[Amps] repair of older Command Tech VHF-2000 amp

[Vic K2VCO]

Answers to pure multiple-choice exams are easy to memorize. When I took amateur and 
commercial exams more than 50 years ago, schematics were required, as well as a number of 
mathematical computations. If there are enough different exams with varied math problems, 
then it's hard to memorize the answers. Of course, schematics require some knowledge on 
the part of the examiner to grade!

CW was also important simply because learning takes time and therefore requires 
commitment. I know I've heard over and over that some people are 'disabled' so that they 
can't learn CW and therefore the requirement is 'unfair', but I suspect that the real 
number of such cases is very small.

On 10/15/2013 7:50 AM, Manfred Mornhinweg wrote:
> Carl,
>
>> I dont know the current requirements for various levels of licenses in the UK but over
>> here even a certified retard can pass an Extra as no CW is required and anyone can be
>> trained to memorize enough of the question pool to eventually pass.
>
> I can confirm that in Chile we have that same situation.
>
> In my opinion, though, the problem is not lack of CW testing. I don't see any reason why
> CW proficiency should be tested, while at the same time proficiency in other specific
> modes is NOT tested. Instead I would say that the main problem lies in the fact that there
> is a limited, open, published question pool, from which all exam questions are taken. Any
> fool can memorize the questions and their correct answers, and score 100% in the exam,
> without understanding even one word of what he memorized.
>
> The exam should really test knowledge and understanding of radio, not the ability to
> memorize sentences.
>
> And the second problem is, of course, the low level of the questions. In this regard I
> would like strongly differentiated levels. The novice exam should be easy, to encourage
> people to start in the hobby. The only knowledge that should be required from a novice is
> the minimal one that allows him to operate without causing serious trouble to other
> people. General class should be quite a lot harder, so that only people who understand
> matters like intermodulation, relationship between a waveform and its spectral display,
> and who are able to repair a radio and build a power supply, know how to participate a
> contest and survive a pile-up, can get a general license. And the extra class exam should
> really be "extra", requiring profound knowledge and proven exceptional activity as a ham,
> so that it is a challenge to obtain that licence, and a honor to hold it.
>
> But we are far from that, and getting ever farther away. And that's true in most countries.
>
> Manfred
>
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-- 
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco/