On Jan 27, 9:15�pm, Mike Coslo wrote:
Dave Heil wrote rthlink.net:

Mike Coslo wrote:
wrote in
groups.com:

On Jan 25, 9:26 am, Cecil Moore wrote:
wrote:
Your recollections are correct, Cecil, with minor corrections to
the Conditional distance. Which changed right around the time you
got the license, as did the retest rules.
Thanks Jim, for the history lesson.
You're welcome, Cecil. Thanks for reading.

The old Conditional was preceded by the Class C, which was
essentially the same license with a different name. Early 1930s
until the 1951 restructuring.

Some folks think that the 1964-65 rules Conditional changes really
cut into the growth of US ham radio. After those changes, a ham who
wanted a renewable license with HF privileges pretty much had to go
to an FCC exam point unless s/he lived *way* out in the boonies.
Just getting to the exam could be a major journey, depending on
where you lived.

* * * * *I understand what you say here Jim, but I don't agree. If a
* * * * *person
* * can go to the trouble of learning Morse code, they should be able
* * to go to the trouble of traveling to the FCC exam points. I can't
* * imagine that a peron who went to the trouble of learning the
* * material would feel otherwise.

Just for grins, Mike, make the applicant 12-14 years of age. *Put him
in a family with one automobile where the father works during the day
and the mother doesn't drive.

I was lucky - all I needed was decent shoes and a couple of subway
tokens. Three quarters of a mile to the 69th Street Terminal, the
Market-Frankford Subway-Elevated to 2nd Street, and a block south to
the US Custom House.

* * * * *I travelled about 120 mikes fro my Tech, about 300 for my
* * * * *General
* * written CSCE, a mere 20 for my Element 1, and aroud 70 for my
* * Extra.

The nearest examination point when I was a kid would have been better
than 50 miles each way, in a time before there was an Interstate
Highway anywhere nearby. *The journey each direction would have taken
at least an hour-and-a-half over two lane mountain roads. *The
examination point was one of those which the FCC visited quarterly.

Dave K8MN* * * * It is interesting how times change, Dave. Just as an aside, those
are the types of roads I see out these days. Things have changed, I
suspect that autos are more comfortable and better handling today.

Also more reliable.

When I was a kid, a trip to the New Jersey beaches was a major
journey. Most
of the roads were 2 lanes, and you slowed down through every town on
the way.
Three hours from the bridge over the Delaware to the bridge over the
bay was very good time. Today the trip takes half that time, due to
better roads and better cars.

Certainly if a person couldn't drive yet, there would be another hurdle
getting the parents to join in on the fun. All the more challenge.

Apply that logic to the Morse Code test - all the more challenge,
right?

And recall that FCC changed the distance to reduce *their* workload,
not to make the
exams more accessible to hams.

---

btw, the old License Manuals are probably still under copyright.
Quoting some of the questions is one thing, and comes under "fair
use". Scanning the entire book and putting
on the web is a different thing. Couldn't hurt to ask ARRL - I don't
think they have any plans to reissue those old LMs. They might even
like the idea, if it were posed as a historic
interest thing.

The study guide *questions* and the old regulations were Govt. issued,
and so could be used, I think.

73 de Jim, N2EY