Exams at the FCC

[W1GUH]

When I took my general test, way too many years ago, the thing I remember most (other than, by some miracle, I passed) was that when I got out of the office after the written test, I couldn't remember anything beyond the first word of the CW test. I'm pretty sure the test started out "The captain" or "The caption", but beyond that I had no clue about the content of the test except that it wasn't random characters; it was plain english.

Does anyone remember the kind of text sent?

On a similar note, something I saw while waiting to take the advanced test...

I saw a guy actually fail the sending test. I don't know what he was thinking, but he had brought that heathkit keyer with the micro-switch built in paddles, and insisted on hooking it up to the FCC's oscillator. That took some time and you could tell that the examiner was getting impatient with him when hook-up went less than smoothly. He mentioned that it's supposed to have standard connections. So the guy started out with two strikes against him. Then, he had a lot of trouble actually sending. (No wonder with that paddle!). Finally, the examiner shook his head, told him he failed (couldn't hear the actual words), and the guy packed up and left. One of the saddest things I've seen in radio.

[W0JBC]

Paul:

The guy was't prepared ...

Examinations before the " MAN " were indeed stressful ...

Not knowing what speed he was attempting, he should have been ready to " send " faster than the test required ...

Those tests WERE stressful ....

Hopefully, he passed the next time around...

Who cares nowadays ... It's all free....

I am one of the remaining few who took their tests at an FCC examination facility .....

Since ..... VEC's , it has been a travesty ...

Too bad ....


JB

[k7mh]

I don't remember much other than passing!!
I had a hard time sending at the FCC office when I took my general test. The examiner just laughed and said "it's ok you are just nervous."
I hope to tell ya I was nervous!!
I do still have the text I wrote down when I took my novice test back in 1970.
A look at it is very humbling indeed!!
http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

[N8CPA]

I don't remember anything about my only FCC test--my General. Just the nerves before, the utter awe of the 10 year old next to me who passed, and the floating sensation I felt when I passed!

Tests today stressful? Nahhhhh.

[al7n]

It has been many years ago for me. #I don't remember any of the text details of either the amateur sending tests nor what was on the receiving tests.

I took General and Extra and Second Class Radiotelegraph Commercial
all in the Denver, Colorado FCC office. 521 NewCustomhouse, I think was the address in the big
Federal Building. General test in 1958,
2nd Radiotelegraph Commercial in 1965, and Amateur Extra in 1968.
#
For the amateur code tests, The examiners gave each applicant a yellow legal pad and a freshly sharpened pencil, and when everyone had the required items available, started the wire recorder that had the code test material on it. #The recorder sat on a table out in the middle of the room so everyone could hear it. #They asked to make sure we could.
No headphones.

The test recording ran for five minutes at the required speed, and when it stopped the examiner had everyone drop their pencil and turn their copy pad over with no chance for reading the copy or making any fill-ins or corrections. #The pads were collected immediately and we never saw this copy again. #

Then those who passed receiving were then given the sending test which was done with the FCC's oscillator and their nice new-looking J H Bunnell straight key...I remember the key particularly because it was so much nicer than the old beat-up J-38 I had at home.
We were given some typewritten material stuck on a small piece of poster board to send, but I don't remember the content of either amateur or commercial tests. #We didn't get much of a look at it, they just handed it to you and told you to send it.

The examiner stopped those who had a good "fist" within a few words as "good enough". #Some struggled with it longer before being passed or failed...The examiner grabbed the test copy immediately before any of us had a chance to read much of it.

Then those of us who had passed the code tests sending and receiving, #got to go back to the examining room and take the written test. #Those who failed the code test got to leave and come back in 30 days to try again.

I put in a year as a Commercial operator in Nome, Alaska at Coastal Station WKR, and as soon as I had the required service time documented, I flew down to Anchorage in 1976 to take the code test for my First Class Commercial ticket.

Code test was all there was, and it was a cassette recorder this time on a hard topped desk in the typical Government high ceiling room with lots of echo...no headset. #I was the only applicant. #Same yellow legal pad, #25 WPM for five minutes plain text, #20 code groups per minute for five minutes more....Examiner grabbed the copy as the tape ended, no chance to read or correct copy...I couldn't tell you anything about it, except that I had copied the plain text solid without error in longhand, and I had missed two code groups right in the middle of the code group test....
The examiner let me use my 1925 vintage Vibroplex bug to send with, and handed me a ship telegram stuck on a piece of poster board to send.

