Howard Lester wrote:
wrote

Doesn't seem like 40 years, though.

What do others remember?

:-) When a teen, my novice license arrived Friday the 13th, September 1963.
My first QSO was that night on 80m on 3706 Kc with a fellow in Schoharie,
NY. That was my only crystal. With crystals, we had to learn to listen all
over our 50 Kc available band of 3700 - 3750.

I was also first licensed in 1963 and I think I had three crystals, but
one was 3706. That must have been a common frequency for a surplus xtal.

I do remember listening the whole band for a call from a CQ. You picked
the closest frequency you had a crystal for. I also remember that it
was somewhat common for QRM to pop up because the station transmitting
had a limited selection of crystals and didn't always listen on the
frequency that they were about to transmit.

But it sure was fun.

I met a fellow novice on 80 meters and he traveled to Knoxville to take
his General exam on the same day I did. We met there. He was so
nervous that he literally could not fill out the FCC-610 form. But
somehow he managed to calm himself enough to pass the CW test. Perhaps
it was the CW that did it. By then we were routinely chatting at speeds
more than the required 13 wpm.

My friend Gary and I went down to the FCC office in Manhattan to take the
General exam just a few days before they were going to impose a $4 fee.
Ouch! We had a deadline to meet! We couldn't afford to pay $4! Well, we both
passed, and Gary called his mom to tell her the good news. Once we arrived
back to his house it was apparent that his mother told a neighbor the good
news because, as we walked by the neighbor's house, she exclaimed to us, "So
now you're Captains!?"

I took the General with a friend, too. He was very good at theory. I
was very good at code. Somehow he managed to squeak by the code test,
but he failed the theory test. I think that he got one answer off on
the answer sheet and was putting down his answers for the wrong number;
there's no way he could have failed that theory test.

I'm about to teach a Technician class beginning at the end of the month.
Times have changed. No longer is the entry license the Novice and one
must use the one-year term to build up code speed for the General.
Instead I'll be trying to figure out how to teach both concepts and the
question pool. It will be interesting. (I don't think I've taught a
license class in the past two decades.)

But the fun remains in the hobby. Some things change and some things
remain the same. Thanks for the memories.