and a week to ten days to 
mail it. I took the general exam in August and the license was dated 
late October. In Missouri the FCC office was in Kansas City where they 
tested hams once a week but only came to St Louis four times a year.

Besides the 20 wpm code requirement, you could not take take the extra 
test until you had held the general class license in hand for two years. 
There were study guides but the question pool was a FCC secret. At the 
same time the question pool for the commercial licenses was published by 
the USGPO. I took the second telegraphy and first phone commercials two 
years after taking the general (but had only read the second class 
sections of the Q&A manual), but had wait another quarter to try for the 
extra. So I played hooky from school two days in a row to take the ships 
radar endorsement and the extra in the fall of 1958. The extra exam 
covered the details of FM, AM, TV, SSB, and I think RTTY while the 
commercials were still testing for late 1930s technology, no FM, no TV, 
no SSB, just AM for the phone license and included modulated power 
oscillators for CW. I still haven't qualified to test for the first 
telegraphy, that required a year at sea as a second op handling traffic.

I started to college about a year after passing the extra with lots of 
questions to ask poor grad teaching assistants who didn't know radio at all.

My dad and I passed novice and general together, he didn't get the extra 
until 1968.

Long about 1976 all the extras that had gotten the license without extra 
privileges were allowed to request two letter calls, with a check for 
$70 attached to the request. I got the first one on my list. A few years 
later they refunded that fee to those who requested it back.

There has been a definite tendency of contest stations and DX peditions 
on HF to stay in the extra sub bands where there is less activity which 
has driven the popularity of the extra class license. Today you can find 
a volunteer examination group, probably at least once a month within 50 
miles and take all the available exams in one sitting.

73, Jerry, K0CQ
>
> March 31 I took and passed the Extra, what is NEAT, is that today my
> Extra was posted on the FCC database. April 8, 2014 --- 59years to
> the day that the FCC issued the Novice call KN0AWU to a 14yr old farm
> boy in rural Missouri.
>
> How neat is that?  Thanks Gary for the "kick in the butt."
>
>
> 73  Bill  K0AWU
>