I don't remember anything of this except the callsign of the ship....KISH.... doubtless contrived to trip up an unprepared or insufficiently skilled operator. #I got through a half line or so of this, and he stopped me and said it was more than good enough to qualify..

My new First Class ticket number was T1-23-138, and showed up in the mail at home a week later.

[W0JBC]

GUH , MH , and CPA:

There would NOT be the passing ratio today vs yesteryears ...

A person really needed a grasp of theory and ( dreaded ) CW to upgrade ..

The new hams chastise us OF's because we tell it as it was .....


Most think we are unqualified ..


I must state, the whinners now, do not have command of english ..

Could very well be why they cannot work cw .. they can't spell ....

If you think I'm kidding , read some of their threads ...


CUL


JB

[KC0MIS]

My grandfather was a ham in 1911.
i remember him telling me about going to the FCC to take his exams.
Because of this I really appreciate the VECs.
They do a terrific job in making the testing as non-stressfull as possible.
My hat is off to them.

OBTW: I am now "slash Alpha Golf".

Cheers & 73,
Chuck

[WB2WIK]

I tested at the FCC office in NYC for all my licenses except the Novice, which was one of those mail-ins where you only needed a General or higher class licensee to administer it.

Frankly, I was most nervous for the Novice, since it was a brand new thing and I was 13 years old.

Going to the FCC, for me, was scary but not because of the test. It was scary because it was the first time I ever went to New York City by myself without an adult along. It was only a 20-mile trip but involved a bus, a train and a subway and the trip cost probably $5 each way, which was a fortune for me at the time.

That, plus each FCC exam cost $4.

The tests were slam-dunks and I wasn't the slightest bit nervous once I finally got inside the hallowed FCC offices and sat down at the desk. The examiner did make us "send" code as well as copy it, but I was a very active Novice and had made hundreds and hundreds of CW contacts by then, so this was nothing.

The test was only challenging in that the examiner smoked a stinky cigar and left all the office windows open. In winter. It was cold, breezy and smoky all at once.

I got nervous again for the trip home, only because I was afraid of getting on subway going the wrong way and ending up in Brooklyn or something. That didn't happen.

Great experience!

WB2WIK/6

[KA4DPO]

I took my exam at the Tampa FL office. I don't remember much but I do remember being a little stressed since I had to drive from Melbourne early in the morning.

I do remember one guy in particular who had failed the test seven times and failed again that day. He said he would be back next month. The FCC examiner said, " why don't you take an extra month to study and come back in two months". He just smiled and said we'll see, I had to give the guy a lot of credit for trying.

[ac3p]

I remember taking the codetest at the FCC field office in Baltimore. I remember something in the text about ships, positions in longitude and latitude and the like.

Would be suprised if the text was actually from the commercial code tests.

When I finished the copy portion I was asked to send with a straight key. Usually the engineer would stop me after about 5 words, no matter what the speed and say I passed.

Yep, the tension was so thick you could cut it with a machete.

[ka0gkt]

I remember the 13 wpm receiving test quite well. The guy sitting next to me had a nasty cold and hacked every once in a while making me loose concentration, however I was able to recover and had nearly three minutes of solid copy and more than sufficient information to pass the multiple choice test over the plain language text.

I took my copy up to the desk and the lady proctor set her key over the test and shook her head "no" I couldn't believe it, I absolutely knew the answers to some of the questions, however I needed to take my seat and do the writen portion of the exam. Just as I finished the writen portion of the exam, the examiner came up and told me that she had used the wrong key for the test and that I had 100% on the code element, but that didn't matter since I had over 3-minutes of solid copy and all I needed was one.

I didn't miss anything on the writen portion of the exam and I walked out a newly minted General.

Six months later, I went in and aced the Advanced class test.


No Stress...No Stress at all...NOT! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

73 DE KAØGKT/7

--Steve

[W1GUH]

Quote[/b] ]Since ..... VEC's , it has been a travesty ...

I took my extra exam at the Valhalla Hamfest in Westchester Co., NY in the spring of '91, and it was administered rigorously and professionally. I had no problem with the VEC's running the tests.

