Being a professional communicator, I was always around guys who were already
good CW ops, or at least had passed 25 or so WPM to get the job. Just after
the FCC laid down the rule that the Novice had to be given by two hams, I and
another ham at work got together on slow night and wrote up a Novice test. We
went around to all the the guys (and one gal) on the shift and asked them to
take the written test, but first they had to show us they could send at 5wpm.
Ha.
An hour of so later, I took all the applications I had given them, attached
them to the tests and mailed them in. Every one of them passed. They had no
prior knowledge of amateur radio freqs, so most just guessed at a question on
that. They also didnt know the formula for a half wave dipole, but several got
that right by estimation, (prior knowledge of antennas). None of them knew the
ham radio rules about identifying (10 minute rule) but about half got that
right just from thinking about it. All of them were trained as
operator/technicians so the few electronic questions were a shoo-in. We made
10 new hams that night. Today, I only know of two of them that have carried
through with their hamming. Other may have, but I have lost touch. One of the
two, now an Extra, is now the training officer for the local ham club, and
very active in things like Jamboree on the air, etc.
What does this mean? Well - even those who are highly proffeciant in
communications may, or may not stick with it.
I would say an 80 percent pass rate is an excellent number, especially given
the short term classes. My question would be, as always, how many are active 1
year - 5 year - 10 years later.
Danny Douglas N7DC
ex WN5QMX ET2US WA5UKR ET3USA
SV0WPP VS6DD N7DC/YV5 G5CTB all
DX 2-6 years each
.
QSL LOTW-buro- direct
As courtesy I upload to eQSL but if you
use that - also pls upload to LOTW
or hard card.
moderator [EMAIL PROTECTED]
moderator http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DXandTalk
----- Original Message -----
From: John Bradley
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2007 1:10 PM
Subject: Re: [digitalradio] US Hams Codeless Feb 23
There is a weekend course, but it was designed for young, mostly engineering
students at UBC........ we ran the course over 4days
(7 hours per day) and at the end had a 80% pass rate........ not as easy as
itr seems
John
VE5MU
----- Original Message -----
From: larry allen
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 1:27 PM
Subject: Re: [digitalradio] US Hams Codeless Feb 23
Hi Buddy
Way back in the mid 60's people had to write paragraph style answers..
There were no answer banks..
I have even heard now, in my country of canada, that you can pass the exam
after a weekend course....
My question.. how can someone learn about electronics and ham radio in one
weekend?....
Larry ve3fxq
----- Original Message -----
From: "F.R. Ashley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 12:19 PM
Subject: Re: [digitalradio] US Hams Codeless Feb 23
>I have always felt the "CW issue" was not really about CW. Guess that
> sounds a bit odd. It seems to me most see it as a reduction of
> standards,
> "dumbing down" so to speak. I think CW did act as a filter of some
> sort
> because it did indeed keep some people from getting their license,
> whether
> or not they would have been "good hams". But love it or hate it, the
> requirement is gone, so deal with it however you can. Personally, I
> have
> always been in favor of keeping the requirement, along with tests that
> require you to learn something. However I won't throw up my hands in
> despair, at least not yet. None of us knows what the future of ham
> radio
> is or how this CW issue will pan out. Let's just hope for the best,
> encourage new people, and elmer them to be good hams. Have fun.
>
> Buddy WB4M
>
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.17.2/641 - Release Date: 1/20/2007
10:24 AM
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.17.0/639 - Release Date: 1/18/2007
6:47 PM
