[TenTec] new to CW dxing

[Scott Harwood]

Ok, guys; I’ve read enough.  Everyone knows how tough it “used to be” getting advanced, extra or whatever. I’ve been an amateur since 1958, gone through novice, general, advanced and extra exams, and YES the extra exam is nowhere what it used to be, but neither are the kids we are trying to bring into amateur radio today.  Lighten up a little, have fun and be happy we are still growing instead of a declining bunch of “grumpy old men”

Bye.

Scott K4VWK  


-----Original Message-----
>From: Jim Lowman <jmlowman at sbcglobal.net>
>Sent: Jul 4, 2012 8:05 PM
>To: tentec at contesting.com
>Subject: Re: [TenTec] new to CW dxing
>
>Interesting, Rick.
>
>I took the Novice exams back in 1965, when I was in high school.  My 
>mentor, halfway
>down the block (Harry, WA8PVA, SK) administered the exams.
>
>In less than a year I traveled to Detroit to take my General exams in 
>front of "The Man."
>Managed to pass both the General and, a couple of years later, the 
>Advanced exams
>on the first try.
>
>A lot of years passed and life got in the way, but I got back into ham 
>radio in 1995.
>In 1997 I took and passed the Extra exams.  Code at 20 wpm was still 
>required so I'm
>a "coded" Extra, even though it was the VE team and not the FCC examiner.
>
>I thought that the Extra theory test was a joke.  I brought a calculator 
>and never used
>it once.  I know that the head VE, a good friend of mine, probably threw 
>the hardest
>test in the bunch at me.  It was nothing like the General or Advanced 
>exams that the
>FCC administered, where I had to use my slide rule quite a bit 
>(pre-calculator days).
>
>When I took my General exams, most of the guys in the room were quite a 
>bit older
>and most were excellent with the code.  However, the theory gave many of 
>them
>problems.  We knew only in general what the questions would be like - no
>published question pools back then.  Often equations had to be 
>rearranged and
>units converted.  A lot of these guys probably worked in the auto 
>factories, where
>only an 8th-grade education was required, so they had not yet had algebra.
>
>73 de Jim - AD6CW
>
>On 7/4/2012 1:11 AM, Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP wrote:
>> I hesitated to throw in my "Extra Ticket" story, but what the heck.  You
>> see, I failed the theory by one question.
>> I think that was in 1974.  Maybe 75.
>>
>> While living in Germany, I went home for Christmas only about every 5 years
>> or so.
>> I had not put any thought into taking an exam because here in Germany I had
>> full privileges, but I got bored sitting around the folks' house in OKC.  I
>> borrowed their car, drove down to Dallas and took the General, Advanced, and
>> Extra without any previous studying.
>>
>> Of the 20 people who took the CW test I was the only one who passed the
>> copying part, making just one mistake.
>> To my surprise the examiner had a Hallicrafters TO keyer and a Vibroplex
>> Iambic paddle.
>> He offered to let me use it.
>> I sat down adjusted the speed to about 28 or 30 wpm, sent BENS BEST BENS
>> FEET which we had practiced a lot in the Army and within about 5 seconds he
>> said "you passed".  Of course 10 years of being net control in NTS cw nets
>> prior to moving to Germany had not hurt.
>>
>> I did manage to upgrade my Conditional to an Advanced, but I regretted that
>> I had not bought a license manual and studied.
>> As a result, I did not get my Extra ticket for another 30 years, in 2008,
>> after I moved back to Oklahoma.  Of course CW was no longer required so yes,
>> I'm a "No Code Extra".
>>
>> The second time (2008) I was much smarter.  I bought a license manual, but
>> still flunked the theory by one questions.  Turns out a new question set was
>> released in July and I had studied from the old manual.  So I bought a new
>> license manual, and passed the test on my third attempt, one month later.
>>
>> 73
>> Rick, DJ0IP
>>
>
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