As far as the test itself went, one side of a QSO with questions about it afterwards, I thought that the format seemed more appropriate for an amateur exam. It reflected real use of Morse code in a real ham environment...well, not exactly, there was no QRM, QRN, or QSB! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Or, maybe I was kinda glad...it was easier than sitting before a mean FCC guy who'd sooner flunk everyone, and copy unfamiliar stuff for a minute straight! But the stuff that you HAD to copy to pass was good. I kinda wish I'd gotten off my butt to get my extra at an FCC office. Oh, well, missed that one.

'WIK...where was the NY FCC office in those days? The office in Detroit was 1029 Federal Bldg, downtown Detroit on Fort St. I went there a few times. There was the first time, the time I passed, and then I went down with a friend a few times til he got his ticket. Those trips were FUN! We'd take the commuter train down, eat breakfast, go to the FCC, go to the ham stores (M.N. Duffy, Reno Radio), mess around in Cobo Hall, eat lunch, then take the train back.

I wish that I'd taken my extra in Boston when I was there. It would have been great to do it in the Custom House (That's now a Marroitt).

I was back in Detroit in '02, and that was the first time I went to the Federal Bldg (it think it's something else now) for decades. My, how it changed! I had remembered a large staircase...but it's not, only a few steps. Ah, time!

Finally...as it turns out, the 30+ years it took me to get a "round tuit" to get my extra were spent thinking I should have long since done it. But then when I did...yea, it was good to be there, but also, there weren't any more tests to take! There was a little let down there. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Well, one more thought. We didn't see the code machine from the examination room, but I believe it was one of those that read code from paper tape with a pen line on it. Forget the official term for it. I also remember the impression that the code sent had a "bouncy" sound to it that I hadn't heard before...but the perfectly sent code was a pleasure to hear. (Well, throught the nerves!) I should look those up on the net...I never really knew how they worked. Then there was the Code-o-graph, advertised in League publications that used punched paper tape.

[WA9SVD]

I think I, like many people, have blanked out the traumatic details of the experience...
I remember getting on the Chicago "L", and heading to the Federal Building. (This was 1966 as far as I can ascertain.) And passing the send and receive Morse tests, before sweating out the written exam. (If you didn't pass the Morse exam, you weren't permitted to go on to the written exam, anyway!)
I can't remember if the exams were given once every week (seems on Friday) or if it was only once a month.
The FCC engineers DID tell you if you passed (or if you had to retake the exam again the next month) but you couldn't operate until the license arrived in the mail, which was 1-2 MONTHS after you passed the test.

[K3STX]

All I really remember was that it was in 1978 and my dad had to drive me into Philadelphia to take it (I was only 15). I was not worried about the code at all; I was active in the novice traffic nets back then and could send and receive just fine. But if I remember correctly, we had to draw circuits, not simply pick A, B, C, or D. Maybe I am wrong. But it was a LONG wait in that chair before they called you up, I remember that part!

It's a shame they don't do it like that anymore. It was a real struggle just to GET to the test and it was, indeed, very stressful.

I think these are the memories us OF's wish every new Ham would have, but I guess things change.

paul

[K9STH]

In 1959 the FCC gave amateur radio and commercial radio tests every week on the 8th floor of the old Federal Building in Chicago every Friday (unless that particular day was a federal holiday). I know that I took my General in early November 1959 at that place. Also, in 1962 they were still giving the tests every week because I went in to the same place and took my commercial examinations the first week in September of 1962.

I took my Advanced Class in Dallas in 1968, not that long after the FCC started giving examinations for that class of license (from 1951 until 22 November 1967 the Advanced Class was a "grandfather" license given to those amateurs who had previously held the old Class "A" which was the highest that one could hold from several years before World War II until 1951).

Took my Amateur Extra at a VE session.

Glen, K9STH

[k4kyv]

I recall the text of the 13 wpm General test I took in 1959 was something about a rocket taking off from the launch pad.

Remember, that was right about the Sputnik era.

[kf4wer]

In 1963, went to the FCC office in Tampa twice for commercial exams - once for 2nd class phone and once for 1st class - same stern "no nonsense" lady examiner both times. Remember bringing my slide rule - no calculators then!

