"Phil Kane" wrote

Steve, I think you're right - very right - especially after reading Jim's
posting that followed yours. It's an experience that few of us hams share
any more.

So very true. For most hams that was the first one-on-one contact
that they had with the FCC and being told that one passed the exam
made it a positive contact.

Oh, it was a positive contact, all right. (I got to have two of them, both
in the NYC office.) I remember more the FCC men who set my friend and I up
with the headphones to listen to the 13 wpm tape. They were very nice to us
teenagers. It's not to say that others, who got their tickets from VE's,
don't have fond memories of *their* experiences. It's just that this was,
well, the official place, #2 pencils and all that... ;-) And it was in a
time (1963) when authority was respected a lot more than it is now.

Seriously, I attended a W5YI VE session here in Tucson about 14 years ago to
take my Extra exams. It was in someone's house, and it was so noisy, they
were having what amounted to a party while the exams were being given! I did
pass the 20wpm (it was given in a separate room), but I failed the
written.... in the party room. I was appalled at the "QRM" atmosphere. Give
me the quiet, sterile FCC exam room anytime.

Howard N7SO