As an inactive VE (active up to a few years ago), I understand that in order to be a:
Technician, you must pass the Technician written exam. General, you must pass all the above and the General exam. Extra, you must pass all the above, and the Extra (and 5 wpm exam). Having a license or a CSCE (Certificate of Successful Completion of Exam) is all the proof you need that you passed an exam [CSCE's are only good for 1 year, after which, you must retest]. A CSCE won't be good for much if they dump the CW requirement, because often times a CSCE would be filled out if a person passed one of two elements required for a license (e.g. in the not so distant past, a Novice had to pass the 5 WPM code and Novice written exam - pass one and fail the other, and you would take home a CSCE until you could later pass the other required element). It's been a long time, but I believe any one who passes an exam receives a CSCE just in case their paperwork gets lost in the system. They can hang onto the CSCE until their license arrives in the mail (or is registered in the FCC's database). A VE testing session usually started with the lowest numbered elements (2 - Novice, 3a- Tech, 3b- General, 4a- Advanced, 4b- Extra) along with a separate testing area for the morse code elements (1a - 5 wpm, 1b - 13 wpm, 1c - 20 wpm). If you were unlicensed, and managed to pass the following exams, in order, 2, 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b, 1c - then you could have walked out of that testing session with the expectation of soon receiving the Extra Class license in the mail a few weeks later. Nothing requires you to be licensed before you take the Extra exam - however, I believe the VE's may require you to have passed the exams that preceed the Extra exam before they will allow you to take the Extra exam. My statements may, or may not, reflect the current state of VE testing exams in the U.S., and they may, or may not, reflect your experience with testing exams - and they are just a faint memory for me. 73, Daniel AA0NI --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I believe that it is technically possible to be first licensed as an Extra > class under the current licensing system by passing all 4 elements at a > single volunteer examiner session and having the volunteer examiners submit > all the paperwork for the Extra class license to the FCC. A person never > having passed any FCC ham license test cannot take and pass only element 1 > (code test) and element 4 (extra test) and receive the Extra license. > Perhaps a volunteer examiner could provide a definative answer. > > de KB1IKD > _______________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > You must be a subscriber to post to the list. > Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm > Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com > _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