Much later, the amateur exams, including 13WPM receive only, were taken in front of a VE team and were a piece of cake by comparison.

[ac3p]

Quote[/b] ]But if I remember correctly, we had to draw circuits, not simply pick A, B, C, or D.

I took my General/Advanced in 1972 and Extra in 1978 at the Baltimore FCC Field office. Those tests were multiple guess. We did not have to draw schematics but we did have to choose explanations of the component functions or work a math problem based on the diagram.

[WA7OET]

Novice in 1969 and General in 1970 at the Seattle FCC office. It took me 3 times to pass the General as a 13yr old I couldnt grasp the theory until I took an Amatuer Radio course at a local community college. In 1979 I went in to take my Extra... didnt know you had to also pass the Advanced first LOL... but I took both and passed. After the CW test the examiner came out and said "you flunked the CW test" and I blurted out, "that's impossible!." It took him 5 long agonizing minutes to figure out that he had my test mixed up with the guy next to me...

[W0LPQ]

4WER, was Mr. Neeb there when you took your exams? He was the EIC when I took the 3/2/1st Commercial exams in 1965. He was a real bear ... noted a Heath GR SW receiver in his office. Said he was listening to and bagging CB'ers. Slide Rules were the order of the day then also. I remember a lady, do not remember her name other than to say she was ... tough..!

Bill, W0LPQ/9

[K7KBN]

I took the General exam at the Los Angeles FCC office in 1961 (was a Conditional at the time but happened to be near the FCC office when the test was being given). Then the Extra in Portland OR a few years later.

Best code test I ever went through was the one for my Navy "Speed Key" ticket. You had to be officially licensed to operate a bug on a Navy CW circuit. So there I was, an RMSN (E-3) sending and receiving with an RMCM (E-9)...very intimidating. We started at about 20 WPM and finished around 40 or so. He remarked that he'd qualified me within a few seconds of my starting to send, but that he was having too much fun to cut the rest of the "test" short. I was too!

[n2cfj]

Quote[/b] (W1GUH @ Feb. 27 2007,17:03)]['WIK...where was the NY FCC office in those days? #The office in Detroit was 1029 Federal Bldg, downtown Detroit on Fort St. #I went there a few times. #There was the first time, the time I passed, and then I went down with a friend a few times til he got his ticket. #Those trips were FUN! #We'd take the commuter train down, eat breakfast, go to the FCC, go to the ham stores (M.N. Duffy, Reno Radio), mess around in Cobo Hall, eat lunch, then take the train back.
The tests in NYC were administered at the FCC offices on Varick Street, just north of Canal St. On the day I took my exam, the early morning crowd at the coffee shop across the street were mostly reviewing study material over their 20th cup of coffee. Of course My father & I were among them, (he for extra me for general). If you passed, you could then hit the stores on Canal St. or go down to Cortland St.

[W0JBC]

PEQ/AG:
Dick, I was not surprised by your grammar comment ...

Actually, I am amazed that it took you as long as it did for you to " dig " into these posts to make you feel better ....

Just as a basic comment , " de " means " this is " .....

It has meant that to me for a few years .....

There is always a perfectionist whiener out there .... Congrats ...

Yous IS one .....


It must feel great being a NCG ...
No hate intended ... You waited and got sumpin fer nuthin ..

PS Send me your gramer an speling books .. I will NOT use whiener again ... Just will use WHAAAAA ....
Listen around, yous might here FOG in their ....


JB

modified for WHAAA,AAA forgot the extra " A " .....

[W5HTW]

There is a similar thread running in Q&A about code tests of the old days. I won't repeat here what I said there in any great detail.

I do recall that all of the FCC exams I had on the code were commercial tapes, not amateur, and were about ships at sea. I took ham tests in Denver (General in 1957) and Washington, DC in 1968 and 1969. I went with a friend to Baltimore FCC office and sat in the room while he took his General. All of these code tests, the ones I took and the ones I heard, were about ships at sea, none related to ham radio.

Have never taken a test at a VEC.

Ed



.

[ac3p]

Quote[/b] ]I remember a lady, do not remember her name other than to say she was ... tough..!


We had one of them in Baltimore. They must have been Gov't issue clones. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[WA2ZDY]

Yep, I remember it like WIK except by the time I got there, the NYC office had moved to Varick Street and Finkelstein had retired and been replaced by a very friendly yet no less official Miss Thomas.

I took my General there in Nov 75, failed the Advanced in Nov 76 and passed the Advanced and Extra in one sitting in Nov 77. (Thanks to Caren, then WB2ABU who I met there and who also passed her Extra that day at age 15.)

Ham exams were on Wednesday and commercial on Tuesday and Thursday. The day after I passed the Extra, I went back and got my 2nd telegraph with aircraft and radar endorsements. I had turned 16 the month before.

Things change and life goes on.

[W4HAY]

Novice was taken in 1954 at Wilmington, NC. The examiner was a really nice older fellow and tried to make everyone feel at ease. The code was from a tape recorder with a bad case of flutter (which the examiner apologized for). As soon as the test ended we had to turn over the paper and it was immediately collected, so I don't remember the nature of the text. We had to use their key but were allowed to adjust it. Those with good fists only had to send a few words and received praise for their efforts.

Seems like the written was in an envelope that we were told to open, take the test, return to the envelope, and turn in.

General was taken in '56 in Winston Salem, NC using the same proceedure. Schematics and block diagrams were involved.

Advanced was in the late Seventies in Knoxville, TN at the armory. I pitied the folks taking the code test -- horrendous echo and reverb in the cavernous test room. More schematics. There was a huge crowd, the facilities were hot, and the examiner and his female assistant were losing their patience by the time they got around to us. So were we! I had flashbacks of that assistant every time I'd watch the original 'Weakest Link'.

Extra was in the mid-eighties under the VEC program at the Asheville, NC Hamfest. Piece of cake!

[W0JBC]

HAY et al:

This whole testing " thing " , prospective hams KNOW more than we did in the past ...

In the earlier days, alot of questions were NOT geared to technologies which did not exist in those days ....

A problem I have is that the new guys don't think we have the gray matter to work the newer modes ....

Where do you think the newer modes were tested ??

From readings here , the new guys invented the whole gambit .....

Many , new guys, think that these modes just jumped in out of nowhere ...

I truely wish them well .. Just drop the attitudes ... That is it ...


JB

[kf4wer]

Quote W0LPQ: "4WER, was Mr. Neeb there when you took your exams?"

Don't really know, but that name does sound familiar somehow. I think "Thelma Ritter" was the name of the lady who gave me my exams.

[N8CPA]

Quote[/b] (W0JBC @ Feb. 27 2007,06:01)]GUH , MH , and #CPA:

There would #NOT be the passing ratio today vs yesteryears ...

A person really needed a grasp of theory and ( dreaded ) CW to upgrade ..

The new hams chastise us OF's because we tell it as it was .....


Most think we are unqualified ..


I must state, the whinners now, do not have command of english ..

Could very well be why they cannot work cw .. #they can't spell ....

If you think I'm kidding , read some of their threads ...


CUL


JB
http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

About 10 years ago, there was a group of whiners on the local PBBS whining about 5/13/20. I noticed the spelling.

So I posted that their real problem was that they couldn't spell in that annoying - .... . -.-- format.

One of them sent me a response, "I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW I SPELL VERY GOOD!"

I sent back, "Then, why did you mispell 'well?'"

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[W0JBC]

Steve:

You need not be a rocket scientist to be a ham ...


It helps to be a newbie with an attitude ...


JB

[N8CPA]

I'm just glad I never heard of the term "Dyscalculia" until after I was out of school, out of college. Not knowing the medical reason why I had such trouble learning math obliged me to learn to cope with my math problems. I think the real problem today is the emphasis on institutional solutions to individuals' problems.

I'm convinced that it's somehow related to using ritalin where paddlin' should be prescribed.

Ooops! That's bound to trigger someone's insensitivity 'alram.'

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[n2cfj]

Quote[/b] (W0JBC @ Feb. 28 2007,19:01)]Just as #a basic comment , #" de " means " this is " .....

It has meant that to me for a few years .....
I always thought that DE was from the French (and other romance languages) meaning "from", as in the Italian name DeNapoli which translates to from Naples.

Similar to the distress call "mayday" which comes from m'aidir or help me.

