On Jan 27, 10:20�pm, Mike Coslo wrote:
wrote roups.com:

On Jan 27, 8:11�pm, Mike Coslo wrote:
wrote
roup
s.com:

* * * * a most interesting history lesson snipped for brevity

Generals. This was in the era when FCC not only had many scheduled
exams, but would also send out traveling examiners upon request if
a minimum number of examinees could be guaranteed. Ham exam
sessions were being conducted by FCC at hamfests, conventions, and
club meetings, and the perceived need for the Conditional
disappeared.

---

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.* * * *

* * Although I can see a few quirks here and there, I would have to
* * say
* * that overall the testing, requirements, and methods have improved
* * over the years, rather than regressed.

On what do you base that conclusion, Mike?

I see the accessibility of the tests as improved. But that's about it.

* * I had to chuckle at some of
* * the early stuff, which was awkward, and most arbitrary.

Like what?*

I'll answer this and the last question at one time. 75 miles, 150
miles. mail in tests, move closer than the "limit" lose your license if
you don't retest. Don't move, keep it. *That's just a little bit. It all
seems arbitrary, and almost capricious to me. YMMV.

The idea was that the FCC was balancing access to the test sessions
with maintaining control over the process. They were very concerned
about the whole process back then.

Remember that we're talking about 50+ years ago. Back then, there
were very clear memories of spy activities during both World Wars
where radio was used. (A US *amateur* discovered one during WW1
and brought it to the attention of the authorities by recording the
transmission). The '50s were the Cold War and the McCarthy era, too.

Maintaining control over every step of the licensing process was a big
deal to FCC back then.

It may seem arbitrary and capricious today, but it didn't back then.
Don't leave CONUS without a passport, btw.

* * Some of
* * those tests amounted to "open book" tests, which are surely
easier * * than Open pool tests.

How?

The old tests were definitely not open book in any sense of the word.
You weren't even allowed to bring your own pencils in some cases.* * * *

Mailing the test in? At least ther was no chance whatsoever of
looking up the answer in the book, eh?

The way it worked was that you found a volunteer examiner (note the
lack of caps) and *s/he* sent away for the exam and the other forms.

When the test came from FCC in its special sealed envelope, the
volunteer examiner would not open it until the actual exam session
began, and would seal it up in another special envelope and send
it back to FCC. There was a form that had to be notarized, where
both the examinee and the volunteer examiner swore that the exam
was conducted according to the rules. Most people took such things
very seriously back then, particularly when the Feds were involved.

This may seem wide open to corruption, but I do not know of *any*
cases where the by-mail exam process was compromised. Rumors
of cheating do not count.

Remember too that this was in the days before copy machines were
common, and getting a "photostat" was a big deal.

I took the Novice exam from a local volunteer examiner back in 1967.
He took the process very seriously, as did I. He wanted to help new
hams,
but he wasn't about to compromise the process or risk his license, a
fine
and a prison term.

How about a question like this:

"A manufacturer guarantees his crystals to be within .01% of the
marked frequency, when used in the recommended circuit at 20 degrees
C. The crystals have a negative temperature coefficient of 50 parts
per million per degree C.

What is the lowest whole-kilocycle frequency that should be ordered
for a 40 meter crystal, if the crystal is to be used in the
recommended circuit over the temperature range of 5 to 35 degrees C?
Allow 1 additional kilocycle to allow for crystal and component
aging.

Show all work."*

That was an important thing at that time.

Still is, in a way. The question could be modernized to calculating
the
dial setting on a ham rig where the temperature coefficient and
possible
error of the reference oscillator are known.

And to be honest, I would
have to look a few things up to give a reasonable accurate answer.
But
the math is not that difficult, unless I am way off.

The point is that the person taking the test did not have those
options. They'd have to answer that sort of question with just pencil,
paper, and
maybe a slide rule. And the actual exam question would be similar, but
different - maybe it would state that a certain crystal was on hand,
and
then ask if it met the criteria to be inside the band under all
operating
conditions. Maybe the temperature coefficient would be positive above
a certain temperature and negative below. And that would be *one*
question on the 50 question General test.

I could give an
answer I had around 50 percent confidence in now, but if I was wrong, it
would be like the guff that Dave has to take with his "out of band
frenchmen". Mike the dumb nickle Extra that couldn't answer a question
from an old test! ;^)

I am confident that if you studied the concepts in that question, and
worked out the answer to it and similar questions a few times, you'd
be OK. But that's not the point.

Can you see that being given a study question like that, and having to
work out a similar but different question during the exam, is a
completely different thing from a multiple choice public pool test?

But unless the question isn't from any book, or just somehow shows
up on a test with no references anywhere to be found, I'd do a bit of
research and the answer would be forthcoming. Hard? Not in the least.

The research would have to be done before the test, though.

And it's not about "hard". It's about how much the examinee has to
actually understand the material, and be able to demonstrate that
understanding.

No open book, no cheat sheets, no formulas given - and that's just one
question on the General exam.* * *

Maybe the steely eyed FCC examiner watches you take the test you
mail in so that you don't have to take the test in front of the steely
eyed FCC examiner?

See above about cheating.

* * * * Certainly if there were only a few exams existing for the
*different
* * levels, it would be very important to be hush-hush about the
* * contents of those exams. It certainly would argue against those
few tests being so much superior.

How would the existence of a few tests argue against that?

Jim, am I being obtuse or what? Seems to me that if there are only a
couple tests, that cheating would be much easier, that retesting would
likely expose the applicant to the same test again, and that your
"buddy" could give you some valuable hints.

There are ways to cheat almost any system. Do you know of any
actual cheating under the old system? There have been documented
cases of suspected cheating under the VEC system, where the FCC
caleed in hams who then flunked the retest.

I saw the same question from
your 1960's essay type question, and my 1950's guide. Unless we are
arguing extremely small points here, any differences between the tests
of the good old days and now just aren't big enough to be that
concerned about.

The process is a big part of it. But as I said before, the old exam
process
is gone and won't come back any time soon - if ever.

In fact, as this discussion goes on in here and outside of this
group, I am more and more convinced that an equally acceptable
explanation is a sense of nostalgia, a yearning for good old days that
perhaps never really existed, and the fact that middle aged men are
capable of becoming *upset about just about anything.

Well, I'm not upset at all. Just accurate. Some people don't like
accuracy.

And I would say that *human beings* - young, old, male, female - are
capable of becoming upset about just about anything.

The most easily-upset person who posts to rrap isn't middle aged -
he's old. Gets upset over *any* disagreement with his views...;-)

I sometimes feel
the tug myself, until I remember just how the good old days were.

* * * * I could be wrong though.....

"The good old days weren't always good
Tomorrow's not as bad as it seems" - Billy Joel

73 de Jim, N2EY