Fred, you forgot the step between passing the received code test and the written test: a sending test. When I upgraded from Novice to General in 1953 at that same office, one of the applicants passed on receiving but failed at sending. He was so nervous that his fist was just too shaky to control the hand key.
Novice testing by volunteers started around 1956 or so. 73, Bob N7XY (WN6SWE/W6SWE in the old days). On Aug 28, 2012, at 1:31 PM, Fred Jensen <[email protected]> wrote: > On 8/27/2012 8:04 PM, Mike Morrow wrote: > >> I didn't realize that Novice exams were ever given at an FCC office, >> nor Technician exams either, > > Yep, *all* exams were before an FCC Examiner except the Conditional > which was a General administered by others if you were too far from the > FCC office. I can still remember, terrified at 13 in 1953, walking into > the office in Los Angeles and seeing that Boehme punched tape reader > with the "speedometer" dial sticking up. It almost seemed like a > torture device. My seat was right next to it at the long table, it sat > on a tin plate with a little lip around it into which the oil dripped, > and I can almost smell it today. > > The examiner, who [not making this up] was wearing a green eyeshade, > explained the process, adjusted the speed to 5 WPM and asked two > applicants to verify it, and then ran it for 5 min. We needed one > continuous minute of error-free copy -- 25 characters. It was plain > text including numbers period, comma, slash, and question mark. > > He collected the papers, and hand-graded them one by one, saying > nothing. When he finished, he announced the names of those who passed, > one was me :-), and the rest left. He handed out the written exams, as > I recall we had an hour but memory there is vague. Like the code, he > collected the papers, graded all of them, and announced who passed. > KN6DGW arrived in the mail about 5 weeks later. > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