[ky5u]

Quote[/b] (ac3p @ Feb. 28 2007,20:10)]Quote[/b] ]I remember a lady, do not remember her name other than to say she was ... tough..!


We had one of them in Baltimore. They must have been Gov't issue clones. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif
Lady in New Orleans was "Fran". If you passed she said it in a normal voice. if the poor slob failed she all but yelled it out..."you FAILED!" Took my 3rd at 16 years old. It was easy. Took the Second a few years later on a Tuesday and the 1st on the next day all in the FCC office on South Street in New Orleans. Fran was sweet as cotton candy to me. :-)

[W5HTW]

You are right about the Third being easy. Easy isn't even the word for it! I had just received my Novice license, when I was 16. I accompanied a friend to Knoxville to take his General test. I was bored, had nothing to do but wait. I saw something about a "Third Class Radio Telephone License." Huh? What was that? I asked if I could take the test and was told to fill out the application. I did, and was given the written test. I took that, with the maritime endorsement (there were endorsement for aviation, I think, and for broadcast.) By the time my friend finished his General test, I had finished the Third. Had no idea why, what it was for, or what I could do with it. But it was a nice certificate, which, when it arrived in the mail, I hung on my wall.

I later learned I probably should have taken the broadcast endorsement, as I was working at a local AM station a couple of evenings a week.

In the CAP I thought the Third would be all I'd need for aircraft radio. But they insisted I had to have the Third Class Restricted Radiotelephone Permit, which required no test at all. So I got that, too. Later, as a private pilot, when I was studying, my instructor again told me my 3rd Class Radiotelephone License was not valid for aircraft! Again, I had to get a Restricted Radiotelephone permit to satisfy him. Meanwhile, though, I had acquired the 2nd class Radiotelephone license and he refused to accept that either! Long after the First and Second were combined in the the General, I took a check ride in a different aircraft and the instructor told me I still needed the 3rd Class Restricted! Although I had the GROL. So I got another one.

Anyway, one question has always stood out on the Third Class Radiotelephone test. It was (paraphrased, since it was a long time ago!)

You hear a ship sending a distress signal on 500 khz. You should immediately:

A. Notify your Supervisor

B. Turn off your radio and go to bed

C. Immediately transmit on the same frequency

D. Listen to see if you can be of assistance

E. Notify your local postmaster

I laughed out loud during the test, as I pictured that poor shipboard operator looking for a 'local' postmaster, 1500 miles out in the Pacific.

And all of the questions were of that nature. No theory at all, of course. Just simple operating and rules.

As the GEICO ads say, "So simple ..." It would not surprise me to see all amateur licenses become comparable to the Third Class Radiotelephone license in the not distant future.

The lady in the FCC office in Washington, DC, where I took my Advanced and my Extra, was OK, but very bored with the whole thing. By then they were using key cards to see if you had passed the written, as the tests were mosly multiple choice. And yes, she did say "you passed," but there were no accolades. Now it was time to wait 8 weeks or longer to get the ticket in hand.

Ed

[n0cki]

I remember taking my novice test at the St. Joe. radio club in 1980. Then I took the tech test at Kansas City in the FCC office. I had planned on taking the general also but was so nervious I forgot to tell them I wanted to take both. I passed the tech and went back a month later and took the 13 wpm code test and missed all 10 questions. When asked what temperture was sent, I put down 50 and the small circle for degrees instead of writing out degrees. The lady looked at my copy and said I passed because I had copied all 5 min. with no errors. I went back later that year and passed the advanced class test and then they quit giving the tests at the FCC office. It was stressfull but the tests were tough and you couldn't memorize the answers, you had to study and know the theory. Opps that makes me a OF. I hope the two sides can get over it and move on. I wonder if they had the same gripes when AM was replaced with sideband?

I now do service calls and board repair of computers, printers and scanner/scales at grocery stores and resturants. The grammer and spelling cops will get me I'm sure but where it counts it does not matter. My boss said I am required to fix and make the customer happy, not spell.

Robert n0cki http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[K0RGR]

I took all but the Novice at the Customshouse in San Francisco in the 60's.

It was a big adventure catching the 5:30 commuter in San Jose to go to "The City". I remember having to walk around the drunks on 3rd St., and I learned real fast why you never give a beggar money if there's more than one around.

I had no trouble with the code tests, though I wonder to this day how I passed the 20 WPM test using that old pump handle.

I think today's hams missed something pretty neat, though. I would not trade the experience.

[K9STH]

When I got "talked into" buying a Cessna 150 in 1973 and was taking instruction (I had flown a little as part of the Air Explorer program in high school - 1961 - but had never gotten my pilot's license) the instructor insisted that I get a Restricted Radio Telephone License. I informed him that I definitely did not need one since I held a "First Phone". He argued for a couple of minutes before I picked up the telephone and called the Dallas FCC office and handed him the telephone.

Frank Wanja (one of the local FCC engineers) answered the telephone and I told the instructor to ask if I really needed a "Restricted" to fly airplanes since I held a "First Class". Now I don't know exactly what Frank said, but after a couple minutes of "yes sir" from the instructor the telephone was "hung up" and the subject was never raised again! I ran into Frank a few months later and asked him about the situation. Frank just laughed and said that occasionally there were some people who just didn't know the regulations!

Glen, K9STH

[al7n]

Anybody who went to the Denver FCC office remember the redhead that worked in there circa 1955-1970?

[NC5P]

I took the tech at the Kansas City office in the summer of 1981. Got my license in late Sept. and the following January 1982 drove up to Denver and took the Advanced. In October they came down here and I took both the extra and the general radiotelephone exam. (by that time they got rid of the 1st phone). I do remember the fear of not passing but did fine.

[W5HTW]

Quote[/b] (al7n @ Mar. 05 2007,13:00)]Anybody who went to the Denver FCC office remember the redhead that worked in there circa 1955-1970?
Hmmm. Took my General there (twice - failed the theory first time!) in 1957. How did I miss a redhead? Uh, wait, which extreme was she? Good/bad? Maybe I was too young? Or maybe she had the day off.

All I remember is sweat.

Ed

[al7n]

The lady in the Denver office was an extremely um..."well built" redhead.....was in that office for years...Couple of real good reasons "up front" to be well remembered. I reckon lots of those who went there remember....hard not to notice. Maybe it was her day off when you were there. Don't remember the name though........shame on me......

[k5xit]

Quote[/b] (W5HTW @ Feb. 28 2007,19:53)]There is a similar thread running in Q&A about code tests of the old days. #I won't repeat here what I said there in any great detail. #

I do recall that all of the FCC exams I had on the code were commercial tapes, not amateur, and were about ships at sea. #I took ham tests in Denver (General in 1957) and Washington, DC in 1968 and 1969. #I went with a friend to Baltimore FCC office and sat in the room while he took his General. #All of these code tests, the ones I took and the ones I heard, #were about ships at sea, none related to ham radio.

Have never taken a test at a VEC. #

Ed



.
I took the Extra written at a VEC session. It seemed a whole lot easier than the general which I failed the first time.

[WA2ZDY]

It was 50 years ago Ed! Names kinda slide off into the annals of history. I'll never forget Miss Thomas at the NYC office though and I last saw her in April 1978. What a nice lady and a credit to civil service.

[K9ALT]

I remember when I took my General...I got my novice in January '77, the went for my General in June of that year. The FCC office was in the Federal building in New Orleans on South St. in the central business district. I asked my mom to take me(I didn't drive at the time as I was only 14) and her reply was no way...you take the bus. So I went with my friend Dave who was also going to upgrade. It was an adventure just taking the bus because I lived in Kenner which is a suburb of N.O. about twenty miles from downtown...we had to change buses like five times. We finally got to the FCC office and went into the testing room. It resembled more a storage room than an FCC testing room. There were guys taking the 1st and 2nd class radiotelephone license in with us. Anyway we took the written test and I really wasn't sure how I did, my friend either...then the code test which was simply a sample on air QSO, that I got no problem. After everything was over, we found out that we had both passed with over 90%... we couldn't believe that we passed we were so happy. Now the task was to get home...we walked from the Federal building to City Park which is like seven or eight miles, while telling everyone who passed by,"we passed!, we passed!". I'm sure they thought we were crazy...from City Park we caught the bus home. We really had a lot of fun that day. The Advanced I didn't take until '82 but by then I was driving and passed it with no problems...I think I missed like three or four questions. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif