[SOC] How does one upgrade to SOC

[JMcAulay]

"Upgrading" to SOC?  Can't be done.  That would be like upgrading to brown
eyes or curly hair.  Second Class Operators are born, not made.  It isn't
something you can study for.  You either are, or you aren't.  Recognition
of this status, however, ahh... that's what membership really confers.

Whwen there's a big pileup, and things finally calm down enough for you to
hear that guy in Uzbekistan so clearly, but you are so excited you send the
call of the last station he worked, and the VE3 comes back to you like a
ton of bricks, sending "I KNOW U?"... that's second class.

When a visitor to your shack looks curiously at your coax switch with the
knob pointed toward "TWO METERS" while you work someone in Eastern Europe,
and you have to confess you labeled it wrong in 1967 and just never
bothered changing it... that's second class.

When you finish cleaning up that old Marine-Band radio to use on 160 meters
and try a few test transmissions, and the antenna loads a little funny
because you changed the wrong crystal, and the Coast Guard is on the
telephone asking you to please get the heck off 2182... that's second class.

These sorts of things can't be learned.  They just don't happen to ordinary
people.  They are reserved for those of us who are truly second class.

We need to stick together.

73
John WA6QPL  SOC 263?