RadioBanter - View Single Post - Feb 23 is the No-code date

Mike Coslo · January 28th 07, 03:42 AM posted to rec.radio.amateur.policy

wrote in
ups.com:

Mike Coslo wrote:
wrote in
oups.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.

It's a completely different situation. Learning Morse Code is directly
related to getting the license and what is done with it. Traveling to
a distant city back in the days before the Interstate Highway System
isn't.

I was a kid from a rather poor family. And yet I could get my parents to
help out with things-once I convinced then that I was serious.
Regardless, effort is the important thing, and I don't see it as
different.

I can't
imagine that a peron who went to the trouble of learning the
material would feel otherwise.

I can. And it's not about how anyone felt - it's about the reality of
the requirements.

It all depends on the situation, Mike. Consider the case posed by
K8MN, which was very common in the 1950s and 1960s. How was a young
1950s ham supposed to get to a license test session 120 miles away,
and be there before 8 AM on a weekday morning?

Perhaps it was a filter like learning CW? (oops, my bad)

Remember too that the distance rule was "air line", meaning straight-
line
distance on the map, not actual distance on the road. In many places,
125 miles air-line could be twice that on the road. More than three
hours
at the common speed limit of 40 mph - if everything went according to
plan.

Living in central PA, I'm painfully aware of that. My parents house is
around 5 miles away by air, but no closer than 11 iles by car.

For me, the biggest difficulty in getting to the FCC office was the
fact that
tests in the Philly office were only given on Mondays, Tuesdays and
Wednesdays - which were all school days. Young hams like me had to
wait for summer, or a school holiday that was not a Federal holiday.
(There was no way a school kid would skip school for a day to take
a ham radio exam!) With the 30 day wait to retest, there was a real
incentive to pass on the first try.

I'll bet it was an incredibly exciting event for you, no? No
sarcasm here, I'm serious.

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.

Round trip or one way? Weekday or weekend? Did you have to be there at
8 AM or be turned away?

I was going to become a ham, but I couldn't get there before 9 am.....
;^)

Most of all, note the wide variation in distances. I'll bet you went
to different VE sessions at various hamfests, some close to home, some
not. You went when it was convenient for *you*.

Only the General CSCE was at a Hamfest. The rest I looked up and went
to.

My point is that in the Conditional days there was no choice. You went
to the FCC office, on their schedule, unless you lived beyond the
Conditional distance.

And note this most of all: FCC didn't change the distance in 1954
because of concern for hams having to travel long distances to get to
an exam session. FCC changed the distance to reduce their workload
giving the exams!

I had to look up to see what we were discussiong here, Jim. My
point is that I seriously doubt that eliminating the mail ins
harmed Amateur radio. Numbers continued to grow (I believe) and by
the 60's, American society was becoming much more mobile.

- 73 de Mike KB3EIA -