Hi Bob, I took my General in the mid 80s, my advanced in '93, and my Extra (purely on a lark) back in '94. Yes they were multiple choice back then, but, they still had their tough moments. I had to take my Advanced twice. I took it cold in Nov. 1992, figuring the electronics I had in college in the 80s for my Nuclear Engineering degtree would carry me through. I was so stale on that stuff, I flunked. I'm not a big fan of memorization,and I had no published pool of the test questions, so I had to crack the books to do some studying/memory refreshing. I borrowed an Ameco study guide from the local radio club, and went through the sample questions, representing each section of Element 4A (the Advanced written exam). Any sections I felt weak on, I went back and studied the subject matter on (like I said above - no memorization; I don't care for that, and I'm not very good at it), until I was comfortable with it again. The result - I passed with only one or two wrong, on the second attempt.
When I took the Extra (out of boredom, because the test session I was helping VE at, had a huge surplus of VEs), I passed the 20 WPM (yes, contesting really does help your code speed), and flubbed up because of esoteric stuff on the written exam. I used the same study method I used for my Advanced (although I needed nowhere near as much time and effort), and passed my Extra. In a way, I found the Extra to be a disappointment technical subjectwise. It seemed to be more about the code, with some refresher questions from other license class exams, and esoteric stuff (like the voltage for a black or white color/image signal in fast scan TV; or, at what altitude is a transponder considered to be a spart of space communications?). Other people I knew who'd taken their Advanced & Extra Class back in the 80s & 90s felt the same way - the Advanced was the hard one. I wonder if the difficulty factor changed after the slimdown from 5 to 3 license classes. You see, I used to be a VE, and I remember even in 2001, an OT local club member (he got his General in the 60s), bombing his Advanced test. 73, Ellen - AF9J ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Macklin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Discussion of AM Radio in the Amateur Service" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 4:52 PM Subject: Re: [AMRadio] Re: Amateur Radio Exam Question > Those of you that took the General exam back in the 50's or early 60's > should look at the electronic diagrams that are included in the new (July > 2008) Extra exam. We had to draw more complex schematics on our exam back. > We also had to do reactance and resonance math with nothing more than > possible a sliderule. > > With the exception of the wide range of subjects covered the new Extra exam > may actually be less complex than the earlier General exam that a lot of us > took. And many of us never upgrades because the barrier was the CW speed. > That's what made the difference between a General, Advanced, and Extra back > then. > > I liked it better that way. > > Bob Macklin > K5MYJ > Seattle, Wa, > "Real Radios Glow in the Dark" > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Bob Macklin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Discussion of AM Radio in the Amateur Service" > <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 2:17 PM > Subject: Re: [AMRadio] Re: Amateur Radio Exam Question > > > > But we sure don't need an Extra ticket to operate a 2M or 70cm HT thought > a > > repeater. > > > > I just don't have much interest in trying to memorize questions about MOON > > BOUNCE or METOR SCATTER to pass the Extra exam. It's not that important to > > me. The PNW AM group only operates on 3870. My General ticket is good > enough > > for that. > > > > I would like to see some 40M or 20M AM activity. > > > > I don't understand why people don't use 10M AM for local operation during > > this period of the solar cycle. I guess no one is interested in local > > activity other than that done on the 2M repeaters. > > > > I guess the nature of ham radio has just changed too much from what I > > remember from the 50's and 60's. It's not as interesting as it was back > > then. > > > > Bob Macklin > > K5MYJ > > Seattle, Wa, > > "Real Radios Glow in the Dark" > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Peter Markavage" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: <[email protected]> > > Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 12:15 PM > > Subject: Re: [AMRadio] Re: Amateur Radio Exam Question > > > > > > > Hey, what's the difference betwen cellphone and a HT technology? Both > > > have receivers, transmitters, whip antennas, key pads, work through > > > repeaters, sub-menus, etc. > > > > > > Pete, wa2cwa > > > > > > On Thu, 7 Feb 2008 13:30:58 -0600 "A.R.S. - WA5AM" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > writes: > > > > On Feb 7, 2008 1:05 PM, D. Chester <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > From: "Bob Macklin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > > > > > > > > I also don't have any interest in the cell phones operate. > > > > > > > > > > > > So I will just stay in the General segments. > > > > > > > > > > Are you serious? There are questions about CELL PHONES in the > > > > Extra Class > > > > > exam? > > > > > > > > > > > > > I don't recall seeing any "cell phone" questions in the extra pool. > > > > Please point out where these are, maybe I've missed them. > > > > > > > > If there is; I see things going down the tubes, real fast.... Like > > > > Don said, what does that have to do with ham radio??? > > > > > > > > Brian / wa5am > > > ______________________________________________________________ > > > Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net > > > AMRadio mailing list > > > List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html > > > List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio > > > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.html > > > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > > To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with > > > the word unsubscribe in the message body. > > > > > > > ______________________________________________________________ > > Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net > > AMRadio mailing list > > List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html > > List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio > > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.html > > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with > > the word unsubscribe in the message body. > > > > ______________________________________________________________ > Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net > AMRadio mailing list > List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html > List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.html > Post: mailto:[email protected] > To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with > the word unsubscribe in the message body. ______________________________________________________________ Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net AMRadio mailing list List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.html Post: mailto:[email protected] To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word unsubscribe in the message body.
